RE: Time for Tea? 1980s Rallycross

[coppice]

No- go and watch it live if you can ; totally different experience and sooo much better

[tylerama]

falkster said:

Will Gollop was usually in a 6R4 or Peugeot. The crazy Escorts or RS200 could have been Martin Schanche (sp?).

Correct. Will had that silkolene sponsored 6R4 for many years, then swapped to the peugeot. The RS 200's and later on the Escorts were Mr Rally cross himself, Mr Schanche.

Loved it when the red mist would descend: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=iBZ62OHT7p...

Two schanche moments stick in my mind:
The first was sometime around 1990ish at Lydden and Martin somehow drove over the bank on the outside of chessons drift and instead of giving up emerged about one lap later having driven round the outside of the bank, must have been a good 45 degree angle.
The second was in October 1995 at the final euro rally cross round at Brands. Martin had a bright yellow escort RS 2000 that had a monster turbo, all the cars went down into paddock hill bend (the circuit was different for a rallycross set up; hard right before the tarmac paddock hill bend and down the hill across gravel to flick left back onto the tarmac half way up the hill) and somehow Martin's bonnet flew up, so he went up the hill into druids completely blind with the bonnet against the windscreen, the next thing, I can recall looking across to Druids hairpin from Paddock and there was a wall of flame about 100ft across by 12 foot tall, he'd crashed and ruptured the tank. Chaos and a red flag ! Good memories

Edited by tylerama on Wednesday 21st November 18:09

Edited by tylerama on Wednesday 21st November 18:10

Edited by tylerama on Wednesday 21st November 18:11

[artdealer]

Thanks for the link. Fabulous memories. I used to go to Lydden and Brands for the Rallycross in this era and a few years after. Martin Schanche a fantastic competitor in unobtainable machinery for mere mortals to watch. The speed of the last few frames before the line brought it back how quick those cars were.

[HDM]

Great stuff, never get tired of these clips. It was such good racing, very fan friendly, you could walk all round the pits at Brands, up c;lose to the cars, peer inside engine compartments, talk to the drivers.

Another awesome driver/engineer was John Welch with the STP Xtrac escort, and the Sphere Drake Astra.

[tylerama]

Another great link from the mrrallycrossuk channel on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HamXAHh8N4w

The end of this clip is what it's all about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqk4eKTcra0&fea...

Edited by tylerama on Wednesday 21st November 18:55

[Flares&Chestwig]

Never really got Schanche, whether it was money, passion,talent or if he was just a complete

[mmcd87]

You really see the power as the speed increases that's for sure.

[falkster]

HDM said:

Another awesome driver/engineer was John Welch with the STP Xtrac escort, and the Sphere Drake Astra.

Remember him so well, he had the side exit exhaust on the Astra that set fire to the side of his car which was made worse when he opened the door to see what the issue was.
Still won the race but jumped out of the car whilst stting his pants.

[tylerama]

[quote=Flares&Chestwig] Never really got Schanche, whether it was money, passion,talent or if he was just a complete
[/quote]

I think it was just about balls to the wall racing. He just never gave up, always had his foot buried to the floor. He just didn't give a f*** what anyone thought. it was all about winning.

[Dave Hedgehog]

happy days

me and some friends followed the group B's around the uk circuits for many years

Gollop forever

[Baryonyx]

coppice said:

Just don't swallow the tired old cliche about getting to 100 quicker than any F1 car. Not on slippy mud and tarmac they don't ...and not with 400kg more and 250bhp less, 4wd or not

And quite frankly, who gives a st? F1 cars have never been as cool or exciting as these things!

[DrMekon]

So many happy days at Brands watching these as a kid. Fantastic.

[Mr-B]

I remember that Schenke (sp?) bloke had a party trick when he won a race once, he did a lap of honour sat on the roof steering the car with his foot through the open drivers window. 'kin awesome. Will have to find that on youtube now.

[rlw]

Mark-C said:

Rallycross? To me that means Keith Ripp, a hump, a Mini and the legendary Murray Walker ....

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gilxT4wEedM

What - not Trevor Hopkins, John Welch, John Button, John Smith, John Taylor or Paul Rogers?

[Dave200]

Great cars, but 4 laps with no overtaking then two overtakes on the last lap? Last corner aside, it looks as processional as F1...

[falkster]

I seem to remember a big race with Gollop and Schanche with Schanche in the lead and Gollop takes him on the last corner, he just slides round the corner passed him.

Suppose that could be any race.

Edited by falkster on Wednesday 21st November 20:17

[kiteless]

rtz62 said:

Simply the best.
I remember Schanche coming out with his x-trac Escort, it was light years ahead of the competition; those were the days!

Lordy, yes!

That x-trac Mk 3 Escort was a fvcking rocketship

[grumpy52]

Martin schanche is a lovely man ! His wife has made me many a bacon butty and mug of tea back in the day. I used to help out getting the paddock sorted at lydden and martin was ready with a handshake and a smutty joke .until the tv cameras started to roll then he was the face of rallycross all across europe where the the top drivers were treated like superstars .
All drivers were real gents with very frw exceptions.
The cars were and still are awesome.
Its being promoted in the states and the very pleasant Tanner Faust has been doing the european championship.

[Madrabbit]

crostonian said:

Was it Will Gollop who always had some crazily tuned Escort, did Stig Blomqvist and Per Eklund also take part? Apart from F1 and the RAC rally once a year it was one of the only motorsport events on TV back in the mid 80s.

Could have been John Welch in the Gartrac Escort. I can remember the STP adverts in Cars and Car Conversions magazine (ah, those were the days) in black and white in those days too of course!

http://gartrac.com/company/johnwelchmk3.htm

[S1600]

I've been a few times this year and like the WRC it's not a patch on what it was back then.

I used to watch it on the TV as a kid in the 80s and got to see at for the first time at Brands in 2003, loved Pat Dorans RS200 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D37DfAzsZio