Historic Classic Car Rallies.

[john ruston]

One of the most successful branches of historic motorsport is the historic Car rally.scene.

With events worldwide and in UK it has flourished for the past twenty years with full entry lists in events such as Flying Scotsman and Peking to Paris.

The shocking news today of the death of Philip Young who virtually invented the things will be a hammer blow to those involved.

A larger than life character and a good bloke although he used to **** people off big time occasionally !

Hope it does not signal the end of this section of the sport.

[John Turner]

Very sad news and 'yes' John, let's hope some one takes up the baton.


http://www.endurorally.com/pages/philip-young

(PS - I've copied your post to the Tributes forum, edited for that purpose)

[terence]

That is quite a shock.Knew Philip from his magazine days (Sporting Cars) I think.He and his photographer spent many days with us at Holley Enterprises doing various articles on the Carter collection.As you say John, he was a good bloke, always lots to laugh about on the days they came to us.Philip teamed up with Jack Sears for The RAC Golden Fifty Rally.We did the prep on the exworks Healey they used to good effect.Philip came into the shop looking a little sheepish on the morning of the day they were to be leaving for the start venue for the next day.He'd been hit up the @rse by a woman in a Mini who had been admiring the car from behind-hadn't realised it had stopped!
Days work to straighten it and get some paint on, Jack never drove 'tatty'cars.
RIP Philip, you gave an awful lot to historic motorsport , long may you be remembered .

[retrognome]

Originally Posted by john ruston

One of the most successful branches of historic motorsport is the historic Car rally.scene.

With events worldwide and in UK it has flourished for the past twenty years with full entry lists in events such as Flying Scotsman and Peking to Paris.

The shocking news today of the death of Philip Young who virtually invented the things will be a hammer blow to those involved.

A larger than life character and a good bloke although he used to **** people off big time occasionally !

Hope it does not signal the end of this section of the sport.

Philip Young was indeed the 'driver' of international historic rallying 'adventures'. He had a passion, coupled to a dream, that led him to ignore red tape as if it didn't exist. This did not always work in his favour, one year the Monte Challenge was cancelled by the police while we were competing on the final sections (after four days), because he had no permission to run the event, another time he allegedly ran timed sections through Switzerland, after promising it a neutral section. For this he was heavily fined. Never the less he shrugged misfortune off like light rain. Once, I obtained two minute coverage for him on ITV News for which I gained no thanks, and again, an interview he agreed to was cancelled between himself and my editor. Even so I had enormous respect for the guy, and off the record, actually quite liked him, he called a spade a spade and achieved his objectives, giving people the opportunity to indulge in their own personal ambitions. He was a man of great ideas who ran fantastic rallies, such as the Peking-Paris, but like many others he relied on the 'team' to sort things out. Flawed he was, but one thing is for sure. There will never be another Philip Young. For that authorities across the world can sleep a little easier from now on.