Tuesday 7th February 2012

You Know You Want To: Senna 6R4

It'd be cool even if Senna hadn't driven it, says Harris

---

No, it's not ex-Tony Pond or Malcolm Wilson, but to consumers of car magazines, this might just be THE Metro 6R4.

Those of you who know of the late Russell Bulgin, unarguably the greatest motoring journalist of the past 50 years, will doubtless be fully aware of 'Welsh Rarebit', a story he wrote in 1986.

For those of you who don't, Bulgin somehow managed to drag Ayrton Senna to Wales in 1986 - mid season - to test a load of rally machinery. This is the 6R4 from that magazine article.

Why was the story significant? Because it was brilliantly written and because it lightly pricked the bubble of Bernie's emerging F1 circus and its immaculate corporate presentation by juxtaposing JPS overalls against Welsh mud. It also remains a definitive text for the understanding of a man addicted to driving vehicles as fast as humanly possible.

As for the car itself, in light of recent comments on a Sport Quattro, I have to admit I haven't driven one! (Shameless! - Ed) But the value in this machine, to geeks like me, is that it was instrumental in Ayrton Senna de Silva and Russel Bulgin creating, for Cars & Car Conversions, one of the greatest features ever printed in a specialist car magazine.

Here's some footage from the day which leaked onto YouTube:

And this is where you can buy the Russell Bulgin book. Do it.

---

YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO: METRO 6R4
Price: £100,000
Why you should: An already special car, touched by the hands of greatness
Why you shouldn't: Explaining spending £100K on a Metro

 

[BigTom85]

Simply EPIC machine, seen a couple in the flesh over the years and they are just sooooo right.

[andyps]

The book is great, I bought it when first available and had no idea it was worth that sort of money now. Russell Bulgin was a fantastic writer and to have so much of his work in one volume is great - much better than anything similar from other writers. The emails between Russell and Gavin Green at the end of the book are very moving.

And as for the 6R4 - that one is special but I would be happy with any of them!

[JohnG1]

Always wanted a 6R4. Monster car!

[Dave Hedgehog]

Epic Machine, Epic Man, instant 10

Gollops 6R4 is the top of the 6R4 tree thou

Edited by Dave Hedgehog on Tuesday 7th February 11:39

[Oddball RS]

Sorry the value of this car, is just that to me, the car, great article and historic drive, but its the car i would want, not historic bum sweat from a photo shoot.

Sorry but i'm a plain and simple car nut.

[rallyman77]

Epic man, Epic machine.

[Baryonyx]

Senna in a Sierra Cosworth? Awesome! How good did that Sierra sound too, when he turned it at slow speed.

[PILCH 23]

Thanks Chris for some more Group B gold on Pistonheads.

I think it is time you arranged a day in the forests with a few Group B, and WRC cars a couple of modern stars from F1 etc...

You could also spice it up by making them have a go on motorcross bikes. That would get the F1 minders nervous!

[Digga]

IIRC about Bulgin's Welsh Rarebit story - something about Senna nochalantly drifting his (then F1 drvier, standard-issue) Merc S-Class coupe around the Welsh road en route. RB is sorely missed.

Edited for spellering.

Edited by Digga on Tuesday 7th February 11:52

[testing123]

Was that an RS1700T that he tested before the 6R4? Maybe a Gratrac jobbie? Didn't sound turbo charged...

[E30M3SE]

This might seem very pedantic, but this is PH,

advert said:

C64WDU is the group B rally car that Ayrton Senna world champion drove when he tried his hand at rally driving for a day in a Welsh Forest back in November 1986.

Senna did not secure his first WDC until 1988, so at the time of driving this car he was not a World Champion.............

[EDLT]

testing123 said:

Was that an RS1700T that he tested before the 6R4? Maybe a Gratrac jobbie? Didn't sound turbo charged...

I think it was a Gartrac car.

[Jez0099]

i am asuming it is road legal due to the number plate :0

[SleeperCell]

PILCH 23 said:

Thanks Chris for some more Group B gold on Pistonheads.

I think it is time you arranged a day in the forests with a few Group B, and WRC cars a couple of modern stars from F1 etc...

You could also spice it up by making them have a go on motorcross bikes. That would get the F1 minders nervous!

I could see Mark Webber being up for something like that, he is a known bike fan (both cycling and motored varieties), red bull like 'extreme' publicity stunts and they would probably hope he secretly hurt himself (again) so Vettel didn't have to worry about inter-team challenges

[Flat6]

6R4 the noise oh the noise

[DodoRacing]

Jez0099 said:

i am asuming it is road legal due to the number plate :0

Aren't all rally cars road legal?

[drakart]

Jez0099 said:

i am asuming it is road legal due to the number plate :0

It's a rally car, of course it's road legal!! (For the pedants, I am aware that single venue cars only need an MoT)

[PILCH 23]

Jez0099 said:

i am asuming it is road legal due to the number plate :0

Yes. All rally cars have to be road legal in order to drive the road sections. This is one the reasons why ex works cars are so cool. I think I would rather have an ex McRae 1998 Subaru Impreza WRC in road spec than an Aventador, Carrera GT etc...

[DodoRacing]

Any new Senna footage is deeply appreciated and I haven't seen this one before.
Thanks!

[CampDavid]

It was for sale at Coys, made £100k but failed to reach reserve.

May will see the 10th aniversary of Russell's death. Be good if another book with some of his other columns were to come out to raise a bit more cash for the Royal Marsden. While the white book was good, great even, it was only a fraction of the best columns and articals he wrote