Peterborough Motor Club

A brief resume of our officers-:

^{Alan Kemp - Club Chairman (2002 -  to date  )}

Alan moved to Peterborough in 1979 and joined PMC to continue his interest in rallying. He had started road rallying in Kent several years earlier after qualifying with a mechanical engineering degree. He teamed up with Tony Aylott and Jan Leach with whom he enjoyed road and stage rallying for a further ten years. They built several rally cars and specials, and achieved some good results. The climax was an entry on the Welsh Rally, after which the sport proved a little too expensive.  He marshalled on many events including the RAC Rally, where he also helped with servicing for a couple of years.  He has regularly flag marshalled at the Clubs annual race meeting at Silverstone, and has recently joined the organising team. He  marshalled for many years on many of the Club sporting  trials, as well as helping with the organisation of the sadly now defunct, Horrell Trophy off road competitions.

He has designed and built a Citroen based Lamborghini replica, and has recently taken over as Club Chairman to continue helping to maintain a viable club which can continue to support other club members motorsporting ambitions.

Richard Elms - Competition Secretary

I have been involved with Motorsport since 1971 when I took part in a 12 car rally run by the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology Motor Club.

My first car was a side valve Ford Anglia 100E which was written off about a year after when a Mini pulled out of a driveway and I hit it square in the driver’s door. This car was then replaced by a 4 door Ford Popular 107E which was the first car of mine to start on the ‘modified car’ route. This was fitted with a 1200 Cortina engine when the 997 unit blew up. Due to the perceived inadequacies of drum brakes with a 1200 engine the front suspension was reworked using parts from the local scrap yard to give me the luxury of disc brakes.

Once again this car had the indignity of being involved in an accident, I slid off into a ditch on some ice whilst following a road rally in Gloucestershire. My first “rallying” accident!

Shortly afterwards, and following a superb repair by a local bodyshop, I sold this to make way for my first ‘modern’ car, a Mk1 Ford Escort. This was an ex-reps 1100 with 54,000 miles on the clock. Not quite what one might expect as a way into the hustle and bustle of rallying in the early 1970’s when the Escort dominated via the Twin Cam, Mexico and RS1600 models.

I used the car ‘as purchased’ for about 6 months before joining my local motor club, Weston-Super-Mare Motor Club. We both joined on Boxing Day of 1972.

I didn’t want to go rallying at first since I saw it as being for the well off and, although I was by now working, I couldn’t afford the vast sums of money needed to buy and run a competitive car. The most affordable and available competitive Escort was the Mexico which cost the princely sum of around £1200, this was a lot of money for a young lad taking home about £85 a month.

I decided, therefore, to develop my own car and it quickly gained some 5 ½”x 13” Lotus Cortina wheels just like those fitted to a ‘real’ Mexico. By now I had become interested in competing in Autotests, Production Car Trials and similar, ‘non-damaging’ events competing in these and uprating the car to a 1300 during 1972 and the early part of 1973 with the support and assistance of a local garage, one of the partners being a club member. Many of the parts used were, however, Mexico parts as I gradually found cheap sources for these bits. I also was a member of Tavern Motor Club in Bristol.

The events I was competing in were about to change dramatically though. Through 1973 I and another club member, Ian Giles, were vying furiously for the title of Clubman of the year within the club. In order to stand a chance of winning this cup I had to take part in my own club’s night time road rally, The John Parker Memorial Rally. I asked round at the club nights for a navigator and our chairman, Pete Davis (later to get a works co-drive for the late Mark Lovell, another W-S-M MC member) suggested that I team up with a member called Phil Chapman. Well Phil and I competed in the 1973 John Parker, it was our first event together and also my first ever night road rally. We finished, I recall, 12^th overall, first W-S-M MC novice but sadly I missed out on the Clubman of the Year trophy by 1 point!

This led into a series of road rally events through 1974 and also, since I had already done some Sand Racing with the car, a foray into Stage Rallying in the next year. We stayed together as a team, Phil and I, and competed on the South West Stages, the progenitor of today’s Somerset Stages as well as the Lex rally Swindon and in 1975 the Wildlife Stages at Cricket St Thomas. It was here that the light green Escort bowed out as we hit a gate post at about 40 mph on a stage. Unfortunately for us the farmer used old telegraph poles and the post didn’t move, the car bent badly going round in right handed circles thereafter.

This was a serious blow but luck was on my side as Ford were selling off all their stock of Mk1 body shells cheaply as the Mk2 was now well into production. Whilst I was rebuilding the Escort I had use of an Imp that my dad and I had built for him to rally and also his company car at the weekend. So it was that my 1300 Escort changed colour via a rebuild at home and re-emerged to compete on road rallies once again through 1976, 77 and part of 78. In late 1977 the 1300 engine finally cried enough and a 1600 engine was bought and fitted – I finally had a Mexico (sort of!). This was sold in mid 1978 to finance a new project, a 2300 cc Chevette.

Once again it was not as good as the factory built but this car had about 170 BHP in a light and, for its time, nimble car. As a result it was very competitive but we had a series of niggling problems that prevented us really using it to full effect. This we ran for 2 years before I stopped competing in 1980.

I joined Peterborough MC in 1994 and bought a real Mexico in 1997. This was used for a couple of years for taking part in track days and for general motoring.

Since then the car has been sorted out and is now at a specification that I would have died for in the 1970’s. It runs a close ratio straight cut gearbox, limited slip differential and uprated brakes as well as all the required safety equipment. All the work on the car has been carried out at home by me, including all welding work and parts reconditioning. All bar the brakes are eligible for Historic Rallying which is an area of current Motor Sport that I wish to pursue. I also would like to get to compete on occasional night events again. Until I can do this I have been involved in organising Peterborough Motor Club’s night road rally, the Alnyte, and also as competition secretary.

At present I am also involved in restoring a Hillman Imp for my son, this has turned out to be slightly rustier than we thought but we are making progress albeit slowly.

Our Commitee : 

Vice-Presidents:   Betty Hay  N.P.Bradshaw   C.Pollard