Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, up a lane, a van has stopped. Progress is no longer possible, much to the frustration of the Mercedes driver following. Entangled in low-hanging branches, a ladder is found and leaned against the van in order for somebody to climb up and prune the tree.
Ayrton Senna was out of the car and, in the blink of an eye, he was up the ladder, on top of the van and sawing away at the offending branch, while those around him stood and stared. Not one for wasting time, Senna returned to the Merc and motioned for the convoy to crack on.
Welcome to Wales. It’s 1986 and Lotus’ multiple Grand Prix-winning driver has agreed to swap his Renault-engined 98T for a handful of rally cars on a genuine forest stages just outside Carno.
Let’s rewind a few weeks. And let’s head into the office of Cars and Car Conversions’ editor Russell Bulgin. He’s called in his deputy, Martin Sharp.
“He told me to close the door,” Sharp told DirtFish. “It was all quite conspiratorial. Talking in a lowered voice he said: ‘I’ve got Ayrton to agree to drive some rally cars.’ I stared at him and then said: ‘Well f***, we’d better get some cars then’.”
Ayrton Senna got to try a wide range of cars, including a Metro 6R4 and Sierra Cosworth
And so began one of the greatest tales in the history of motorsport journalism. The Brazilian, then a four-time race winner, was fast becoming the darling of Formula 1. His talent was as undeniable as it was obvious from a breakthrough victory at a sodden Estoril the previous season.
And now he was going to drive a Vauxhall Nova (the same car Colin McRae would make even more famous a year later), a Volkswagen Golf, a Metro 6R4, a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and a very special Escort.
How did it happen?
Sharp chuckles: “It happened because of Bulgin. It was his relationship with Ayrton.”
Sadly Bulgin is no longer with us, but with a pen in his hand he was Senna’s equal. And he could pedal a bit too.
“On the morning we were going up to the stage,” said Sharp, “I went with Ayrton in his Mercedes and Russell followed in his car. Or he tried to follow… We lost him. I don’t remember which Merc it was, but it was quick and so was Senna. He was so smooth.”
Turning off the A470, that’s where they found the van.
It was poetry in motion. He handled my car like he’d been driving it for yearsPhil Collins
“He saw what was going on and instinctively got out to help fix it,” continued Sharp. “It was incredible. There was Ayrton Senna climbing on top of a van and asking for a saw to cut a branch off a tree. It’s not really the sort of thing you’d see a modern Formula 1 driver doing.”
Into the woods and it was clear Senna was a long, long way from his comfort zone.
Sharp added: “He told us he’d never driven a rally car, but he had watched a little bit on TV. One of the first cars he drove was Phil Collins’ Sierra. Let’s be honest, that was a brute of a thing, a horrible car to make your introduction to rallying.”
It didn’t go well.
Collins: “I’d taken him around the stage and shown him where we were going. He got out of the car and told everybody I was nuts. But then it was his turn. The first corner was a sweeping right-hander. I said to him: ‘This isn’t Silverstone. Don’t take a wide line in, you’ll get on the marbles. Keep the nose tight in.’ I also reminded him that I needed the car for a championship-deciding event the following Saturday.
“Of course, he completely ignored me, went in wide, onto the marbles and put the car on its side up against a Christmas tree. Luckily, it didn’t do a lot of damage, it was a soft landing. Back on the road and he kept saying sorry.
“After that he went off and drove the other cars. Then he came back and said: ‘Phil, I want to give you a ride.’ I told him I was fine, but in the end I got in the passenger seat.
“It was poetry in motion. He handled my car like he’d been driving it for years. He was poor to start with – worryingly poor – but the speed he learned the car was so impressive and, like I said, he was a natural within a handful of runs.”
Senna's progression throughout the day startled those who were fortunate enough to witness it
Much as he enjoyed all of the cars – by Senna’s own admission, far more than he thought he would – Sharp remembers the Escort as something special.
“I think that’s the one he had the most fun in,” he said. “And why wouldn’t he. Do you remember it? It was Allan Edwards’ car. It had a 3.4-liter Cosworth V6 engine with around 450bhp and four-wheel drive. It was incredible.
“It’s fair to say, we probably didn’t get the cars we wanted for the test – organizing them in a short space of time wasn’t easy – but he loved the cars he drove and what it genuinely showed was the guy’s ability to get in everything from a fairly standard rally car all the way up to that Escort and drive it very quickly in no time.
“And afterwards, of course, we went for a sandwich and a cup of tea over the road from the forest. It was all fairly surreal, having spent the day with Senna in his famous black overalls and yellow crash helmet driving rally cars and now asking if we wanted the milk in first…
“It was a day none of us would ever forget.”
The memory lives on this weekend, with the Sierra and 6R4 joining a wider collection of Senna cars at the Silverstone Festival.
The very same Metro and Sierra used for that shoot returned to the scene earlier this month
