Granite City Rally - Members Reports

22 Gordon Smith/Peter Carstairs / Escort Cosworth

Stopped in stage 6, Durris 2.
No more information.












29 John and Jim Rintoul / Evo 6

The Granite City Rally was hard on us.....

We''d had a busy few weeks prior to the Granite re-shaping the underside of the car after our ditch hooking - big style - and, boosted by the invitation to do the pre-event shakedown or ''sponsors day'', Bro Jo, Gordon and bill set off at dawn on friday for nearly 40 miles of hassle free practice.

Impressing the '' various passengers'' with 100mph blasts thro'' the woods the signs were there - but we didn''t pick up on them....... overfilled water header?....leaking cap?......system not bled properly?

On the day the stages were all south of Aberdeen as last year, fairly....aye ''fairly'' smooth.

Stage 1 Durris. Trouble free, notes were fine, car was riding the rocks ok, ditches were just deep enough, and we kept an eye on the temperature just in case. That''s our excuse for ''steady start'' - no heroics !! However, on arrival at the start of Fettereso we had to sacrifice our water ration to the radiator which was low and header tank empty..... It must be a head gasket leak - but how bad ???

Stage 2 Fetteresso. We were getting into a groove. The Belgian flicks - ie. not quite Scandinavian - were starting to look co-ordinated and we were up a gear at a lot of the corners, finishing 31st quickest and 34th overall after two stages - down on seeding tho !?!?. On the road section we had to stop and fill the empty water bottles at a wee Loch to get us to service at Stracathro. After a Coronation Chicken ''piece'' and half a pack o'' Thorntons Caramel bar we were ready to tackle the world.

Stage 3 Glenfarquhar. After another two litres of water on the road section alone, we ''short shifted'' ( bad move cos it pressurised the water more ) and puffed our way to 26th equal quickest and 30th overall gaining a dent in the sumpguard you could hide a ''Chinky Chento''. The link section was short to the next stage and we thought we''d have to give up with no chase crew waiting for us...... but the rallying fraternity would never see us stuck, and we were filled up wi water from heaven.....thanks lads.

Stage 4 Drumtochty was a wee bit shorter at just under 7 miles and we were now concentrating half on the temperature and half on the notes / driving.......We finished the stage 27th quickest and lying 27th overall. Have we got enough water...... do you believe that temperature gauge......can we keep this up and get a finish.

On the road section to Stage 5 Fetteresso 2, the gauge was down but probably cos there was only steam left. This penultimate stage was to be the sting in the tail......10 miles flat oot. We were at the stage arrival with no water......on the top of a hill....! I know we''re normally foo o'' p_ss, but we couldn''t muster the courage to stoop that low. These engines are worth the equivalent of a house in Simon Crescent, Methilhill - and we were quite close to the main road home. There was to be a delay and the rain was starting so we decided to cut and run for an early bath.

A great weekend. The car and driver managed about 80 miles of stages but in reality we failed to finish, albeit with only a head gasket to fix.

Next event - Jim Clark Reivers on real roads.....YES !!

Jim Rintoul

45 Colin Hay / Arlene Reid / Escort Mk2 2.0 16v


At last, one of our lot that actually finished! 49th overall, 8th in class.

54 Mark Alexander / Craig Murray / Evo 4

Fell off in Stage 5, Fetteresso

Photos (c) rally-photo.com

News Desk

Got any news? Send your stories, about this or other events, to the news desk, and we will garble it for you free, on the club site and in the newsletter.
Send it to: news[at]gmsc[dot]org[dot]uk