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Did you know the mistery at the Tulpen Rally 1966 ?

GRX310D did start as a Austin Cooper S Mk1 group II
but did finish as a Morris Cooper S Mk1 gtoup II ?

GRX 5D did start as a Morris Cooper S Mk1
but did finish as a Austin Cooper S ?

Kees

Interesting More debate on this please.

Wasn't that sort of thing all about changing the badges to suit the size of the trophies for highest finishing Morris or Austin etc? I think I have a similar colour shot of 310D with the Austin badge.

This topic has been up before.

Its all explained in the book RALLY by John Davenport.

It had to do with the sponsers of the drivers, and which dealer,s they were "connected" with.

Austin and Morris were 2 "different" cars back then, and most countries had separate importers - dealers etc etc.

This meant that a Morris driver like Makinen wouldnt get behind the wheel, untill the works team had changed all the badges on the car.


Jens Christian

Barrie Williams told me a similar story with a twist....
They (being the British Vita ETCC team in '68) 'borrowed' a set of badges from a car on a dealers forecourt whilst overseas, Spa or Monza I seem to recall, in order to get a better trophy and presumably more prize money by being the highest placed Morris or Austin whichever dealer put up the biggest prize.

Back in the day I suppose that Austin and Morris dealerships were sometimes separate overseas, hence the different prizes.

Whilst discussing my cars over the telephone he told me that he was looking at one such trophy which was in his home !!
Amazing man with amazing stories.

I have one picture of KDK 320F with Morris badges on the front and Austin on the rear during the same race, hedging your bets I guess?

Not such a mystery then I suppose.

In a similar vein I was told of a well known 60's/70's driver, later in his career, being at Spa and putting a rod through the block of a Pug 205 undeterred they rented a road going 205 and borrowed the block for the remainder of the event, returning it at the end of the weekend....seemed a little dubious at the time, but now I am happy to believe anything concerning racing exploits

No mystery, just a slight badging cock-up. 310D did have the Austin badge taped over before they managed to swop it - presumably for the one on 5D as that was Austin badged at the rear. Timo, who had a tie in with Finnish Morris distributors Voimavaunu, wasn't probably too concerned about being in an Austin for this event as he was in a Group 1 car with no chance of a good overall result.

Both Makinen and Aaltonen were linked to (and partly paid by?) the Finnish Morris importer. It made sense to ensure the winning car was Morris badged. Quite why another pair of Morris badges couldn't be found for the other car before the end of the rally is the mystery.
If you look at "BMC Competitions Dept Secrets", I think Hopkirk was being paid more than either Makinen or Aaltonen. That could surely only have been happening if there was a side deal going on involving extra fees paid by the Morris importer in Finland. Tax scam??.....

Austin...



Morris...



'65 RAC, another car, another badge swap...

and what is shown in the bottom picture. Plastic plugs in the holes required for the Morris badges.

..and Fiam Maserati air horns. On the RAC, running No.44??
A Gp3 car (old Appendix J) so I suppose you almost could fit what you like.

Confirms DJB92B was a new car for 1966!

Great pics..

LMM76C wrote:..and Fiam Maserati air horns. On the RAC, running No.44??
A Gp3 car (old Appendix J) so I suppose you almost could fit what you like.

Confirms DJB92B was a new car for 1966!

Yes Lusenius and Wood in the car, '65 RAC, finished 6th, I wrote a 4 page article on the rally which is in the current issue of Cooperworld.

LMM76C wrote:..and Fiam Maserati air horns. On the RAC, running No.44??
A Gp3 car (old Appendix J) so I suppose you almost could fit what you like.

Confirms DJB92B was a new car for 1966!

There was an article on BMC Competitions dept. in iirc Motorsport in the late mid 60s. The theory was that no shell did 2 rallies, each car being built for the event and an existing reg number attached. Applies to modern works rally cars as well.

Not as straightforward as that, although I have no interest in "Modern" cars if that means the current era of Tonka Toys.