Rally - G-Olden days?

Forty three years ago, it wasn’t just life that was different, rallies and rallying were different too. This weekend the Voyonic Grampian Stages Rally will take to the forests of south Aberdeenshire and although typical of forest stage events by today’s standards, it was very different in 1981.

The 9 page Regulations booklet was posted out to potential competitors along with an Entry Form which promised 16 Special Stages totalling 80 miles for a fee of £94. The route itself was some 275 miles in length and rambled over 5 Ordnance Survey maps while the duration of the one day event was around 10 hours, although the snow on some stages was free!

Fast forward to 2024 and the 35 page Regulations document is now available on-line along with the Entry Form. This time the offer is 6 Special Stages of 56 miles for a £999 charge which includes a tracking fee, carbon offsetting charge, insurance and MS UK officials’ expenses. Of course, the major whack of this sum goes to forestry charges for the use of ‘our’ forests, but other organisational compulsory costs have risen too although the 180 mile route is contained in just two OS maps these days!

The top 20 cars in the 1981 entry list featured 12 Ford Escorts, 3 Talbot Sunbeams, 2 Vauxhall Chevettes, 2 Opel Asconas, and 1 Triumph TR7V8 - and not a 4WD machine in sight. 

The rally was won by Malcolm Patrick in an Ascona by 37 seconds from the Escort of Bill Dobie with Graham Elsmore in third place in another Escort. Top Scot was Donald Heggie in a Ford Escort while Ken Wood was fifth in the TR7 and Jim Howden sixth in another Escort. Jim McRae crashed out on SS6 when the brakes seized on the Boleyn Cattini Ascona (pictured).

By the way, the reduced rate for an overnight stay in the Treetops Hotel was £13.50 for B&B while petrol was around 34p per litre, or £1.67 per gallon if you haven’t been decimalised yet!

Mind you some things don’t change, Jonathan Lord was a Steward back then and Frank Love took the pictures for the Regulations and documents covers.

Anyway, the point is, we can all see the major problem here – but can the high heid yins in Bicester?