I have many memories of competing in rallies across Europe, but one that really sticks in my mind is the Liege-Rome-Liege event of 1960. Sharing the “big” Healey with Pat Moss, we started the event not really knowing what to expect, as the rally was well known for being one of the most grueling on the international calendar.
Our car for the event carried the registration mark URX 727, and thinking about it now I suppose the car is the best known Austin-Healey 3000 used by the BMC works squad during the 3000’s competition history. The rally was tough, and it always proved to be so for the crews attempting it each year.
The BMC squad first looked at competing on the Liege-Rome-Liege rally back in 1955. The organizers labeled the rally as the “le Marathon de la Route,” which translates to Marathon of the Road. It really was a true marathon, and covered a distance of nearly 3,000 miles with a route through Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia and Italy.
BMC gained considerable experience on the rally from 1955 using cars such as the Austin A90, MGA hardtop and the Austin-Healey 100-Six. It was with the 100-Six, in 1958, that Pat Moss and I scored a 4th position overall and 1st in the Coupe des Dames class of the event.
The following year we scored a famous 10th-place finish in the Monte Carlo Rallye in the little Austin A40 Farina. We started 1960 in the Austin A40 again and used an Austin-Healey 3000 on the Geneva Rally in the April of that year as well as in following months on the Tulip Rally and the Alpine Rally, where we scored class wins.
For September’s Liege-Rome-Liege Rally we were again entered in an Austin-Healey 3000, and this time it was our time. This rally took four days and four nights and Pat drove for, I think, a total of 91 hours from 96 spent in the car. It was a real fight. Going through all of the countries we had to obey their traffic regulations. The roads through Yugoslavia were particularly hard, and we met horses and carts and had to battle against very rough terrain. We had to drive along roads that didn’t seem like roads at all! This was really the greatest test of the whole rally for us, and as always, the Austin-Healey 3000 took it all in its stride, although I seem to recall we did carry two spare wheels just in case!
We made good progress along the Stelvio and that moved us into 2nd position with the next nearest Healey back in 12th driven by John Gott. We did at one point develop a problem with the clutch and it began to slip. The problem stemmed from losing the gearbox drain plug. We robbed spares from Syd Henson’s Austin A90 and got on our way, but the gears had gotten hot and damaged the seal. We didn’t have a spare, but Erik Carlsson and Bob Domei set out to find one. They had one flown from Paris to Nice and then transported to us en route so it could be fitted! We survived to continue, and after more antics along the way we reached the finish in 1st position! It was a superb feeling to win and afterward our Competition Manager, Marcus Chambers, told us that this rally was the highlight of his career as our sporting boss. We had a prizegiving in the evening after finishing, although the start was delayed slightly as Pat split her dress and I had to help sew her back into it.
Pat always said she was a little afraid of the Austin-Healey 3000, but she didn’t ever show it. We had a great time in the superb-sounding machine, and the following year we won the Coupe des Dames on the Tulip Rally—again at the wheel of the mighty red car.
As told to James Beckett
