2022, April. Golden Fifty Revival Tour

 17th April: Golden Fifty Revival Tour

The orginal RAC Rally way back in 1932 was the start of rallying in the UK.  In 1982 the Lombard Golden Fifty Rally was held to celebrate that first one and was probably the start of historic rallying that has grown so much in popularity since then.  So the Golden Fifty Revival Tour was effectively  to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 50th anniversary of UK rallying! 

The start of our tour was at the Prescott Speed Hillclimb course which is only about 20 miles from home, so nice and local to us as well.  In honour of the rallying heritage my old navigator since the 1960s, Oliver Tomilns, was along to keep us on the right road. He also organises some historic road runs himself, most recently a two day run around some obscure parts of western Scotland.

  The start location at Prescott

I had given the FHC a quick spanner check since the Daffodil Run and all was in order so good to go.  Unfortunately we didn't get a run up the hillclimb course because a local householder objected. Apparently he has bought a house near the top of the course and objects to the noise, so only a certain number of events can take place there each year.  A bit like buying a house near a farm and then complaining about the smell!  They did however organise a little autotest around cones in the car park which was actually very much in keeping with the early events anyway.

Car No.1 was a huge old 1937 Derby Bently and watching the driver heaving the big car around the cones was quite a sight.  When it came to our turn it proved more difficult than it looked but I managed to avoid hitting anything!

Our route headed up into Worcestershire and Herefordshire south of the Malverns to a lunch halt at the Shelsley Walsh Hillclimb course. They started racing up the hill here in 1906 so it has a long history.  We had never been there before so watched some in-car stuff on YouTube to get an idea of the course. It is just 1000 yards long with a record time of only 22.37 seconds.  Not exactly a marathon then.  Our time was about 49 seconds - so not a record then.

Our afternoon run took us to the former Lombard RAC Rally stage at Burwarton.  It was here that Roger Clark had his famous encounter with a gatepost in 1978 and was forced to retire.  We were actually spectating there that day and I got some pictures of his car afterwards.

Gatepost 1, Roger Clark 0

 Our run through Burwarton was good fun and we managed to avoid all the gateposts!

Burwarton, former RAC Rally stage

 

Heading back south they sent us though a famous ford at Clee St.Margaret. This is not just a crrossing, the road here actually forms part of the stream bed for about 50 yards.

Yes that really is the road!

The finish was at the Talbot Inn, Knightwick, where they did us a decent meal before heading home.

A really excellent day out where we also met some old mates.  There were actually four cars with members of our old 143 Motor Club from the 1960s.  Ourselves, Jos Way in his TR7V8, Jeremy Wells in his Austin Healy 3000 and John Griffiths in a Volvo 144. Great to see the motorsport passion still burns for us all!   

Long may it continue.