Rally - Murmurs on Tour

Lanarkshire to Lancashire. After visiting Coltness Car Club on Monday it’s off to the far south on Thursday night for a visit to 2300 Club, the originators of the Tour of Mull Rally.

It’s not another formal ‘book launch’, just a meeting of like minded souls with an interest in rallying – one event in particular of course.

Of course, it was former 2300 Club President, the late Brian Molyneux, who wrote the first book on ‘The Tour of Mull Rally’ which covers the event’s introduction in 1969 up to 1994. Sadly that book is out of print but I do believe there is some interest in another wee print run and maybe something will come out of Thursday night’s meeting.

Anyway, my own scurrilous effort is rather different from Brian’s detailed and beautifully written account of the event’s beginnings and its history, whereas the ‘Mull Murmurs’ bulletins as published during the rally were anything but well written or grammatically correct. There was also an issue of ‘political correctness’ which wasn’t quite such a thorny issue in days gone by! I just hope that to-day’s readers will bear that in mind.

It may only be an A5 paperback but it does have 350 pages, and more to the point, the book does contain every single issue of the Bulletins that were issued during that 18 year period 1993 to 2010 – the only place where the full compilation exists.

The cost is 20 quid, which equates to just about one guinea for each year’s series of bulletins and only those who were there can judge if that was a bargain – or not!

Anyway, the 2300 club night will take place on Thursday evening, the 11^th of April, at Foxfields Hotel, Whalley Rd, Billington, Clitheroe BB7 9HY and yours truly will be in attendance from around 7.30pm.

By the way, if any other club wants a personal visitation, perhaps it could be arranged! However, anywhere south of Lancashire might pose a health risk to a sunstroke-fearing traveller from the far north.

For those who can’t make it, full details of how to purchase a copy on-line will be published here shortly, once I’ve figured out how to update the bluidy website!

Onwards and upwards, eh?

Rally - The ‘Murmurs’ are alive …

Picked up the fist batch of books from the printer and they’ll go on sale next week. Price is a wee bit higher than I had hoped, so hope that’s OK. I ‘lost’ the title sponsor just before the book was due to go to press and the price of paper has gone up again, so I cut back on the print run a wee bit. Hopefully I’ll still have enough to go round and nobody is disappointed.

The price will be 20 quid plus another fiver for P&P for those who place an order on line and although it is more expensive than originally planned, here is another way of looking at it – the ‘MullMurmurs’ bulletins were issued over an 18 year period, so that equates to just about one guinea for each year’s series of bulletins.

Please also bear in mind that this is primarily a ‘text’ book, not a ‘picture’ book and the photos, such as they are, are purely there to break up the text and perhaps highlight some of the personalities mentioned and ‘equipment’ used. Picture quality isn’t great but that’s down to the quality of the paper, using better grade paper would have pushed the price up again!

It’s also a paperback book and a handy pocket-sized A5 format, but on the plus side, there are 354 pages which hopefully captures what the Mull Rally is all about. At least now a permanent record has been created to carry on the story from Brian Molyneux’s 1969 – 1994 epic with this book covering the period 1993 – 2010. I’ll let someone else take up the story from 2011 onwards …

For those who wish to avail themselves of a copy before the rush (?) I will be at the Coltness Car Club monthly gathering on Monday evening 8^th April from 7.30 pm. This will be held at the usual venue – Dalserf Bowling Club, Ashgillhead Road, Ashgill, Larkhall ML9 3AF. The Club is licensed to sell alcoholic refreshments if you’re not driving but also has both leaded and unleaded Irn Bru plus a variety of other soft drinks, and boattles of waatter, and remember, the bar only takes cash – nae cards, cheques or Provi vouchers.

One other thing, if you haven’t been to a CCC club night before you will drive past the entrance to the Bowling Club at least once before you see it. So dinnae worry, we’ve all done it! It’s a tight left on to an unsurfaced narrow road between the first and second wee hooses as you approach the village from the north. There’s a fairly big car park at the foot of the lane on the right with access to the Bowling Club entrance from there.

For those who can’t make it, full details of how to purchase a copy on line will be published here shortly – I had to get a new card payment reader! And that was a job and a half, thanks to DPD. After this week’s carry-on with DPD I’ll be sticking with Royal Mail for delivery and tracking. In other words we’re in a sad state if the Royal Mail can make another delivery company look bad.

So dinnae try an’ order the book here yet – wait for the details (Tuesday hopefully), or I’ll see you Monday evening.

Onwards and upwards, eh?

Road - New Land Cruiser

Looks like Land Rover’s new Defender and the Ineos Grenadier have a serious rival on its way. The new Toyota Land Cruiser is coming to the UK with a 201hp four cylinder 2.8-litre turbo-diesel engine and a towing limit of 3500 kgs. There’s no manual gearbox just an eight speed automatic and prices are expected to start from a very competitive £45,000. If they can stick to that price then it really will give its rivals a fright.  It’s also got one helluva reputation to live up to – but then it’s got a Toyota badge on the grille!

