Something a little different from me - for a change!...

Good afternoon gents,

Here's something a little different from me, but I will give you the build up and complete story as to why I came to build my very first Mk1 Ford Escort RS Code 3 diecast model.

At 2015 Rallyday I got talking to a good friend of mine, and this conversation carried on a few times via Facebook, Messenger and email over the next few months, when lo and behold, I was lucky enough to acquire the topic of our conversation - a large section of carbon fibre / kevlar composite front bumper from Billy Coleman's 'Rothmans Rally' liveried MG Metro 6R4 from the 1986 Tudor Webasto Manx Rally!



The individual had actually been present on stage with a few mates, when Billy arrived into a slight left / right, clipped the stone wall on the inside, which shot the car across the road into another stone wall, and then bounced it back into the middle of the stage - SS13 Glenn Roy - unlucky for some! Billy then selected a gear and shot off down the stage with bits hanging off the front of his previously immaculate Metro!...



Official Press Release No. 09 states : "No 6 Billy Coleman crashed on Stage 13 Glenn Roy. Came through time control with front end badly damaged and engine on fire. Fire quickly extinguished without any danger, but the car is loosing oil. The engine was re-started and they travelled to Laxey for repairs." Later on the bulletin states "Billy Coleman still stopped on road section between Stages 13 and 14". The Irishman later retired as a consequence of the oil loss and engine fire, having been lying 8th Overall at the time.

Working to the old fashioned habit of bartering - rather than crossing the individual's hand with a piece of silver! - it was agreed that I would build him the aforementioned Code 3 Escort RS model FREE OF CHARGE, and in tribute to a great friend of his - the late David Stokes who passed away earlier this year.

The Greenlight base model and decals were sourced from a friend of a fellow forum member, and the model was stripped and decalled accordingly. I also incorporated a front sump guard (made from a Metro 6R4 rear undertray / diffuser lol), additional cage detail to the rear bench seat area, full harnesses, big bore exhaust, rear wheel arch stone chip protectors, and replaced the wipers and wing mirrors, etc - and then mounted it on a CODE343 branded plinth complete with 'realistic' gravel terrain.

The individual was absolutely delighted with the model tribute to his great friend - as I was to acquire the chunk of Billy's 1986 Manx Rally Metro 6R4, so everybody wins!...

Awesome memorabilia there mate.

Very nice David

Great story David. Am sure you will cherish your piece of memorabilia, oh and finally a beautiful escort.

Dave

I was there, in fact I am just out of photo to the right of the bridge. I will look in my photos. Standing on the bridge would have meant getting wet!!!

I rememnber the back of the car was on fire but stage end was just up the hill and a few hiundred metres along the straight.

Glen Roy stage is very fasst at the start and very narrow, undulating and twisty towards the end.

But i think the part you have obtained is most definitly in the right hands now

Cheers
Chris

Nice little bit of memorabilia to add to the collection and what a cracking little model you have made, a lovely tribute to a great man.

Is it 1 of 1 or will you be doing more models of the Escort??

CDM wrote:Dave

I was there, in fact I am just out of photo to the right of the bridge. I will look in my photos. Standing on the bridge would have meant getting wet!!!

I rememnber the back of the car was on fire but stage end was just up the hill and a few hiundred metres along the straight.

Glen Roy stage is very fasst at the start and very narrow, undulating and twisty towards the end.

But i think the part you have obtained is most definitly in the right hands now

Cheers
Chris

I was just thinking this as I was reading, 30 years old that bit, makes me feel old just typing this!

Great model and great story David. We were there as well, not on that stage, but where Billy was stopped. To show the comradery that exists in rallying the 'repairs' were carried out by a DTV service crew (at least when we were there). They replaced a radiator at the front but they knew it was over for them. The car did drive off though! Billy said that there was an oil seal leak that caused smoke and some flames in the engine bay and he kept looking back and this distracted him and that led to the crash.

Many thanks for the kind words, and nice comments gents - the 'chunk' will indeed be cherished, and I too am fairly convinved that it is also in the right hands at the moment.  

I'm thinking of asking Fergus at Rally Retro for a large print of the damaged car going through the infamous Manx watersplash - either the image above, or another I have from the same point - and get it mounted, framed, and hung next to the 'chunk'. If I could get Billy & Ronan to sign the photo, now that would be awesome!

I have also recently learnt from the individual that a friend of his who was also there at the time 30 years ago, also managed to 'acquire' another section of the damaged Metro - rumour has it that it's the actual front grille off the car! Note, that is also missing from the watersplash image, but if I could also add that to my collection, that too would look awesome mounted above the bumper / front spoiler section, and accompanied by the framed print! I will keep you all updated on my success in acquiring this other item of (to me) historically important memorabilia....

mconboy wrote:Great story David. Am sure you will cherish your piece of memorabilia, oh and finally a beautiful escort.

CDM wrote:Dave

I was there, in fact I am just out of photo to the right of the bridge. I will look in my photos. Standing on the bridge would have meant getting wet!!!

I rememnber the back of the car was on fire but stage end was just up the hill and a few hiundred metres along the straight.

Glen Roy stage is very fasst at the start and very narrow, undulating and twisty towards the end.

But i think the part you have obtained is most definitly in the right hands now

Cheers
Chris

It is indeed mate - will go perfectly next to my David Llewellin & Harri Toivonen 1986 National Breakdown Rally alloy front aerofoils, and A658NJO Prototype No 003 hand painted Esso / Computervision front grille and bumper / spoiler sections!

I suppose if you were on the watersplash stage, you weren't on Glenn Roy then, Chris? What is the watersplash stage called?

