Monday 30th April 2012

Spotted: Maxi rally car

A surprising number of PHers carry a fondness for old BL cars - this rally Maxi could unite us all in that!

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A cool Maxi is a contradiction in terms but this one car that could legitimately make that claim. It’s a rare survivor from the bonkers 1970 World Cup Marathon endurance rally that ran from London to Mexico City and brought such fame to the winning Ford Escort, inspiring the Mk1 Mexico edition.

It was up against an Escort ... go on, guess

This Maxi didn’t cover itself in quite as much glory and didn’t make the full distance, but then this is a piece of endurance rally history you can actually buy for reasonable money.

Owner Robin Shackleton, a fertiliser salesman and classic rally fan from Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, bought it two years ago to use in historic road rallies. “I’d been looking for genuine works cars, but most of them are very expensive,” he says.

It wasn’t quite a works BMC car, but a privateer entry sponsored by Marshalls of Cambridge (a dealer group that still exists today) and kitted out with works parts. So it’s got fibreglass doors, fibreglass bonnet, Perspex side windows, auxiliary Koni shocks to help out the standard hydrolastic suspension and a welded up tailgate.

It's no Vanden Plas, that's for sure

The engine was a 1500, and is now a twin-carb 1750 following a mid-70s replacement, so its not exactly a rocket ship but Robin reckons it’s pretty handy on the road. “It’s very useful, bowls along at 70mph no problem and handles well because it’s much stiffer and lighter than a standard car,” he says

He’s made sure it looks exactly like it did when the all-girl team left London in 1970, including all the period stickers. Trouble is, this attention to detail has got him trouble with the MSA who won’t let stickered up cars enter historic road rally series. “They did suggest covering the stickers with magnets, but I said, how I am supposed to do that? The doors are fibreglass!” he says in exasperation.

He won’t stage rally it and, what it being built for endurance rather than speed, it wouldn’t really be competitive. So it’s up for sale at £29,995. Interest so far has been slow and Robin says there’s room to manoeuvre on that.

Of four Maxis that took part it in the rally, only one other survives. That was driven by Prince Michael of Kent and now sits in the marvellous Heritage Centre Museum at Gaydon. The winning Escort driven by Finn Hannu Mikkola is still owned by Ford and is part of the firm’s heritage fleet in Dagenham.

See the original advert here.

[crofty1984]

Looks like fun Not £30k worth of fun in my eyes, but I'm sure someone will want it.

[KDIcarmad]

If I had the money! The stickers are part of the cars histroy, sad that any rally would say cover that up. I hope it find the right home, both for rallying and ownership.

Edited by KDIcarmad on Monday 30th April 10:03

[LuS1fer]

The Maxi is one of those "hate it on sight" designs that used to irk me in the 70s but as a forebear of the modern hatchback, I can see why they were popular - but still hated them.

[cragswinter]

article said:

He’s made sure it looks exactly like it did when the all-girl team left London in 1970, including all the period stickers. Trouble is, this attention to detail has got him trouble with the MSA who won’t let stickered up cars enter historic road rally series.

What's the score with that then so if someone turned up in a genuine 205t16 in original livery they'd show you the door?

[Numeric]

I only vageuel remember the Maxi cos my dad had one as a kid but I do remmeber it could carry loads of stuff - no idea how it drove of course.

I've always imagined it was a quite a brilliant design for its day - hatchback and all at a time when most things were poky rear drive three box saloons like the Viva.

But I simply don't know how big they were and where they were positioned in the market? Were they in modern terms a Golf segment car or Passat? Either way ahead of their time.

[jet_noise]

Dear N,

think Cortina/Marina/Viva.

My grandfather had two in row.
Both white 1750s.
Even with a rod gearchange the box was, er, uncooperative. In order to get 1st, select third to line up the cogs.
It was also a bugger to get the front wheels balanced. They'd be perfect off the car but the vibration would still be there.
Until we found an on-car balancing facility then smooth at last - suspect the drum/driveshafts were out of balance too.

Despite this they were roomy, comfy and quick enough for pensioners with grandchildren

regards,
Jet

[dandarez]

If the BMW MINI had been called the MAXI, would the vitriol of the PH (original) Mini brigade have been different?

Would they have loved it, or would they have similarly rubbished it, saying it should never have such an iconic name, the new MAXI is nowhere near big enough to be called a MAXI!



Aside from that, I had 2. More room than a coach inside - only car I've ever slept in comfortably.

However, residing memory is not the gear cables breaking but having handbrake fail at a top of an Ilfracombe hill!

[J4CKO]

30 grand for a Maxi, thought 30 grand would buy every example left with change for a few Allegros and a couple of Pricesses ?

[newdogg06]

Different.
An all-girl team with period stickers? Guess it was driven in anger at least one week out of 4.

