World's Best Rally Driver

yerself · 21-02-2004, 19:44

Who do you think is the world's best ever rally driver?

K.S.H · 21-02-2004, 20:03

Tough one, I am torn between
Colin McRae, Richard burns, Stig Blomqvist. Seems as you only have 1 of them in your poll I will have to go with that one, but to be honest, I would have said Colin McRea

MikeWest · 27-02-2004, 12:41

A cracking list to choose from. I got into the sport around the time that Roger Albert Clark was dominating things but as I worked in a Triumph garage, Clock Garage on Milnshaw Lane, my support went with Tony Pond. Mikkola was always good to watch, always so smooth and tidy weras when Ari came through everybody stepped back and held their breath.
Waldegard is certainly one of the best ever. He didn't win much but then again he wasn't always in the best car but he drove such a selection of cars, Porsche, Stratos, Escort, Audi, Toyota whatever he was in he always gave his best. We met him last august when we did the Eifel Historic Rally in Germany. I was co-driving Accrington lad Gary Gee is his ex works Lotus Sunbeam whilst Bjorn was in the Celica Turbo that won the Ivory Coast Rally and as ever, he drove flat out and the German crowds loved it.
Mind you, we beat him on 4 stages!!!!
My vote goes to Blomqvist though. To see him in a Quattro was fantastic and 3rd overall on the '96 Rac in a Skoda Felicia!!! Magic

yerself · 27-02-2004, 18:09

Did you use his hairspray though Mike? One of the best sounds and sights in rallying was to hear Ari Vatanen in the distance, coming towards you as you stood freezing in some forest, his group4 BDG engined Escort RS1800 screaming at 8-9000rpm. Then in a shower of stones and whiff of Castrol R he was gone. Was this why we stood for six or more hours in Kielder at 6 o'clock on a sub-zero November morning? Will the RAC ever see the likes of Kielder, Dalby or Grizedale again or has it become the Rally of Wales for evermore?

MikeWest · 27-02-2004, 19:27

I remember standing in a dark, cold and wet North Yorkshire forest on the '77 RAC watching a load of Escorts, then Pentti in the Chevette, Stig in the Saab. Suddenly a howling noise made the hairs on my neck stand up followed by this quivering vision of plastic that burst into view, scrabbled for grip and then, with a wail of V6 Ferrari power was gone into the night. The Stratos still has that affect on me even now. There were four taking part on the Eifel and two of them were being driven as if Markku Alen was holding down the loud pedal. We have a thread for the ugliest car in the world. Well, the stratos is without doubt the sexiest thing on four wheels.
Regarding Grizedale etc. Well as far as I can see, so long as the world championship follows its strange path, our WRC event will always be held in that little corner of Wales. I can't see Scarborough taking over from Cardiff and can you imagine getting all the spectators into their sheep pen enclosures in Keilder. There's only a couple of ways in there. No. unfortunately those days are gone. Mind you. There's some well driven Escorts still out there and believe me, sitting alongside Gary in a 250bhp Sunbeam over Molls Gap does tend to focus the mind.
Roll on the 2004 Rally of the lakes.

simon · 31-03-2004, 23:43

The Problem is ralling used to be about speed,smell,excitment and real rallying

Now it is about money and there is more money down south so the rally has followed the money

now its full of barriers, marshalls and restrictions very hard to get close enough to smell them anymore

Stig is hands down winner for me and a real Gent..

MikeWest · 04-04-2004, 16:04

It's not so much the money being down south, after all, they struggle to put on decent events down there. The Tempest Rally, last round of the BRC is there to placate the sponsors wanting to take rallying to the people rather than have them treking into Sweet Lamb or Kielder. The only decent event in shandy drinking land is the Sunseeker and that has stages that cut up badly.
The main reason for the WRC round going to South Wales is accessability and accomodation. York could cope as possibly could Chester but there isn't enough Forest milage in North Yorkshire, there's enough for a BRC round but not enough for the WRC. The same applies to North Wales. We ran the course closing car on the Astra Stages this weekend and whilst Penmachno and Clogaenog are fantastic stages you can't get the spectators in and out easily (oh and if you think the South Wales dibble are bad on speeders the muppet that runs the North Wales force is worse)
I think we have to accept that the good old days are gone as far as the old RAC is concerned and if you want to see WRC cars being driven hard go abroad or if you want to get close to classic rally cars and WRC's see you in Killarney at the end of April.

scooby12 · 28-06-2005, 20:17

thats a very good one to vote on i noticed you had a few drivers from the mighty audi quattros and peugeot 205t16 days well i am sorry but my vote would go to the late tony pond in his scarey metro 6r4 he was an absolute legend in those days.or maybe louise aitken walker for a (no offence ladies)female driver she was also bloody good at what she did apart from when she barrelled down the side of the cliff in to the base of the lake any one remember that one.she was lucky that day

slash · 08-01-2009, 19:44

personally i dont think it was any of them. dont get me wrong they were all great drivers. but i hate to say it seeing as i was a fan of colin mcrae and marcus gronholm, it has to be sebastian loeb. that guy has one just about every event possible. you cant get much better than him

slash · 08-01-2009, 19:49

also in reply to scooby 12, yeah i remember that even and seeing it on tv it didnt look asthough they were going to get out of that one alive. also remember seeing henri toivonens off in corsica. that was shocking.
although from a car that could do 0-60 in something like 3.8 seconds on gravel it had to happen sooner or later.

i remember seeing something on tv a few months later and the guy said. "this car has a kevlar fuel tank, reason beeing it is so strong and impossible to rupture." if he had done his research properly he would have found out that the lancia delta Toivonen was driving had a kevlar fuel tank which did rupture, the reason toivonen and cresto never got out alive.