A nice blast from the past there Richard. You buggers south of the boarder had one of the classic rallies in those days called the "Alpine" with many freezing memories as it was held in the middle of winter, even black ice on the road and that was between stages.
 
(rooted alright, and you had to still drive home after it finished) I remember the last one I competed in was in the middle of a petrol strike (~73) and we had to limp home with a dinted floor and a broken header (was a 1200 not a 1600) We had a hot 1400GX in it with twin 40mm webers and had to get something like 35mpg from Wagga to Canberra after we scrounged up $2 worth of Super rations for 4 gallons (yes, Super was 50c/gal). Don't know how but me made it sitting on 50 mph all the way - very boring trip that.
 
TR
And the tracks they used make today's events look like they are run on freeways.  Grotty, very rough, twisty, very muddy, obscure, the odd fallen log to get round, deep creeks and bogs, it was all fair game by Directors.  
 
Motors and cars and crews had to be tough in those days. No time out for services, rebuilds or replacement of parts, if it was cracking up you fixed on the roadside in the timed stage or had to live with it, hence the success of Dattos, as they rarely broke down. Those events made today's 200Km competitive events on open graveled forest roads look like a warm up lap.
 
Rally's in those days used to be called "Trials" - and they were!  No pace notes or prior knowledge of the course.  A "route chart" was often jokingly called exactly that, a chart that rooted the car and the crew.   
 

--membersozdat-------------------------------------------------------
OZDAT Mailing List Please Note:-
Send (un)subscribe requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Send submissions to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
No unauthorised redistribution of this email
http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/index.htm
http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/listindex.html
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Reply via email to