[infradig]

Numeric said:

I only vageuel remember the Maxi cos my dad had one as a kid but I do remmeber it could carry loads of stuff - no idea how it drove of course.

I've always imagined it was a quite a brilliant design for its day - hatchback and all at a time when most things were poky rear drive three box saloons like the Viva.

But I simply don't know how big they were and where they were positioned in the market? Were they in modern terms a Golf segment car or Passat? Either way ahead of their time.

I'm sure their are people far better qualified to answer but I'll have a go anyway.

The design was quite advanced,but was really just the fourth model in the BMC fwd range fitting in
between the 11/1300(ado 16) and 1800(Landcrab). In today's terms it would be Passat/Mondeo class but obviously cars were much smaller then,although the BMC cars were always more spacious than the Ford,Vauxhall competition
As for ahead of it's time ,the Renault 16 was introduced in 1965 ,a couple of years before the Maxi. One of the Maxi's biggest competitors was the Marina and I think the all important fleets always chose the simple rwd Morris over the more technically advanced Maxi,at the time it seemed stupid all the BL cars competing with each other but now VAG are doing the same thing it's seen as good marketing!

Edited by infradig on Monday 30th April 10:27

Edited by infradig on Monday 30th April 10:30

[AllNines]

cragswinter said:

article said:

He's made sure it looks exactly like it did when the all-girl team left London in 1970, including all the period stickers. Trouble is, this attention to detail has got him trouble with the MSA who won't let stickered up cars enter historic road rally series.

What's the score with that then so if someone turned up in a genuine 205t16 in original livery they'd show you the door?

In a historic road rally, yes (as mentioned in the article!). Far better to use it for historic demonstrations on stage rallies, where such things are welcomed.

[J4CKO]

Yeah, but VAG use the same parts bin with different badges on, BL wasnt very good at this so you ended up with incompatiable designs, separate engine ranges and very little shared content.

[NickGibbs]

newdogg06 said:

Different.
An all-girl team with period stickers? Guess it was driven in anger at least one week out of 4.

Very good!

[aw51 121565]

J4CKO said:

Yeah, but VAG use the same parts bin with different badges on, BL wasnt very good at this so you ended up with incompatiable designs, separate engine ranges and very little shared content.

BMC did the same thing in the olden days eg Austin 1100 & 1300 was available as six different models at some point, also the Farina models came in various forms (and other models too).

Where BMC came a cropper - at the same time as the above, ironically - was having very similarly sized model ranges "to cover the market" with little commonality but some odd choices therein such as shared doors (eg Maxi and 1800/2200). So much time and money could have been saved if the Austin 1100/1300 and Maxi had shared some (or many) critical components, for example, but sadly no .

[MrFreight]

Hi

The Father of a Lad I went to school with (BL Dealer at the time) bought him a Maxi 1750 when he passed his test! This was mid 70's so he had Wolfrace Slot Mag Alloys Sports Steering Wheel and a Stereo Cassette player in it - the ultimate at that time - well remember him taking us all home from school (6th form) with Dark Side of the Moon playing at full volume!!

Amusing things was the school wouldn't let him park in the grounds - then again it was better than most of the darned Teachers cars !! (Except our Economics Teacher - Escort Mexico Mk 1 - Cool!!)

Don't know why I still like these numb things but as you say you either love/hate them !

Rose tints now removed.....!

MF

[ecs0set]

If the room for manoeuvre on price meant that it dropped to £295, I would still run away. I still have emotional scars from being collected from school in a st brown Maxi (Maestro in for servicing).

£30k? The list of things I'd rather spend £30k on is VERY long.

Not my cup of tea.

[rumple]

MrFreight said:

Hi

The Father of a Lad I went to school with (BL Dealer at the time) bought him a Maxi 1750 when he passed his test! This was mid 70's so he had Wolfrace Slot Mag Alloys Sports Steering Wheel and a Stereo Cassette player in it - the ultimate at that time - well remember him taking us all home from school (6th form) with Dark Side of the Moon playing at full volume!!

Amusing things was the school wouldn't let him park in the grounds - then again it was better than most of the darned Teachers cars !! (Except our Economics Teacher - Escort Mexico Mk 1 - Cool!!)

Don't know why I still like these numb things but as you say you either love/hate them !

Rose tints now removed.....!

MF

That is a quality story, my best mates dad have 2 , we never tired of giving it gyp, yet when you look at them now they (awful as they were) were the future.

[BigTom85]

Is £30k even in the right ball park for something like this.

Historic rally vehicles aren't my thing, but £3k would seem more the ticket, imho.

There's one at Gaydon, leave it at that!

[Dave Hedgehog]

well all the bolts and stickers just about hide a truly awful shed

[langy]

I was drving on the M25 yesterday afternoon and spotted a Maxi which looked similar to one pictured here.

Haven't seen one for years, they still look bloody horrible