2018, October 19-20th Lombard Rally Bath

The entry list for the Lombard Rally Bath 2018 looked a bit like a Who's Who of British rallying with illustrious names like Stig Blomquist, Jimmy McRae, Dai Llewellyn, Louise Aitken-Walker, Graham Elsmore etc etc etc. They were driving such classic cars as Audi Quattro, Opel Manta 400, Lancia 037, Alpine Renault 110, Datsun 240Z, Ford Escort Mk. 1&2 and Mini Cooper S to name but a few.   My navigator was my old school friend Oliver Tomlins who I have competed on rallies with since we both discovered cars in the late 1960s.  We had been allocated start number 118 being a relatively modern and standard TR7.  There were four other TR7s doing it as well, all proper TR7V8 rally cars.

Cars were flagged away from the start in Pultney Street in Bath just like back in the 1970s. Lots of people had gathered to watch us which gave the event a nice friendly send off.

The idea of the event was to revisit some of the classic stages used on the 1976 Lombard RAC Rally so our first location to visit was Longleat Safari Park but it was bit foggy here so we couldn't see much!

Longleat House is there in the mist somewhere behind us.

The day brightened up - literally - as we headed down to our next destination at Cricket St Thomas in lovely sunshine with lots of people watching along the route.  Apart from being used on several events this is also best known for being the house in the TV programme "To The Manor Born" and being the Crinkley Bottom house in Noel Edmonds TV show "Noel's House Party".

We were given coffee and biscuits here before a go along the stage.

Selection of cars at Cricket St Thomas

Cricket St Thomas

From Cricket St Thomas the route took us south to the Wiscombe Park Hillclimb course which is close to the coast near Salcombe.  This location was fully marshalled and officially open to paying spectators. We even had a number of the local Police force directing traffic for us.

We had never been to Wiscombe Park before so it was all new to us. The marshalls at the start warned us that several cars had spun at the first corner in front of hundreds of spectators so best to take care on that one.  It was also nice to meet couple of our friends who popped up here, Tim Best (who took the photo below) and Chris Riley who has so often helped me with building my cars.

Start line Wiscombe Park

The hillclimb turned out to be narrow and quite tricky with a slippery hairpin under trees but we attacked it and enjoyed the run, even managing not to spin.

Wiscombe finish line

After Wiscombe there was a longish run from the south coast all the way up to the north coast at Minehead for lunch in the Beach Hotel. There were hundreds of spectators here taking the chance to look at the parked rally cars whilst the crews had something to eat.

Our next destination was the Porlock Toll Road. This is a privately owned road so is not subject to the normal speed limits and is still used on lots of events. Oliver had watched in car videos and used OS maps to make some basic pacenotes for Porlock so we could attack it with a good deal of confidence and we really enjoyed it.  The lower section is twisty under trees but it opens out across moorland nearer the top so is quite fast.

Nearing the top of the Porlock Toll Road.

I was very pleased with how the TR7 handled here as it was the first chance to drive it that hard. Braking and suspension settings were good and the handling inspired confidence. Just needs some more power now so that new Sprint engine cannot come too soon!
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One little bit of trivia from Porlock was ex British rally champion who managed to take a front wing off his borrowed Opel Manta 400 on the hairpin.

Ooops! Jimmy McRae loses his wing on Porlock.

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From Porlock we had an interesting run across country and via Cheddar Gorge to the finish back in Bath where the organisers gave us a super dinner at the Macdonald Bath Spa Hotel.  During the meal the various celebrity drivers were interviewed and entertained up with anecdotes from their rally history. Some very funny and some scandalous stories were told!

Arriving home next day we had covered about 350 miles so that is a pretty good first test run I think.