Quote:
Originally Posted by MG Rover Sport
But isn't that a complete nearside front suspension on the left hand side of both of the photos that I poosted at the top of this page Mike - Page 5 and Post #62? Wouldn't that tie in with your comment about '...as I remember it was a front strut nut that split and the damper pulled out...'?
|
The nut that split caused the off at Silverstone, the picture at the top of the page was from the Mewla/Epynt off... which was caused by too much speed...! :-) The strut was removed to enable the car to be moved as the wheel was jammed in the wheelarch.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by In fact, I have just looked back into my files, and I have virtually all of the events listed that this car competed on since it debuted on the [U
1987 Nelson Azimghur Stages Rally[/U] on 12 July. On the latter the car carried the Reg No B697 CMG - I even have the large framed colour print that Sam used to have on his office wall! - and the car finished 3rd Overall with Jean Blackford alongside.
The 2nd event was the 1987 Merlin Fireplaces Epynt Stages on 8 August. For that event the car carried Bill Barton's Reg No D999 VFW, was Entry No 5, and Sam finished 2nd Overall with Blackford alongside again.
It's 3rd event was the 1987 Rally Radio Link Mewla Stages the day after on 9 August. For that event the car also carried Bill's Reg No D999 VFW again, was Entry No 12, Sam had Nicky Grist alongside him, and they crashed on Stage 6 when lying 2nd Overall at the time.
|
John Blackford, not jean. John had/has the company Wessington Cabins which was/is based in Calne Wiltshire and is a very long standing friend of Sams. Lovely bloke.
B697CMG was Sams wifes MG Montego Estate... number plates and tax disc borrowed for the Rally at Colerne Airfield, stupid rules about rally cars having to be taxed to run on single venue events where none of the event took place on public roads.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by The car was then reshelled into the ex-temperature test car that you mentioned over the winter of 1987/1988 and wasn't finished till 3am on the morning of it's next rally - the [U
1988 John Price Rallying Longleat Stages[/U] on 27/28 February. On this occasion it carried the Reg No E264 AAM, and this is the event that you mentioned earlier that someone died on. It was in fact Dave Adams who was Steve Whiteford's co-driver. They crashed their 6R4 into a tree, and the co-driver's door took the full impact from what I remember.
I even have a note in my files to say that the original car was damaged when it got hit on a trailer on it's way to Donington with Austin Rover - which also ties in with your original comment about it being damaged previously.
|
The car wasn't reshelled following the Mewla prang, stripped to a bare shell, painted inside and out and repaired. The only Metro Nelson Engines had was the temperature test car. But enough parts were "new" (painted and refurbished) to satisfy the authorities that E264AAM was a "new" car.
Quite remarkable that you know what time in the morning we finished building the car for Longleat, I don't remember and I was there building it!
I was prepping Mark (?) Bennets car at the same time, if I remember correctly, it was his first event with the metro, that he later rolled down a hillside in Wales, still one of the most violent crashes for a 6R4 I think.....
I didn't actually know that the temperature test car was hit during transport to Donington prior to Sam buying it, just remember picking it up from a seedy bodyshop just outside London, who had jigged it up and painted it to sams specifications.... I also managed to be given some computervision bodypanels from a works car, which they were throwing out... and like a muppet I gave them to Sam Nelson, when I could have saved at least a door pod as a momento...
Terrible business that accident at Longleat.... peoples lives changed forever in an instant.... it was the first fatality that I had experienced at an event, and it haunts me even today. The rally just continued and I remember John Price at the prizegiving saying words to the effect of "life goes on and these things happen, we all love rallying and it is what he would ahve wanted that we continue".
I remember thinking.... what about his family... apparently Dave Adams had stepped in at the last minute, I can't start to image how the original co-driver felt when he heard the news, and as I recall, Steve was never really the same following the accident either.
Mike