In this event there was a Bristol Motor Cycle and Light Car Club team represented by M Davies and N Taylor in a Triumph TR3, B F Harding in an MG Magnette, and Tiny Lewis and myself in a Standard Ten. G Best and H Liddon in a Triumph TR3 were the fourth Bristol car.

We started from Noordwijk in Holland on May 6th at one-minute intervals from 8 o’clock. Our next time control was at Frankfurt, 300 miles away, the route was via The Hague, Arnhem, Wessel, and on the autobahn to Frankfurt. Our next time control was at Stuttgart 120 miles away and we were due there in 3¼ hours. As there was no penalty for early arrival here, and it was all on autobahn again, by averaging just about 60 mph, we arrived at Stuttgart with plenty of time in hand. The days run had been very uninteresting as a high percentage of the time we were on the autobahn keeping our speeding down to 70 to 75 mph, and found ourselves being passed by Volkswagens. Here the four starting points converged and all competitors were supposed to have a nights break here with all accommodation booked by the organisers. To our disgust we discovered that instead of booking 3 double rooms a mistake had been made and only one double and one single room had been booked. After a lot of arguing, Tiny and myself slept on mattresses on the floor of the hotel Committee Room.

The next morning we left Stuttgart at 9.40 and the next control was at Freiburg 120 miles and three hours away. At the start of this section there was a timed hill climb of about 2 miles. By keeping just under 60 mph we were able to arrive with over 1 hr. to spare. From the start of this section to the finish of the Rally there were to be regularity checks to ensure that you did not exceed 60 mph average. The penalty for exceeding this was 10 marks lost, if you exceeded 70 mph you were disqualified. From Freiburg we had to cross the border into France to the next control at Giromany. At the start of this section, there was a timed hill climb of about 5 miles. When we arrived at the customs we were waved straight on into France. We assumed as we were to be there for only 200 miles motoring they did not want the bother of stamping all the carnets and passports. We arrived at Giromany with 45 mins in hand and time to have something to eat. From Giromany the next control was again Freiburg via Strasbourg.

To start this section there was a timed hill climb up the Col de Ballon d’Alsace. This section in France was very interesting as it was up and down a series of Cols. From here to the next control at Emmerich Nr. Lindau on Lake Constance the route was all em maim roads which made it an easy section. The next section from Emmerich to Garmsch-Partenkirchen was the most interesting of all as it was about 4 o’clock in the morning with a lot of snow and ice on the roads. Not long after leaving Emmerich we had to cross the border into Austria and then cross back into Austria over the Oberjok Pass which is narrow and very twisting. On our way up the Pass we hit the bank a couple of tines but luckily it was only snow. At the top of the Pass we were two minutes in front of our 50 mph average, and a lot of people were behind. From there to the control, the snow and ice finished and we were able to be about 20 mins early at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. If snow and ice had continued to the control a lot of people would have lost marks for being late.

On our arrival at the control the first people we saw were Gilbert Best and Henry Liddon who had run a big end at the top of the Ballon d’Alsace. They borrowed a pair of shells from another competitor, drove the car into a gully and replaced them. As they started work it began snowing again and with oil and snow all over them they were in a terrible mess. It took them 1¾ hrs to complete the job. About 50 miles further on they ran another big end, much to their disgust, so they retired at Garmsch-Partenkirchen and were going to drive slowly to the finish. While we were at breakfast they very kindly took off the rear brake drum of the Standard to look for the noise that had developed during the night, and discovered it was a brake wheel cylinder had come loose.

Wednesdays route which was very near the East German border was reasonably easy with time controls at Berchtesgaden, where there was the last timed hill climb, Zwessal, Marktredwitz Schetten and then to the Nurburgring where we had breakfast. After breakfast the last 8 miles of the ring was used as a timed section. From Nurburgring our route crossed the Dutch border to the Philips factory at Eindhoven where we had a wash, shave and a meal. Finally from Eindhoven we went to the finish at Noordwijk. The next day there was a five lap race around the Zandvoort race track.

When the results were announced, the Standard 10 was 71st, the Magnette was 91st and the TR3 99th; the Bristol team were third in the team award.

H A R Nash

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