Room for one more story about the 1985 RAC Rally? There is when you open McKlein’s stunning book MG Metro 6R4 – Inside Story of the Group B Rally Legend and read Wynne Mitchell’s recollection of what happened 40 years and a fortnight ago.
Mitchell engineered the Metro from 1984 and was perfectly placed to recall some of the lesser-known details of an outstanding World Rally Championship debut which left Tony Pond beaten only by a brace of equally new Lancia Delta S4s driven by Henri Toivonen and Markku Alén.
Broadly speaking, we know the event. It started from Nottingham, went to Wollaton first, overnighted at Worcester then headed north from south Wales, onto Yorkshire into Kielder, then the Borders, the Lakes, a dash through Clumber Park and – 62 deep frozen stages later – the deal was done.
It was far from straightforward for most of the teams, with Wales claiming plenty of the star names. Walter Röhrl tumbled his Audi down the mountain in Rheola, while Hafren claimed two factory Peugeots when Kalle Grundel crashed and newly crowned world champion Timo Salonen suffered engine failure aboard his 205 T16. The engine aboard Hannu Mikkola’s quattro let go in Dyfi while Pond’s team-mate and fellow Metro drivee Malcolm Wilson was ruled out with a cooked V6 two stages later in Gartheiniog.
Wales done, but still only 249 of the planned 556 competitive miles complete, Alén headed out of the overnight halt in Nottingham with a three-minute lead over Pond, with Toivonen almost two minutes behind the Briton.
Alén’s lead went south when he crashed off the road in Kielder. Off the road for more than five minutes in Wark, the Finn only made the finish after being hauled out of the ditch by countryman Juha Kankkunen (in his Toyota!).
Markku’s crash dropped him to third and introduced an often overlooked aspect of the event: Tony Pond and Britain’s MG Metro 6R4 moved into the lead.
Alén’s wasn’t the only S4 deviating from the route; Toivonen had rolled in the Borders. While he didn’t lose much time inverting the Delta, multiple transmission failures, fuel starvation and a broken supercharger definitely slowed the #6 car.
And brought words of frustration from Pond.
“Bloody Lancias,” he said. “All through the stages, you can see where they’ve been going off. There are skid marks here, bits missing there. They spin, they go off, hit things all the time, but they still keep going!”
But it was Pond who led the field out of Carlisle at five o’clock on the morning of November 28. If he could hold position for the next 10 or so hours, he’d make history. Sadly, history shows he was usurped by both Lancias and ultimately ended the event third behind Toivonen and Alén. But it had been a battle.
The above is, of course, something of a résumé.
Let’s go behind the scenes. And start with some numbers.
Pond and Arthur led on the Metro 6R4's RAC Rally debut in 1985
There were 44 people actively involved with Austin Rover on the 1985 RAC Rally. There were two factory rally cars (Pondy drove chassis 021, while Wilson had number 019 – Geoff Fielding drove a private ‘clubman’ car, but this didn’t feature in the works effort), five service vans, five tire vans, four supervision cars, two chase cars, a motorhome, two partner support cars and a communications plane.
Between them, the service vans carried 10 spare gearboxes, 10 front differentials, 10 step-off units, 10 rear differentials and, as you’d expect, engines and engine parts galore, together with brake and suspension spares.
Almost immediately, the team realized it was going to be up against it when it came to working on the cars quickly. Remember, these were the days when time to service the car between the stages had to be built into the road timing.
Mitchell said: “Upon arrival at service, the first thing that had to take place was to jack the car up, put it on stands and remove the under shields before gaining access to anything. This proves extremely time-consuming when perhaps only 10 minutes service time is available. I seem to remember timing this procedure. It took at least three minutes to jack up, remove the shields and reverse the whole thing. Other teams’ cars were designed to allow access from above by having large lift-up panels front and rear. God, this hindsight is a marvellous gift!”
Shedding light on Wilson’s Welsh departure, Mitchell added: “My notes are not very clear, but they record that Malcolm’s woes included a failed rear differential. The casing cracked when one crown wheel bolt came free and probably found its way between the casing and a revolving part. I also record that the front differential came loose, which resulted in losing the power steering as its drive belt came adrift. The second time it came loose, I concluded that it rocked to the extent that it trapped a water pipe and cooked the engine! Whether my notes are specifically correct or not, Malcolm was out of the rally.”
Northbound with one car, the team’s radios fell silent just out of Carlisle.
“… communication aeroplane with Graham Rood aboard lost all interest in communicating constructively with us. He reported that the plane was misfiring badly and was rapidly losing height. They were desperately trying to make it back to Carlisle Airport, where they had refuelled. The conclusion they later arrived upon, having landed safely, was that they had taken aboard some inferior fuel possibly contaminated with water. Therefore, when we ran into trouble, they were of no use to us, being grounded.”
In an effort to cover ground quickly and to ensure Mitchell remained in touch with the event, rally driver of some repute and 6R4 tester Colin Malkin was given the keys to team principal John Davenport’s Rover SD1 – which had been fitted with a 3.9-liter Rouse modified V8…
“We were thundering along, overtaking most things, when suddenly there was quite a loud bang followed by a persistent knocking. We continued motoring, albeit at a greatly reduced speed, with John tapping the oil pressure gauge and saying: ‘There’s plenty of oil pressure.’ Eventually, the car would go no further and we stopped almost underneath a railway bridge, near Chollerford. Fortunately, as it was early, there was very little, if no, traffic about.
“John looked at his Ordnance Survey map and said: ‘There’s a telephone box ahead.’ Colin said: ‘Give me your change.’ So, we emptied our pockets and off he went up the road into the darkness. Some 15 or 20 minutes later, he returned, got into the car, reclined the seat and reclined himself, without saying anything. We looked at him, then eventually said: ‘Well, what’s happening?’ The reply was: ‘Nothing.’”
Austin Rover Motorsport's Cowley-based competition department was a hive of activity at the end of 1985
Mitchell took the remainder of the change and returned to the telephone box, eventually managing to persuade a friend of a friend to loan them a Saab 96 with 90,000 miles which was sat for sale on a garage forecourt.
Out of the blue, the radio sparked into life. It was one of the partner cars with two fellas from Lucas Micos – they were lost and looking for help to find rally route.
“Colin grabbed the radio and directed them to where we were stranded. Upon their arrival, he commanded their Range Rover, telling them to sit in this now freezing SD1, saying that help was on its way in the form of an elderly Saab. You do not want to argue with Colin, especially at five o’clock in the morning.”
Once into Carlisle, the Range Rover was handed back with a Mercedes hired for the remainder of the event. That wasn’t the end of the action though, another team member failed to slow at some road works and ran into the back of a Fiat. The unsuspecting Uno and its occupants were nudged down an embankment, coming to rest squarely beneath a road sign – unable to get out with the front doors jammed between the sign’s supporting poles.
Mitchell concluded: “The reaction to the Metro was really pleasing, with people cheering enthusiastically as it passed or when arriving at service. So ended 1985 for us, on a comparatively high note. Now for 1986 and all it had to throw at us… and it certainly did find plenty to throw at us.”
Third at the finish, Pondy was pleased, while still ruing the fortune of the Finns ahead. But the Metro’s world championship story had well and truly started – and McKlein’s book MG Metro 6R4 tells all those tales (with 443 stunning pictures) through the fabulous writing of Wynne Mitchell, Reinhard Klein and John Davenport.
All 384 pages of 6R4 history are available here. If you’re in the UK, use this link.
