Lot Ended
Description
BMC works prepared entry in the 1970 London-Mexico World Cup
Rally; huge history and highly original
The 1968 London-Sydney
rally had been a huge success, with manufacturers appreciating the publicity it
gave them in vital export markets across the globe. Everyone was up for another
go and with the 1970 Football World Cup being hosted in Mexico, it seemed the
perfect destination and timing for another event.
Organised by John Sprinzel and John Brown, the Daily Mirror sponsored
the gruelling 16,000 mile high speed rally, covering some of the most difficult
and challenging terrain imaginable spread over three
continents.
The BMC competitions department had been exercising their brains on
the 1800 Landcrab for some time. Never really thought of as in any way sporty,
BMC had at least introduced an S model with twin carburettors boosting power to
a useful 95bhp. This perked the car up no end and a team were put together for
the 1968 London - Sydney rally. It did fantastically well, coming home in second
place. The cars virtues of big wheels, immense toughness and the clever
hydrolastic suspension worked in tandem to produce a winner. Having developed a
winning formula, they were definitely not going to be left out of the
London/Mexico event, whilst the car’s abilities had not gone un-noticed
elsewhere, with teams of privateers queuing to get their hands on a works
prepared car.
Large budgets were found from Ford and BMC, whilst other
manufacturers supported privateers in a huge range of machines although we
suspect that our own local star of the rally, Bill Bengry from Leominster,
didn’t elicit much support from Rolls-Royce, having decided to do it in style in
a Shadow 1.
The event certainly lived up to its promise - of the 100 starters,
just 23 arrived at the finish, a significant number even struggling to complete
the European sections.
In the end it was left to the Abingdon-based Special Tuning team,
headed by Basil Wales, to prepare the 1970 cars, using off the shelf tuning kits
they had developed for customers to upgrade their existing cars. The engines
were blueprinted, over-bored and fitted with high compression heads at 11.5:1.
This no doubt explains the modifications to the heater controls which were in
fact connected to the distributor to allow a certain amount of advance and
retard to take into account the variable petrol quality they were expecting to
encounter en route. Twin carburettors were used, and a full sports exhaust was
fitted; the new units developing a very reliable 130bhp at
5,500rpm.
In preparation for tough terrain, a hydrolastic hand pump was fitted
on the rear shelf should it be needed whilst huge fuel tanks from an Austin
Westminster were fitted giving a massive range, whilst all of the pipes were
routed inside the body and a huge sump guard fitted.
OOH 745G was built by Basil Wales’s department for a privateer Police
team, Hugh Penfold, Eric McInally and Peter Jones, and was entered as number 34,
the car originally being painted orange and white. BMC fitted fibreglass doors,
boot lid and bonnet, whilst the windows were perspex to reduce weight and stop
them being shattered by flying stones. Perspex covers for the headlights were
also made and these are still with the car, although not currently fitted as one
is cracked. These modifications significantly reduced the weight of the car,
making it a most ideal endurance rally machine, being strong, stable, roomy,
comfortable and surprisingly quick.
Alas it was not to finish the rally, however it did better than most
as it made past Sao Paulo in South America before mechanical maladies put it out
of contention.
Little is known of its subsequent history until it turned up at the
Mouldsworth Motor Museum. Its then owners prepared it for the Pirelli Marathon,
fitting a rebuilt engine, new gearbox and brakes. Whilst being set up on the
rolling road, a blocked carburettor caused the mixture to run weak, overheating
the engine and causing a valve insert to fall out on the way to the start line,
putting them out of the event. The car was repaired and put back into the museum
where the curator was able to purchase it from the owner who decided to get
married instead!
During a visit to the museum in 2004 by Tony Fall, a works BMC rally
driver who won the first international event in an 1800, Fall was able to
confirm that the car is the most original example he had ever seen, even down to
the plastic map cases on the rear shelf which were normally discarded as a
matter of course. He recalled that they were fabulous to drive and felt
virtually indestructible, handling much like a grown up
Mini.
What would you need to pay for a works Cooper S these days? This
rare, original and complete BMC works rally 1800 with its fascinating history is
certainly available at a fraction of the cost of its smaller sibling and would
no doubt open all sorts of doors when entering the ever-growing number of
classic rally events.
Brightwells sold this car on behalf of Mouldsworth Museum in 2013. We
then sold it again to the current vendor who had an interest in a rally school
that has since closed so it is time for the car to be offered for sale
once again.
Contact [email protected]