Tony Pond- An Autoshite Saint

[320touring]

Metro 6r4, Rover Sd1, and of course the Rover 800 Vitesse!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NEskpWsMkI

 

Brilliant.

 

 

[Ghosty]

A repost, but a good one

[Lord Sterling]

I've (naturally) got the 827 Vitesse 100mph trial on the Isle of Man on DVD. I also have the promotional tape from Rover that went with the Isle of Man trial. Very late 80s.

 

Tony originally did the lap in 1988 but failed to avarage 100mph. He tried again in 1989 where he succeeded and where we see the filmed lap.

[Junkman]

And why is none of it uploaded to youtube yet?

[Asimo]

Epic

[RobT]

Made my arse twitch a few times just watching it. I presume they disconnected the PAS as I found mine a bit over-assisted, not what you want at those speeds.

[320touring]

I've (naturally) got the 827 Vitesse 100mph trial on the Isle of Man on DVD. I also have the promotional tape from Rover that went with the Isle of Man trial. Very late 80s.

 

Tony originally did the lap in 1988 but failed to avarage 100mph. He tried again in 1989 where he succeeded and where we see the filmed lap.

 

The v6 sounds much nicer than the T-series that replaced it.

 

just seeing 150mph on the speedo is sphincter tightening

[mercrocker]

Flat out on a street course with wrong wheel drive...Blokes a bloody hero!   I had never  come across any of  this before and I am glad I have....

[Junkman]

In my opinion, Tony Pond and Roger Clark were the only Brits at the time who were right up there with the best from Scandinavia.

Mr Pond sure has a few bonus points under his belt, since he gave them a run for their money exclusively with Shite.

 

Also, whoever wrestled with a Group B rally car, is a hero.

 

Here is some footage of the 1980 Rally Ypres (Ieper), that Mr Pond won ahead of certainly not faint hearted locals Robert Droogmans and Bernard Beguin (Caution: Shite content marvellous) with nothing other than a TR8 of all things:

 

 

 

Belgian rallys at the time were notorious for being run from Saturday morning until Sunday evening - without any interruption.

[srad34]

Awesome stuff chaps

[sheffcortinacentre]

fantastic, proper rallying with proper drivers & proper cars with more power than grip.

[r.welfare]

Fabulous. IIRC (in his C&SC obituary), he would have had more rally success but either disliked or flat out refused to drive a LHD car.

 

For me the laconic drawl of Tony's commentary makes that video: "It's at times like this I wonder why I'm sat in a car doing this stunt".

[Partridge]

Heady stuff. If there was any justice Tony would still be with us.

[Junkman]

Fabulous. IIRC (in his C&SC obituary), he would have had more rally success but either disliked or flat out refused to drive a LHD car.

 

Yes, he did dislike LHD cars. He often said he doesn't have the same confidence in them. He also used this as the reason for turning down an offer from Fiat, but in reality probably just didn't want to break his BL Contract, because that one gave him access to a Group B car.

Ultimately his international career was nixed by the outruling of Group B in 1987 though, not his dislike for LHD. He just found himself bound to a contract with a company that suddenly had no competitive rally car.

[Lord Sterling]

I presume they disconnected the PAS as I found mine a bit over-assisted, not what you want at those speeds.

No, the only modifications they did were to fit slick race tyres and a sports exhaust (I think as it doesn't sound like a standard 827) everything else was standard.

 

The 827 steering was speed-sensitive steering, the faster you went the tighter the steering got.