Jason's Blog

.... well Escorts anyway Whilst I was trawling around the interweb I stumbled across this little nugget one of the few (2) surviving ex-Works Escorts/ There was also a privately entered Escort 1300 that survives - I was actually looking for that to see what that sold for! Anyway, back to FTW 48H, car 14 - it's special for a few reasons, firstly it actually finished the event, out of 96 starters only 23 actually made it to Mexico to be classified as finishers. What surprises me is the price, £71,900 now I'm not saying I've got that sort of money spare but it does seem to represent good value for what seems to be a decent rally car. Of course I don't know my Escorts at all. The photo I liked the best is the one of FTW 48H leading one of the weirder World Cup entries, an Escort based Elba Motor Caravan - entry 16, a non-finisher. Update - I found it, Doug Harris privately entered World Cup Escort CMF730H is for sale. It's apparently going to be under the hammer at Ra...

Well today's WCR40 meeting at Gaydon was a good insight onto how the day will go. There was a great deal of enthusiasm as well as realism around the table and it was good to see that so much work has already been done to make the day go well. I've never been that close to how these sort of shows work and have always wondered how on earth all the disparate threads get pulled together. Tracing all the survivors is work enough and I was really pleased to hear how many of the known surviving cars will be there - pretty much all of them! Cars that haven't turned a wheel for years, are bent, awaiting restoration or just plain dormant are all coming and we're still looking! Mechanics, driver, co-drivers, marshalls, team managers are all represented too. Some well known names have confirmed. I'm actually quite excited to meet these guys. The details will unfold as the weeks progress but I thought it important to let people know that this is turning into one of those "n...

WCR40, Celebrating 40 Years of the Daily Mirror London-Mexico World Cup Rally The WCR40 web site is launched - click the link above to find updates and news on the event. I have my first WCR40 meeting tomorrow at Gaydon and will continue to blog my news here.

London to Mexico • World Cup Rally WCR40 40th Anniversary Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon 18th April 2010 Organised by The Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 Register Landcrab Owners’ Club International Austin Maxi Owners’ Club The London-Mexico World Cup Rally WCR40 commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the Daily Mirror London-Mexico World Cup Rally. The longest and most ambitious event of its kind to date, the World Cup Rally left Wembley Stadium for the 16,000 mile, 6-week trip to Mexico City on 19th April 1970. Almost 100 cars, spanning a variety of works teams and private entries, would follow a challenging route of road sections and special stages from London to Lisbon then, after a sea passage to South America, rejoin battle in Rio de Janeiro for the journey to Mexico City. Reflecting the relentless pace of the Rally and the punishing terrain over which it was run, just 23 of the original starters would make it to the finishing line at Mexico City’s Aztec Stadium. The World Cup Rally remains on...

YouTube - Graham Robson interview - The Daily Mirror 1970 World Cup Rally 40 (Veloce) I'm grateful to the Club Triumph forum for pointing out this little snippet on the above. There are a couple of events I know of to mark the 40th anniversary of this geat event. The above is a commercial book launch of Graham Robsons WCR40 Retrospective work. Graham was a travelling controller on the event and has a wealth of knowledge about how it really was back then. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished book. I made all my photos available to Graham to help illustarte the book so I'm hoping they were good enough. All I know at the moment about the book launch is that it's taking place at Alperton car showroom, near Wembley on Tuesday 20th April. I don't know whether it's an "open" event where anyone can turn up or whether it's ticketed - probably best you ask Veloce Publishing. The second event I know of is being organised by a goup of interested c...