Page 1 of 1
Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Thu May 05, 2016 12:25 pm
by minitravellerman
The annual Loughgall Festival of Motorsport hosted by Armagh Lions Club is being held this coming Saturday at the picturesque Loughgall Country Park on the County Armagh / Tyrone border.
This a usually a great event with a huge display of vintage, classic & rally cars and also the well attended BHPNI show and shine competition. As always there will be some stage action in the guise of demonstration runs through the forest stage and thrill rides.
This year's theme is 20 years of the Lotus Elise.
As always there should be a huge turnout of Minis including a good number of famous rally prepared motors. Also included in this year's line up is the 1980 Unipart Rallycross Metro;
The Metro came to the attention of the motoring public in 1980 with its launch at the Motor Show in Birmingham NEC on 14th October and was meant to complement and eventually replace the ever popular Mini.
Trevor Reeves had regularly and successfully used Minis to great effect over the years, and on hearing of the launch of the Metro, approached Safety Devises to see if they would be prepared to develop the new car for rallycross.
As a result of discussions it was agreed that work would begin on the development with the finished product being made available for the car launch - thus Project Metro was born.
Two standard Metro bodyshells were made available by the factory and working night and day Safety Devises technicians, using only the front two bulkheads from the standard cars, built a spaceframe clothed in fibreglass and fitted an engine supplied by Trevor Reeves.
The brakes came from the Austin Maxi, with double wishbone front suspension, a four link beam axle at the rear, and 9x13 inch Minilite wheels finishing off the beautifully prepared car weighing only 560kg, just in time to be shipped to the NEX where it received rave reviews from the motoring press.
However it wasn't until 1981 that the car was brought back into the Abingdon workshop to prepare it for its first outing at the Lydden Hill Easter rallycross, where it was debuted by Trevor Reeves.
This was the start of a number of outings for the car in the hands of Trevor before it eventually ended up on these shores after being bought by Jackie Harris who used it successfully on British and Irish Championship rounds.
It then came into the hands of Armagh Mini enthusiast Davy Aiken who began the long and painstaking process of restoring it to the excellent condition we see it in today and remains as the only works rallycross Metro in existence and possibly the last competitive works car to come out of Abingdon.
A few photos of it back in the day. I'll be at the show with my rally Mini so will get a few photos of the Metro in its restored state.
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Thu May 05, 2016 12:52 pm
by smithyrc30
minitravellerman wrote:
A few photos of it back in the day. I'll be at the show with my rally Mini so will get a few photos of the Metro in its restored state.
Excellent, please get loads!
That is one special car there.
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Thu May 05, 2016 9:08 pm
by wantafaster1
Turned up at a house repossession I am led to believe. Normal people never trip over things like that!
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 10:42 am
by Supersonic
Ian, I agree with Smithy take loads of photographs please. Davy has been invited to the Killyleagh Car & Motorbike show so I will see it in August. Attached are two photographs with me ahead of Jackie Harris at Boyds Quarry. The late Jimmy Peak in the Mini Clubman was also a top Mini driver
DSC08641.JPG
DSC08640.JPG
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 10:49 am
by pad4
Any one noticed the 2nd pic of the metro has a perspex bonnet so you can see the engine
Pad
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 11:14 am
by rich@minispares.com
I think that metro looks better than a 6R4, the arches make it look ace!
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Fri May 06, 2016 11:34 am
by minitravellerman
smithyrc30 wrote:minitravellerman wrote:
A few photos of it back in the day. I'll be at the show with my rally Mini so will get a few photos of the Metro in its restored state.
Excellent, please get loads!
That is one special car there.
Will do my best lads. Hopefully the weather is kind tomorrow - gorgeous out there right now but anything can happen in NI!
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 4:16 pm
by minitravellerman
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 4:19 pm
by minitravellerman
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Sat May 07, 2016 6:02 pm
by surfblue63
Thanks for braving the weather and posting the shots.
That Metro does look good, it's like a 6R4 without the front and rear spoilers.
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 12:42 am
by smithyrc30
The Metro is brilliant, thanks for the pictures. Shame the weather was inclement and prevented opening the bonnet.
I think from memory, the first 6R4 prototype ran with bodywork (with the opening rear clam though) and stance very similar to this car and looked so much better for it.
The later cars with the 6 year old birthday party car sketch bodywork never 'floated' my boat.
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 10:29 am
by Supersonic
Ian, many thanks for sharing those photographs with all on this forum. The weather here in Northern Ireland was wild I am sorry to say. Nonetheless, a big thank you to Davy for visiting this wet show with the BL Rallycross Metro which we all wanted to see. For me it is nicer than a 6R4. Ronnie White has been invited to the Killyleagh Competition Car & Motorbike show in August with his Ex-Works MGA car as well
Alan
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Sun May 08, 2016 7:11 pm
by rich@minispares.com
minitravellerman wrote: bonnet kept firmly in place.
that's because its only got a std 1100cc engine in it...
its a fantastic looking car, cant wait to see a picture showing the engine - ive only ever seen the B&W photo of it!
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 7:12 am
by Ronnie
By the way, what engine is in the car?
Re: Loughgall Festival of Motorsport - Sat 7th May
Posted: Mon May 09, 2016 10:37 am
by minitravellerman
I believe it's running a Ford 1600 BDA on a Jack Knight Mini gearbox.