Speedy wrote:Nice little bit of memorabilia to add to the collection and what a cracking little model you have made, a lovely tribute to a great man.

Is it 1 of 1 or will you be doing more models of the Escort??

Many thanks Billy - very kind of you to say so.

Sorry, but it's a one off in that form mate. The decals aren't my own, but were acquired for me via another forum member, but the other sets were all built into a small Limited Edition run of models - with permission from David's co-driver, Guy Weaver. That's not to say that a David Stokes model won't be part of my CODE343 plans in the future, as I took a shed load of photos of the car at 2016 Rallyday, and would love to make my own version of it.

David Napier wrote:I was just thinking this as I was reading, 30 years old that bit, makes me feel old just typing this!

Scary, isn't it, David!?!?!?!?

sbuckley wrote:Great model and great story David. We were there as well, not on that stage, but where Billy was stopped. To show the comradery that exists in rallying the 'repairs' were carried out by a DTV service crew (at least when we were there). They replaced a radiator at the front but they knew it was over for them. The car did drive off though! Billy said that there was an oil seal leak that caused smoke and some flames in the engine bay and he kept looking back and this distracted him and that led to the crash.

Thank you, Sean - much appreciated.

Were you on Glenn Roy then, at the scene of the crash? I'd love to see some photos if you were, or if you took any at the time.

I didn't know the DTV crew repaired the car - a nice example of rally comradery, as you say.

Great story David and a superb build on the Escort.

Many thanks, Chris - it made a refreshing change to build a non-Metro. I actually quite enjoyed getting my fingers around some bubbles and curves, rather than some boxes, bumps and lumps!

Dave

I suppose if you were on the watersplash stage, you weren't on Glenn Roy then, Chris? What is the watersplash stage called?

The photo of the 6R4 you have here is taken on the Glen Roy stage, that bridge is very distinctive.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.2361733,-4.4397385,3a,60y,288.27h,70.2t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s1c1GSsRhyxMtogceWDxvJQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3D1c1GSsRhyxMtogceWDxvJQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D352.5599%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

Chris

Manx Rally 1986 SS 13 Glen Roy

All photos here were originally taken on slide film. The copying was done a few years ago and perhaps not as good as the original photo.

Tony Pond


Jimmy McRae


Billy Coleman


Harri Toivoinen


Just reading through the Rally News/Manx Tails from the event

No 2 …the only driver having difficulties is Billy Coleman, his Rothmans Metro 6R4 arriving at the end of the stage in clouds of oil smoke, the Irishman reporting the MG to be stuck in gear

No 3 Billy Coleman has got over his problems on stage 1 when the car was stuck in 3rd gear. The Corkman had to do the next 2 stages without a sump guard and then had a power steering failure on stage 4 when the belt to the pump came off, but apart from all that he’s happy enough

No 6 …had a half spin on stage 11 and had to reverse, cost him a few seconds

No 7 Coleman in 8th overall

No 8 ……yesterday morning the Cork man had an oil leak and massive clouds of oil smoke. Well, this morning something similar happened the cam shaft oil seal blew out in the stage and the engine started to pump out oil which then went on fire….in the middle of all that Billy hit a hedge and knocked a fair bit off the fibreglass or Kevlar or whatever it is, off the front of the Metro…by the time the car reached the end of the test it was alight….the marshals put the fire out and Billy continued slowly to Laxey. Then the car went on fire again and Billy had to stop and abandon ship…..whether he’s been able to keep going we will have to wait and see

No 9 …the Irishman has indeed retired the Rothmans Metro passing us here in Douglas on a tow rope.

Chris

Cowley wrote:

sbuckley wrote:Great model and great story David. We were there as well, not on that stage, but where Billy was stopped. To show the comradery that exists in rallying the 'repairs' were carried out by a DTV service crew (at least when we were there). They replaced a radiator at the front but they knew it was over for them. The car did drive off though! Billy said that there was an oil seal leak that caused smoke and some flames in the engine bay and he kept looking back and this distracted him and that led to the crash.

Thank you, Sean - much appreciated.

Were you on Glenn Roy then, at the scene of the crash? I'd love to see some photos if you were, or if you took any at the time.

I didn't know the DTV crew repaired the car - a nice example of rally comradery, as you say.

No wasn't at scene of crash - only where he was stopped just on the outskirts of some village - I didn't take any photos.
Billy got no coverage whatsoever on the BBC report (BHP) of that event as he had Rothmans Rally on the car however the (almost) same report on Irish TV did show him unfortunately the version on youtube is the BBC version.  He aslo gave Nigel Mansell a quick spin in the Metro on the Thursday. Was this the first outing for DRA/Prodrive Metro in LHD?

Cracking photos, CD - many many thanks for that, and for typing out all the stage notes for the car.

No problems, Sean - I had to ask. Yes, this was the first time Billy had used a LHD Metro in competition. For Donegal earlier in the year it was a RHD car lent to DRA by the factory, and he used the same Manx car for the later Cork '20' Rally. That was it for Billy in Metros, just the three events.

Great scans CD. You must have a great archive

Brilliant reading lads, enjoyed it thoroughly!

Thank you, Niall.

Dave

Good fun reliving old memories and digging out old photos.

I have thousands of slides from loads of rallies, Le Mans and the British Gps back then. I just need time to transfer them all over to a digital format. Only a few of the Group B era have been done by another for me, but I got disapointed with the clarity of the results. They didnt seem to reflect the quality of the original.

I really must stop building models, doing rallies, going on holiday, fixing up the old car, and generally having a good time and get on with doing them....

Chris