Page 19 - Motorsport News (January 2020)

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INSIGHT
THE BEETLE THAT STILL MANAGES TO
TURN HEADS BY PERFOMING ON STAGE
Bob Beales has taken something old and is keeping it very new. By Paul Lawrence
Beales loves the
62-year-old car
or more than 50
years, Bob Beales
has owned and
rallied a VW Beetle
and is proud of
the fact that it is
Fprobably the
oldest car currently active in
historic special stage rallying.
Most recently Beales, co-driver
Mike Leflay and the Beetle tackled
the Roger Albert Clark Rally and came
away with a class win (although it was
the only G1 starter) on the longest
stage rally on the UK calendar.
Hereford-based Beales explains:
“The Beetle is 62 years old and is a 1958
car which has now been a competition
car for 60 years. It was originally used
by local rallying legend Bill Bengry,
who was a family friend, and he used
it as a spare car during his successful
rallying programme in 1960 and 1961.
“It was a back-up to his main car
when he won the Motoring News
Championship. Then he put a Porsche
engine in it and took a few outright
wins on national events. Then they
were using other vehicles and it got
tucked away.”
As a teenager, Beales used his own
Beetle road car for competition in the
mid-1960s before his dad decided he
needed a separate car for motorsport.
Bengry suggested the Beetle, which by
then was sitting in storage. That was
in 1966 and Bob has had ‘UWP 401’ ever
since, with it only standing idle for a
few years in the 1970s while his focus
was on his young family.
In 1982, Beales went to watch the
Lombard Golden 50 Rally, a key event
in the formative years of historic
rallying. His interest was reignited
and the Beetle was retrieved from
storage and re-prepared for rallying.
Beales says his interest in motorsport
goes back to family holidays at Borth
on the west Wales coast. “My father
was state-registered blind so he lived
motorsport-news.co.uk JANUARY 29 2020 19
Photos: Paul Lawrence
his motorsport through me,” he says. “I was important to us – we were cleaning
used to drive the family car on the beach the road for the leading cars,” he says.
as a kid, setting up autotest courses and However, road conditions were
getting my parents to time me.” generally better than he had
Aside from the sabbatical in the experienced running behind the
1970s, he has been competing pretty WRC field on Wales Rally GB.
much ever since he passed his driving Inevitably, getting a 1958 car around
test at the age of 17 and had his first such a tough event was a real test
rally in a Standard 10. That event ended of determination, endurance and
in retirement when the brakeless perseverance. Early problems included
Standard demolished a five-bar gate. a detached oil pipe and a new dynamo
For a decade and more Bob and pulley that fell apart. On Monday
the Beetle were regular contenders as morning, on the final leg, they slid
historic rallying used a mix of road and off into a ditch after the flying finish
stage events. He won the Welsh Historic of Falstone 1 but managed to get going The2019RogerAlbertClarkendedwiththeVolkswagen’slookrearranged
Championship in the early 1990s but, again. However, the moment that
in the face of ever-rising entry fees, now nearly ended it all came in the second
concentrates much of his active rallying run through Kershope on Saturday.
on demonstration events. He is into his Towards the end of the long stage,
early 70s, so rallying is done on a pension they caught the MG Midget of Bob
and that limits how much he can do. Seager. In trying to pass the Midget,
However, the national section of they hit a hidden culvert in the grass
Wales Rally GB has been the exception and the front of the Beetle bounced
to that rule in recent years and he first high in the air after a substantial
tackled the event in 2015 when a stub impact. But Beales pressed on and the
axle broke. “Doing WRGB was a big sturdy Beetle ended the stage with
deal,” he says of taking part in Britain’s realigned steering, some cosmetic
round of the World Rally Championship. damage, a deranged number plate
The well-known Beetle is prepared and a fair amount of Kielder landscape
to Oettinger GT specification in order stuffed in and around the front of the
to qualify for FIA historic papers. It car. Less solid cars, and perhaps front-
delivers around 80bhp and a top speed of engined ones, might not have got away
100mph from a 1300cc engine and a four- so well. “We did it, but without the BobBeales(l)withR.A.C.’sColinHeppenstallandMikeLeflay(co-driver,r)
speed gearbox. Drum brakes all round support of family and friends it would
mean that a degree of caution is needed, not have been possible,” says Beales.
particularly on fast downhill sections. The Beetle is likely to have a quieter
“I’ve spent blood, sweat and tears on time this season. “I have got a 1964 VW
the car and it is a family heirloom,” says 1500S and had originally hoped to use
Beales. “I think my grandson will have that on the Roger Albert Clark,” says
it one day. I rally it when I can afford it. Beales. “The engine was built up but
It’s got to be used, it’s not a show car.” it still needed a bit of welding and we
Last autumn he decided to forsake hadn’t got the MOT done. If things go
Wales Rally GB and contest the Roger well we hope to use it down at Clacton on
Albert Clark Rally for the first time, with the closed-road event at the end of April.
a five-day route covering 300 stage miles. “I last used it on an RAC Historic Rally
It was one of the biggest challenges that in the early 1990s so it is coming out of
car and crew have ever taken on and it retirement. I’ll try and take on the
was a case of mission accomplished Cortina GTs, but the engine’s still not
despite a range of challenges. as powerful as I would have liked and
“Running first on the best of the roads probably has about 125bhp.” n The Beetle was a regularonWalesRallyGB’s National section upuntil ’18