Re: 180hp L18 rally motor! Is it possible? Cheap!

[Richard Clough]

Terry   I remember the Alpine Rally well.    I competed in five Alpines '78,79.'80 navigating in an XU1 Torana. I had the joy of being towed home one year after blowing a gearbox in the Stanley pine plantation, spending a very cold night out in the forest.  Another year in the Torana we hit a tree in Braithwaites plantation, which was almost underwater.  We continued with the bonnet jammed shut for the rest of the event.   I ran a 1600 in it in 1981 and 1982.   Then my kids and a house got costly.   I have heard rumours Stuart Lister is running the Alpine again this year - anyone confirm?  ----- Original Message ----- From: Terry Rudd To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, 26 May 2001 0:05 AM Subject: RE: 180hp L18 rally motor! Is it possible? Cheap! 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/membersozdat@datascribe.com.au/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- --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/membersozdat@datascribe.com.au/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------