The Trident Rally 1973

[Origin Unknown]

Came across some old photos of my late dad racing his Ford Escort van in the The Trident Rally. IIRC, he told me it had a Lotus engine in it with (what he referred to as) a rocket gearbox.

Does anyone know anything about this rally as I cannot find anything online.

A few pics

[velocemitch]

It would help if you could give an indication of the area, ie Wales, Scotland, northern England etc.

Lots of club stage events in the 70’s more than one every weekend, so finding out isn’t impossible just needs a bit of research.

The Rocket box was quite common as was a Lotus conversion, not often in an estate though, so a bit unusual and probably memorable to the old guard.

If you are a Facebook user try the old rally photographs group, those will no doubt go down very well and perhaps with an indication of the area somebody will pop up who remembers it.

[chunder27]

Mate, head over to rallyforum, they will be able to give you far more info, what corner each pic was taken.

Proper anoraks over there

[Origin Unknown]

Great thanks for the advice.

Unfortunately, since Dad died 4 years ago, the remaining brother of the 6 siblings passed this year taking any possibility of working out where this rally was with him. I have no idea where this could have been taken.

Thanks for the info on the van, I vaguely recall him saying it was pretty unique having that engine and gearbox in a van.

I also can't quite remember how it came to an end. It was either put head on through a brick wall after hitting black ice or it was the one that rolled at one of the major race tracks. It rolled over 7 times and caught fire, he was badly burned all over his torso, lot of scarring from that.

[thepawbroon]

Thanks for posting - great photos and good memories. Fairly unusual (but not unknown) to see an estate car rallying.

It didn't take a lot of googling to find something:

http://www.croydonanddistrictmotorclub.co.uk/

Perhaps a contact to the club president would yield some more info?

Also, try the following groups on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/240676496133533/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/goldenyearsofrally...

I bet if you post the photos and your father's name, you'll get someone commenting with some memories.

Good luck!

[Origin Unknown]

WOW thanks Duncan. I couldn't find anything from google, that is quite phenomenal that you found the club. I'll pop onto the links provided too and see what else I can uncover. I'll keep this thread updated for those interested.

Cheers

Edit: I need to stop referring to the escort as a van

Edited by Origin Unknown on Thursday 17th May 15:32

[thepawbroon]

Origin Unknown said:

I need to stop referring to the escort as a van

Actually it's my mistake. It is a van (with windows fitted). Check the difference in roof lines between the van and estate:

[fttm]

Photos certainly look like the Bagshot complex .

[aeropilot]

fttm said:

Photos certainly look like the Bagshot complex .

Trident Rally used the Bramshill Forrest complex, just to the west/north-west of Blackbushe aerodrome.


Using a van is brilliant, especially with the bubble arches grafted on as well

However, I'd say in 1973, it was much more likely to have had a 'Bullet' gearbox rather than a 'Rocket' gearbox, especially if a Twink was fitted.

The Bullet box was a close ratio gearst for the 2000E box as fitted in the Twin Cam/RS1600/Mexico, whereas the Rocket box was the equivalent closer ratio gearset for the later Type E gearbox fitted in the RS2000 Mk1 and later Mk2's. Given the production RS2000 was only introduced in the late summer of 1973, I'd say it's more likely to have had a Bullet box fitted at the time of this photograph.
Your Dad may well of course later fitted a Rocket box and ally bellhousing in subsequent years, depending upon how long it survived after the Trident Rally in 1973...??

[fttm]

Bramshill , that's it . Bagshot was the training area and rough as fk iirc .