Rally of the Tests 2012

All you avid historic rally fans will have noticed that the Classic Rally Association have returned this year with the legendary ROTT, the truest recreation of the Rally of Great Britain as it was in the 50’s and 60’s, open to cars first manufactured before the end of 1961.

The Triumph TR was a winner of the original event in the 50’s with the famous TR2 and TR3, the TR4 a class winner and so Beastie just glides in over the hedge on this one.

I’ve done his event 6 times before with Rob and John Kiff, using both 3VC the ex works TR4 and Beastie, with class wins and good placings with both cars. 3VC hasn’t got he grunt to compete against the likes of the Alfas and nimble evergreen Minis …… But Beastie has, so for 2012 it’s my 7th entry on ROTT, and as last year with Rob Kiff and Beastie.

Watch here for our reports.

Saturday 3rd November …. A quick visit to our friends at TR Enterprises comes to a happy conclusion with some new Venolia pistons inside the little volcano under the bonnet. Inspection of the 5 year old pistons tells a tale of much hard work, so no one is surprised not complaining. In fact we are all delighted …. If this was a BDA under the bonnet it would have been scrap every 3 months …. So it makes Beastie engine look cheap !

Thanks again to Steve and his team for turning us around with lots of smiles. It’s rare to find a team of friends in the old car world like these guys.

A quick jaunt down the M1 to get some miles on …. Max rpm 4000.

Sunday 4th November …. And after a good run home …. All systems go, but a few changes needed to our running spec for The Rally of the Tests to satisfy the period regulations and also a swap of rally plates, names and numbers for the event.

Beastie is built and run to a fairly exacting spec in any case, fully MSA Blue Book complaint and if I removed a few bodywork dents and holes FIA too. However, for the ROTT the CoC is not keen at all on my Haggis Hunter spot lamps as they are not period fitments (!!!) and there is no kangaroo shooting in these parts, but more importantly the distance measuring gear is electronic – which just won’t do.

Much of today’s effort has been rebuilding and wiring a set of genuine works LUCAS SLR 700 spotlamps and fitting them to the nose, swapping the stickers and plates and then the main event …. Ultra reliable Brantz out, rather less reliable but totally period Halda Twinmaster in ….

The Twinmaster I use is a very nice later plastic cases one, with the adjusters on both displays and the gear carrier retainer in the left, so it’s as good as it can be. But it is a taxi meter in disguise.

Fitting a Halda in a TR4 is easy enough and I’ve got it down to a quick job, but running the cables just right so that they dont kink and snap is another matter. Add that to the TR’s fickle gearbox speedo drive, the dickie old Smiths speedo and you can see why getting a Twinmaster to work reliable isn’t simple at all. Once they are set up they are fine, but getting there is the devils own work.

Then they need to be calibrated …. Which is a maelstrom of cogs and fractions, which frankly I think is a navigators job.

Anyway, least Rob and I have spoken this week so I know he lives and will be in Torquay on Thursday morning with maps ….. I’ll try to give him a winning car to sit in !

So far so good.