The 1998 Claret and Classics was the fifteenth consecutive running of this popular regularity event but it was also a first in that instead of starting in Bordeaux and finishing somewhere nearer England as all the other fourteen had done, it started in England and finished in Bordeaux.

The English start was a very prestigious one – Hampton Court, a very rare event indeed. From there the route was south to Portsmouth to pick up the Le Harve ferry. Then it was down to Le mans. Another innovation was to have day one Le mans to Saumur) as a practice day. The winners of that day were Stan and Janette Williams in their Lagonda. The rally proper was to be five days to Saumur via Pitiers, Angouleme, Gognac, and finishing somewhere near Bordeaux.

I was taking part in my twelfth Claret and Classic and my co-driver was Andrew Mynheer who had done the Monte Carlo Callenge with me in 1991 (the snowy year). In fact Andrew and I were the only two entrants who had taken part in the first C&C in 1984, although Andrew had driven a Swallow Doretti then. My car then, as now was LUH 121 a 1955 orient red MGA roadster. Now belonging to my brother Frank, it has a new hood and sidescreens to the original pattern, i.e. no quaterlights and flip up panels.

What the alert driver does five minutes before the ‘off’

Andrew sorts the brakes in Le Mans. Note the hood and sidescreens are to the original 1500 pattern.

The car had passed its MOT the previous week and I had taken it for a long drive to test that all was well and apart from a hotter than usual offside rear brake drum, all did indeed seem well. The day dawned for the Hampton Court start. I was to meet Andrew there at noon prior to the 2:30 flag. having said goodbye to my loved ones I loaded up the car. It fired first time but instead of majestically gliding from the garage it would not budge . I jacked the car up to test the wheels; no problems at the front but the offside rear was solid. I could not move it to get to the adjuster. I tried hammering it. I tried jacking it up and running it in gear. Nothing worked. I got in touch with Andrew who was able to come over and lend a hand. After two hours we managed to slacken off the adjustment. It was time to go to Portsmouth and leave out Hampton Court. I had some spare shoes which we agreed to fit if the adjustment did not work.

Having passed the MoT no more problems…………..

On the way down to Portsmouth we had to go via the M25 and A3 during a particularly unpleasant rainstorm. The wipers struggled manfully with the deluge but the brakes started locking on again. I did not wish to pirouette in front of a lorry so I slowed right down.

We caught up with rest of the rally in Portsmouth. P&O did us proud by putting us all together and even the cabins and food seemed better than I remembered them, although the rumble strips were a nightmare.

Next day we set off for Le Mans. Sometimes the brakes seemed fine, other times they locked. On arriving we took the old shoes off and replaced them with the spares. The only reason we could think of for the problem was that the old shoes had somehow become contaminated with grease so that when I took the car for a test drive the shoes expanded hence it increased the temperature of the drum, and they then locked on when I put the car in the garage. Any other suggestions?

Our other problem was my eyesight. When I got the Michelin book of maps for France I discovered that I could not read the small print. I armed myself with a Sherlock Holmes – style glass but Andrew agreed to navigate. This would be his first time but on the other hand he was reading road signs up to 30 metres before me so it was swings and roundabouts.

Needless to say we made lots of mistakes but we actually won the a day (Day 4) picking up only 11 seconds on the day, but the next day we misread an instruction and collected a maximum.

Over the week we devised a routine of what to do. Here it is: you might find it useful or at worst a guide of what not to do.

Having arrived at the start control; 1) see where the earlier starters go; 2) when given the route instructions try to plot the first few instructions on the map to see what sort of distances are involved between tulip instructions; 3) note which car is going immediately before and immediately after ourselves, and see if they are going at the same speed; 4) at the start line zero all clocks and trips; 5) once off keep talking and repeating the instructions; 6) cross off instructions when completed – you don’t want to be looking for the same one twice; 7) if in doubt at a junction stop and decide together which way to go; 8) note down mileage at contentious points.

We did all this yet we still made mistakes. So what do you do then? 1) don’t panic; 2) stop and check map against the tulips ; 3) go back to where you were last ‘right’ – do not cut out any bits as there may be a TC hidden away there and it will completely confound your mileage reading; 4) note extra mileage ; 5) subtract extra mileage from your trip reading and time yourself to the corrected reading (you will of course be slow at first); 6) drive with alacrity to make up time but do not cross off any corners as that will affect your mileage reading and consequently your timing; 7) when you have got back to time get slightly ahead, stop, note correct mileage covered, zero all trips and start again.

Other MGs competing include d the MGA of Jan Hefftyre Blehr and his daughter Bettina, martin and Frankie Gratte in their J2 Midget, John and Trish Rondeau in the MGC, and Chris Hunt Cooke and Jane Leslie in an MG TF.

 
St. Emilian – and village idiot looking for his MGA

The overall winners were Keith Harrap and Peter Rushforth in the Pithers A40, their Riley 9 having given up the ghost just before they set out. They were very worthy winners having come so near and yet so far on at least three other occasions. Second were Anthony and Julia Cohen in their XK150S who on one occasion sportingly pulled over to let the A40 through when it was chasing to catch up time. If they had blocked it they could well have won. That’s what I call sportsmanship.

As usual there were many receptions the most notable being at Bouvet-Ladubay, Camus, Chateau Vieux Mougnac and Chateau Le Chelivette.

Claret – At Chateau Vieux Mougnac. The owner is in the yellow dress in the background

Classics – Jan Heftye Blehr’s MGA in the centre. On the left is eventual winner Peter Rushforth. Note the name on the gate

Ian Charnock