RAC Rally Action!

This book truly represents an enthusiast's view of the RAC Rally: allowing you to relive the events if you were there, or offering the next best thing if you weren't. Tony always took a week of his annual leave to watch 'The RAC', and reckons he covered more than 28,000 miles chasing rally stages around the country. Luckily for us, he always took his trusty Zenit camera and recorded hundreds of moments of RAC Rally action, each now frozen in time for posterity. These images, which have not previously been published, have an energy which brings the rally back to life and reminds us how far removed modern rallying is from the much simpler pre-WRC era.? For all who love the 'Rally of the Forests' period of top level rallying, here is an incredibly involving evocation of three decades of great motorsport. All aspects of the event are covered including rare photos from manufacturers' archives, rally documents (regulations, programmes, road books, crew notes), and a full colour cutaway illustration of a famous winning car.? This publication has full approval of the Royal Automobile Club and the Motor Sports Association.

Worthing, West Sussex resident, Tony Gardiner, is a highly experienced professional illustrator who has maintained a lifelong interest in motor sport, including club events, rallies, sprints and hillclimbs, as a spectator, official and competitor.? Tony first became interested in motorsport in 1957 when the Ecurie Ecosse team of D Type Jaguars won at Le Mans. Other forms of motorsport, including rallies like the Monte Carlo and LiÃ-ge-Rome-LiÃ-ge, with competitors driving over Europe ?s mountain roads and snow-covered goat tracks at high speed, captured Tony ?s imagination. He quickly became aware of Britain ?s own RAC International Rally which covered some two thousand miles of British roads each November. As ?The RAC ? became more and more competitive with new forest stages, his interest grew.? In 1964 he spectated at the RAC ?s start at the Chelsea Barracks in London and decided there and then that, next year, he would follow the Rally round its entire route. This started some fourteen further such ventures covering thousands of miles in a Mini Cooper, Vauxhall Magnum and a Leyland 1800. Tony even persuaded the Press Office of the Royal Automobile Club to issue him with passes and rally plates which helped him immensely getting in and out of stages quickly.? The result of Tony ?s passion for the RAC Rally is that he amassed, between 1964-1983, over a thousand photographs in black and white and colour, plus a large collection of RAC Rally memorabilia, much of which is reproduced in this book.