Old rally photos, Porsche 911

Nice shot of car entrant 16 from the Royal Automobile Club’s international rally that took place in late 1970. It shows front and lamps of 911. Has registration plate S-T5705 — others here will know more but wasn’t car with same plate at Monte Carlo rally ?

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The 911 with crew Björn Waldegård and Lars Helmér retired from the RAC event with gearbox problems.

This is the programme
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Showing the route
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Hamsterley Forest stage was where my dad and I used to watch the RAC.
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Cover of the RAC regulations book for the 1970 event
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This is the artwork on front of the menu for the celebration dinner
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The celebration dinner wasn’t held in the RAC’s private members clubhouse in Pall Mall central London , it was held in a large airport hotel. After the arduous rally they were probably ready for a roast dinner.
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A large hotel makes sense even the large Mountbatten Room in RAC clubhouse would struggle to accommodate a sit down dinner if all the entrants showed up let alone the many others involved who might wish to celebrate.

This article written in Motor Sport ahead of the 1970 event gives a flavour of just how large the Royal Automobile Club’s international rally of GB was at that time
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Steve

1970

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Fixtures and rules from Royal Automobile Club who at time of the rally were the FiA ASN in Great Britain

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Steve

Waldegårds Road Book for RAC Rally 1970.

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Waldegård/Nyström Porsche 911S RAC Rally 1971.

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Type of roll bars? Known brand or 'invented'?

Åke Andersson Sweden Porsche 911 S RAC Rally 1970

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The suffix on this car registration plate decodes later than that expected on a preimpact bumper however some imports to UK apply a plate with a suffix letter denoting a more recent year than year the car was made. Happened occasionally when import first registered in UK. Technically a suffix shouldn’t ever be newer than date car was made — legislation in UK designed to protect buyers who might be fooled based on reading the plate suffix. Probably a mistake by licensing office. Doubt it’s a backdate in the era when photographed. Screen sticker and front spoiler sugfest could be 73 Carrera RS but not sure as not the
clearest of images . Haven’t bothered to check sources but it’s probably taking part in a rally in Ireland — Limerick Munster in 1976 perhaps? That plate wouldn’t have existed before the registration year 74/75. It was registered in Swansea Wales where rallying has a strong presence and ironically where the nationwide DVLA - “driver and vehicle licensing authority” was bein centralised for England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland the centralisation process starting around 1973.
Clearly someone doing the registration didn’t know the rules — more understandable if processed in a local county licensing office in Swansea than in the new national facility.



Steve

Steve
That was John price's car at the 1975 Donegal and I believe before that Gilbert Staepelare's hill climb car - it is a real RS but i dont think I have the vin
that photo looks as if it was at the Donegal rally where it was #16
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Here it is at the 1975 Manx rally where it was car #15 with a "tea tray" rear spoiler and what looks like a Griffin on the front hood. They finished 6th at that event

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Think you’re correct Hugh. Griffin on bonnet makes sense for Welshman and there is a brief glimpse towards the end of this film that shows the colour - perhaps its original hue. If the Porsche (not Carrera) side decal is original maybe that combo gives a clue to vin if checked in the usual RS sources?
This is the clip from Duke of the Manx
https://youtu.be/NjjSYwlCy8Q

Couple of others including the well known White layer car and one of the IoM based locals.

Screen grab from film moving image
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I’ve adjusted the image (below) to make the registration plate visible so might have changed the paint colour
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Steve

PS nice to see another Welshman a young David Richards pipe-up at one point in the film! At the time probably 23 years old, he later went on to some prominance: rally World Champion co-driver in a Porsche, Chairman of Prodrive (perhaps best known for the Subaru WRC exploits but active in many other motorsport disciplines) , Chairman Aston Martin, Chairman of rights-holder of WRC, team principal of Honda BAR F1 (formerly Tyrell) , Chairman of Motorsport UK the governing body and FIA ASN … and probably many other things in motorsport that I’ve forgotten.