Calum and Iain Duffy: PH Meets
The other reason we went to Mull - to meet the brothers who are still winning the local in a Mk2 Ford Escort
Calum (left) and Iain have quite a rep now
But how many of the people who witnessed the Mk2's inaugural victory could have imagined that, in much-modified form, it would still be winning rallies outright - against modern, four-wheel drive competition - four decades later?
Keeping the faith
Which brings us to Mull, where - in addition to ourrecent drive on the island's roads - we also arranged to meet Calum and Iain Duffy. In this year's Mull Rally Calum drove to his eighth victory on the island - seven of which have been in an Escort - with brother Iain sitting next to him as co-driver. For what's almost certainly Britain's toughest tarmac rally, that's a remarkable achievement - especially against an entry list that's packed with far more modern challengers, including multiple WRC cars.
Local knowledge and a Mk2 Escort - all you need!
We meet up at Calum's house in Dervaig, the small village on Mull's north coast where he's very much the local hero. And the rally really is one of the biggest events on Mull each year, more than doubling the island's population with several thousand spectators, marshals and competitors. Both Calum and Iain are softly spoken, but there's no false modesty about how hard it is to win the Tour.
"On paper there's no way a Mk2 Escort should be doing what it's doing," Calum admits, "we're not in the fastest car, but we're definitely looking for a scrap. When we get the entry list we're always looking for fast cars, we want those top guys to enter."
The local lads are popular winners on Mull
Sodden conditions at this year's event put the two-wheel drive Escort at another disadvantage.
"Every startline we're haemorrhaging time," Calum says. "The four-wheel drive cars are bang, gone. I don't really know where we make up time, probably commitment through the fast stuff. But I know we're losing out every time we try and accelerate up a hill, and there are plenty of those on Mull, or out of a hairpin. We were spinning tyres and I kept looking in my mirrors expecting to be caught, and we weren't. That was a bit of a shock."
Some rivals have put the Duffys' success down to local knowledge, although both point out that they rarely visit the roads that make the stages on the south of the island between events, and Calum now spends most of his time on the mainland managing his successful lumberjack business. Calum used to drive without pace notes, but started to use them after competing in other events, and now finds them essential, even on stages he knows as well as the road past his house.
The Duffys and their Escort are a fixture
"Because we haven't had to," says Iain, simply.
Calum confesses that his first car was an Austin Allegro, which got turned into a grass track racer. But he started with Escorts because they were cheap and plentiful when he started out in the early 1990s. "Our first car was called the red shed, because that's what it looked like - a four-door Escort with a 1600 engine. But we were actually third quickest overall on the first stage we did in it, and that's when people started to notice."
Too easy in an Evo
Calum took his first victory in 1998, with his father as co-driver, in a second Escort. The following year he crashed and then sold the car, leaving him without a ride for the '99 Tour. "We were offered a Mitsubishi Evo," he says, "and I'd always wanted to know what I could do in a four-wheel drive car. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't nice drive - it was a bit of a tank. There was plenty of power but it understeered most of the time, and when it oversteered it didn't do what you wanted. I just didn't like it at all. Yes, we won the rally in it, but it didn't feel like it should have done. When you get out of an Escort after winning Mull your arms and shoulders are killing you. So's your arse, that's what you're steering with most of the time. You get out of a Lancer and it's like you've driven a couch."
An Escort perhaps but a damned trick one
For all their success on the island, the Duffy brothers only occasionally compete in other events, and acknowledge that - with young families - the chances of doing a full championship are diminishing. But there are no plans to stop doing Mull.
"We're all for the rally, we want it to carry on for another 30 or 40 years," says Iain. "We've grown up with it and we want to grow old with it."
"Nothing would please me more than to see somebody from away come here and win this rally," adds Calum, "nothing, it would be brilliant. I'd be the first to shake their hand, because that's how it was with me. But there's no chance we're going to throw in the towel and walk away. No chance at all."
Tweaked or not it's still beating modern cars
With the interview concluded, Calum offers to give me a tour of some of the local stages. It's almost dark and rain is falling heavily, but he keeps up a steady commentary as we drive along at a sensible pace. And it's clear where most of his phenomenal speed comes from as we trundle down the narrow, twisty lanes that he's averaging over 60mph on. "This is flat. And this is flat. And get the line right and this is flat, too." All look like fairly serious corners to me.
I mention the rumour seen on various rally forums that, now he's retired from Ford, Mikko Hirvonen is planning to bring his Mk 2 Escort to Mull for the Tour next year.
"That would be great for the event. That would be huge," says Calum from behind a wide grin, "obviously we'd slow down a bit so we didn't embarrass him."
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Photos: LindsayPhotosport
A close relative of my old white Mk2 judging by the registration - I had LKR849P. 
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