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VII
Rally Costa Brava - 31 March - 1 April 2011
Report - John Stuart
CCHMSC
club members, John Stuart and Maurice Millar flew into Barcelona on
Wednesday 30 March hoping to repeat their class win on this event in
2010.
John’s 1959 Austin A40 Farina had been loaded into a
transporter at Prodrive’s Banbury premises the previous Sunday
morning, along with 4 other UK classics. These included the 1960 Jaguar
3.8 of 77 year old Colin Bywater. [Colin was a Glasgow starter in the
2011 Monte Historique, but had to retire south of Reims when a rear
brake caliper worked loose and destroyed the braking system on that
wheel, including the handbrake.] The cars arrived in Barcelona the same
morning as we did.
Last year, in mid-March, the rally was badly
affected by a once-in-20-year snowstorm which brought down power lines,
pylons and trees; and it was unseasonably cold. This year hot sunny
weather was the norm for the whole rally. Very pleasant, but this was
to cause us problems with fuel vaporisation. This first manifested
itself later on Wednesday afternoon when attempting the tripmeter
calibration route, and thereafter any time we were held up in traffic.
This
year’s rally ran to 4 days, starting on Thursday evening in
Barcelona and ending in Lloret de Mar on Sunday morning, after 1,100
km, including 472 km of regularities.
Leg 1: Thurs. 31/03/2011 Barcelona to Lloret de Mar 172 Km
127
entries were lined up in front of the Magic Fountain to await the 8pm
start. The entry comprised a wide variety of cars ranging fom 1955 to
1984, with Porsches dominating, 28 of which were 911s. The UK was
represented by 8 crews, while the Belgians fielded almost 30. Four
pairs of motorcyles were also entered (one rider navigates, the other
does the timing). Traditionally a number of ‘celebrity
cars’ run at the head of the field and these included two Lancia
Stratos and a Peugot 205 Turbo 16.
The organisers had done much
to promote the rally in Barcelona and had arranged for cars to leave
the start, do one lap of the old Formula 1 circuit of Montjuic, behind
the start area and then pass through the tourist streets of Las Ramblas
and the Placa de Catalunya on the way to upmarket Gracia, where the
cars were to be parked up while crews took refreshments in the 5-star
Hotel Majestic.
Anyone familiar with Barcelona will know that
traffic is heavy at most times and that traffic lights (mostly at red!)
abound. Together these conspired against the A40 to cause the fuel
vaporisation problem to re-occur, despite the lower ambient temperature
of the evening. I lost count of the number of times we stopped and
waited for things to cool down. All these delays gave us a maximum
penalty on the first of the 3 regularities of the night to the extent
that we had already accrued almost as many penalties at that point as
we had for the whole rally in 2010. This was a poor reward for all the
effort in getting to the rally and especially so for navigator Maurice
who had done so much pre event preparation to perfect our timing. A
repeat of our 2010 class win was now out of the question but, with only
4 cars in the pre 1961 class, we still had a chance of a class award.
Once
out of the traffic and on the open road, fuel vaporisation was not a
problem, but it continued to manifest itself at other times for the
remainder of the rally.
We finished Leg 1 in 115th place arriving in Lloret at 2 am.
Leg 2: Fri. 01/04/2011 Lloret to Lloret 530 Km
Perversely,
wishing for cool weather, we awoke to a fine sunny day looking out from
the balcony of our seafront hotel over the parc ferme on the promenade
below. A fantastic sight; it was great to be part of it all.
Today’s route would start at 11 am and finish in the dark,
shortly after midnight, involving some 240 km of regularity sections;
starting on the coast, then moving into the hills using roads made
famous on the WRC Rally Catalunya in previous years. It also included 2
laps of a kart circuit and 5 laps of the Circit de Catalunya, the
current Spanish Formula 1 track.
The kart track was fairly tight
and the A40 took to the grass at least once. The red Stratos following
did the same – if you watch the following video of a TV programme
covering the rally, then you will see why. My only excuse is that
I didn’t know the Lancia was there!
http://www.tv3.cat/3alacarta/#/videos/3455830
(You may need to cut and paste this link)
We
did the F1 track last year, but that was in the dark. This year it was
daylight and what a fantastic blast it was – flat out from start
to finish. Goodness knows what revs the A40 was doing at the end of the
long pit straight – I didn’t want to look at the rev
counter. We passed several cars and were passed by only one – the
other Stratos. No problems this time as the track is wide and I saw it
coming.
The last 3 regularities of the leg were in the dark, but
spectators continued to be much in evidence. It had been a long
but enjoyable day with no mishaps.
Leg 3: Sat. 02/04/2011 Lloret to Lloret 399 Km
An
early start today at 9 am for the 179 km of regularities taking us into
the mountains North and West of Girona. Most of the roads were open to
other traffic and we had to be aware of other cars, the odd lorry and
cyclists on this beautiful Saturday morning.
The roads were again
demanding, but enjoyable to drive. After the hilly Coll de Bracons
section, a knocking noise was heard from the rear of the A40. At
the subsequent brief refreshment halt a broken rear spring shackle was
found (the result of poor manufacture – it was new last
year). Fortunately a spare was carried and fitted, albeit with
the loss of 18 minutes. The next regularity on a closed road was steep
and narrow with significant drops. It would have been interesting to
have had the spring detach itself then!
Unfortunately, the last
3 regularities had to be cancelled by the rally organisers for a
variety of reasons; a slightly disappointing end to the rally proper.
(Leg 4 on Sunday morning was optional.) It was perhaps even more
disappointing for the many spectators on these sections who would not
know of the cancellations. We had to drive over the roads, ‘non
competitively’ and I have to admit to ‘giving it some
welly’ for their benefit as some reward for their enthusiasm.
This spectator enthusiasm was evident throughout the rally and
encouraging waves and cheering abounded. It really encourages you to
come back again and again.
So, in spite of our problems, we
finished the main event having climbed to 93rd place! We also ended up
3rd (and last) finisher in class so we were on the podium at the finish
prizegiving dinner later on the Saturday night. We also finished ahead
of the 4 other UK crews whose cars had left from Prodrive - most
also had their own problems.
Leg 4: Sun. 03/04/2011 Lloret de Mar
Two tests were arranged for Sunday morning, purely for fun and to entertain spectators.
The
first was a dirt track bulldozed on a car park area near ‘Water
World’. This was televised live. The surface was hard sand and it
was great to throw the car sideways with no possibility of hitting
anything. The track was quite wide but unfortunately not quite wide
enough for the A40. I was in good company as the number 1 car, a
Porsche 911, also tried to demolish the track boundary banks.
Several
roads had been closed in Lloret itself and a short ‘stage’
set up with spectators behind temporary barriers. This was great fun,
but a working handbrake would have been nice on the hairpin.
All in all a fantastic event and recommended to anyone.
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| Updated 6 May 2011
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