Our grass roots lie in rallying using a 1390cc bug back in 1978. This remained with us for many years, utilising a variety of different engine combinations from 1390cc, 1641cc, 1776cc, 1835cc, and finally 1850cc. After years of use and abuse on the rally stages we retired the car in 1983, having decided English rallying was fast becoming problematic due to the demise of proper pre-plot 90+ car road events, and the closure of many special stage venues.

Following this we purchased an ex rally cross 1303 as a rolling shell. The car was solid, light and had competition suspension ideal for our use. After a complete strip down and refurbishment the car came out on the 1983 tour of Cumbria national rally sporting a loaned 1776cc motor (no time to build one) with a close ratio gearbox. It soon became evident the car was ideally suited to tarmac, and the event was completed without too much grief and for our troubles we were awarded man of the meeting. We competed on many stage events with various type 1 engines but really did not have enough power or long term reliability for multi venue stage events, so it was decided we would use a Type 4 engine. After gathering parts we came up with a 66x100, using Oettinger barrels/pistons, 914 Porsche heads, 48IDF Webers, a Eurorace camshaft, 911 Porsche cooling and full dry sump system, the overall result was amazing. We finally had some power to compete with the Escorts and Talbots! The first event was the European Dieppe rally, they decided to seed the English cars by using a hill climb stage, in which we managed to qualify half way up the field. The next event was the Dutch Limburgia rally, having a strange car didn’t help with starting numbers, we were well down the field for the Friday night start, but by midday on Saturday we were up to 47th o/a… not bad for an old dinosaur. Unfortunately a slight off finished us a few stages later. We competed on many European events, Koln Ahrweiler 86 + 87, and many Belgium tarmac rallys, by this time the car was hopelessly outclassed so we bowed out gracefully.

The early 90s saw a change in focus, with us competing a 102” wheel base bug in drag race events. Running on pump petrol we achieved a best of 11.57 ¼ mile and managed a semi final spot at a major Santa Pod event running in the super ET class.

However, we decided that we needed corners and heads up competition so in the mid 90s we started on our race circuit programme with a 914/4. This has proven to be our most successful car taking outright wins and endless 1st class positions with class lap records at many UK circuits, the only 914/4 competing in the UK historic circuit racing (and possibly in Europe!). The first motor was a 71x103 which we campaigned for 3 years; this was a quick car with finishes always in the top 10 o/a. As the rules changed for historic racing we down sized to 2000cc. Not quite as much fun but with numerous class wins and even a 3rd overall at Castle Coombe, in the rain we are always a top runner in our class. The car is still being raced today.