Rally - Bygone days

Looking back … With the Asset Alliance Scottish Rally Championship not due to start until next month, forty years ago the national series was already well underway. The Snowman Rally had already been held in February while March always meant the Hackle Rally. Some of those who contested that event are still with us, and still rallying, and some are not.

The rally was won that year by Andrew Wood and Dougie Paterson in a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus from the Ford Escort RS of Donald Heggie and Ian Mungall – and the difference? Two seconds. Andrew finished on 50 mins 25 secs while Donald finished on 50 mins 27 secs.

Just a few photos are shown here, some you will recognise and perhaps some you might not, but the full report and more photos is in the book!

https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/

Rally - Murmurs on Mull - Progress?

Some bad news I’m afraid regarding the ‘Murmurs on Mull’ book. I’ve now got the proof back from the printer. However, I had anticipated it would be around 300 pages in length, well, I’m afraid that is not going to be the case, it looks as though it is in fact going to be 356 pages in length !!

It has been suggested by the printer that never has so much drivel been written about so few has-beens, hopefuls and heroes for the enlightenment and entertainment of so many onlookers, rally die-hards and deadbeats - as someone once famous might have said, had he said anything at all.

Anyway, b*gg*r it I thought, so be it, let the print machines roll. Yee Haa!

Rally - Murmurs underway

I’ve signed off the cover of the ‘MullMurmurs’ book and it looks pretty smart. Even though there is no cover sponsor mention or logo on the front cover and the back cover had to be changed, I think it looks pretty good. In fact it might even be better. Plain and simple, just like the author!

On the other hand, the printer wasn’t too keen on the typesetting (I did it!) but I wanted to try and replicate the Murmurs as they were originally reproduced. A difficult task since the Murmurs were printed individually on A4 sheets and this is an A5 book but I told him that was what I wanted. What really surprised me was that he didn’t know what a ‘duplicator’ was but there is a photo in the book and I explained how it worked. Youngsters, eh?

I’ll be getting a full book proof to read shortly and then it’s press the ‘go’ button after that.

I’ll publish details here when ready, but it will be available on-line through the same web site marketing service which is currently selling the Scottish Rally Championship book. I’ll also have copies with me when I visit events, but details of this will also be published here.

Rally - MullMurmurs

Good news and not so good news. The good news is that the ‘MullMurmurs’ book is now at the printer’s as of this morning, but the not so good news is that the finished product will be a wee bit dearer than planned. The deal with the cover sponsor fell through a few days back leaving little time to re-arrange things for today. In all fairness the sponsor had a domestic issue to deal with so family matters must come first and so I have no qualms with his decision and we haven’t fallen out.

Fortunately some good friends of the Mull Rally came to the rescue and helped out so I must thank John, Calum, Andy, Neil, James and Kerrie, and Saint Tunnock’s of Biscuitry. Even so I am still the major ‘shareholder’ hence the wee price increase!

I must admit this has been a bit of a scary trip down memory lane going through eighteen years worth of MullMurmurs rally bulletins. What memories this exercise has conjured up! At it’s heart it is still eighteen years of rally reports but written in a rather different ‘less serious’ style than expected of the newspapers and magazines of the time. Some might use the word ‘irreverent’ whereas others might say it is politically incorrect, but that’s how things were, so nothing has been changed for the book.

I have tried to replicate the urgency of the production process, at least that’s my excuse for the mistakes, mis-typing and spelling errors. These have been deliberately left in. The news was gathered in a rush, bashed out hurriedly on a typewriter (later laptop and dot matrix printer) to cut the stencils which were then used to print the bulletins. Once printed they were passed to the distribution teams to get them round the spectators, competitors and local folks on the island. While that was happening, the production team, i.e. me, had packed up and driven on to the next stop to try and get ahead of the rally again to gather and disseminate more news.

Reading through all these bulletins again just made me wonder how we all managed to do it against the clock while attempting to comply with the rally timetable and road closures. Mind you, some tales will never (can’t) be told!

That’s why the style of the book accurately copies the style of the bulletins as they were issued. Rather than tidy it up, that’s just how things were.

It’s all rather different to Brian Molyneux’s book ‘The Best Rally in the World’ which covers the beginnings in 1969 and takes the story up to 1993, so the Murmurs book will fit perfectly picking up the story in 1993 and taking it 2010. Someone else can do the next one, 2011 - …..

Brian’s book is actually out of print so copies are hard to find. On that basis I have asked Neil Molyneux if he has the original draft. If there is enough interest, maybe we could arrange a reprint ???

Anyway, I can now get back to the real job, ‘The Scottish Rally Championship 1990-1999’ which is well underway, but it’s complicated. Many youngsters will be unaware of the trials and tribulations of the time where different handicaps and time penalties were applied to certain four wheel drive cars and turbocharged cars. Methinks that will need a chapter of explanation on its own.

It might be hard to believe, but rallying was a bit more fun back in the day than it is now, or is that just old age, rose tinted specs and grumpiness creeping in? Or can I finish this in two words? Castrol R.

Anyway, I’ll let you know when the Mull book is available.