VolksWorld - February 2006 - AutomationJet

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Writing about Robert McBurney for last month’s Retro got me thinking about the early history of VWs in Irish motorsport. If you were reading VolksWorld in the year 2000, you might remember my story about Paddy Hopkirk driving Vee Dubs in the 1950s. Paddy (who went on to win the Monte Carlo rally in a Mini Cooper) was the most famous, but he was not the fi rst of the Irish VW rally drivers, and he did not stay with VW for very long. We are going back to 1951-pre rock ‘n’ roll, pre LP records (they only had easily breakable 78s then), pre TV (ok, I believe it had been invented but hardly anybody had it), pre jeans (unless you were a working cowboy), pre burgers, pre drink-drive laws, pre motorways, pre practically everything we recognise today except, of course, the good ol’ Beetle. Other cars around at the time were upright Ford Anglia’s, Austin 52 February 2006 www.volksworld.com VolksWorld’s Peter Noad looks back at the very popular choice of steed for the Irish rally driver, the Volkswagen Beetle Rally Around The Volkswagen Beetle proved to be a very competent rally car thanks to its rear engine, rear wheel drive format, as this gave excellent traction. This was proven time and again in Ireland. RIGHT Kevin Sherry was Ireland’s top VW driver in the mid-50s; winner of the Donegal Rally, the Circuit of Clare, the Circuit ofMunster, and the big one, the international Circuit of Ireland, all in 1200 Beetles. (Photo courtesy of K. Sherry). Sevens, and Hillman Minxes, most of which were extinct by the time the Beetle still had another 15 million to go. I can’t personally remember the early fi fties, but my love of VWs in motorsport and all things Irish (actually, that’s a lie ‘cos I don’t like Guinness) led me to trawl through archives and do a ton of research in order to trace some of the fi rst-ever appearances of VWs in trails and rallies. ABOVE Kevin Sherry in action. He won the Irish Driving Tests Championship twice and was a class winner on the RAC Rally in ‘59. Don’t try this in Tesco’s carpark. (Photo by Brian Foley). In 1951, an Irish businessman, Stephen O’Flaherty, started importing VWs and then he formed a company to assemble VWs in Dublin. VWs quickly became very popular In Ireland; they were well suited to the rough Irish roads, most of which were steep and slippery, and Volkswagens were reliable. A car had to do what a donkey could do (but faster) and a car that broke down or got stuck on a muddy hill was as
useless as a dead donkey. When other cars did their impression of a dead donkey, the VW kept going. Saloon cars were not much used in motorsport at that time. Most competitors used open sports cars and specials, like MGs, Dellows, Morgans, Allards, HRGs and Singers. When you think about it, motor ‘sport’ must have been invented for sports cars (or was it the other way round?) and ‘sport’ normally meant being outdoors-getting cold, wet and muddy was all part of sport. Sports cars were, by defi nition, open-top two seaters. Sports cars did not have roofs. They didn’t have heaters, either, except for the heat generated by the exhaust and gearbox, which could be felt through the gaps in the fl oor. The best way of keeping warm (so I’m told) was to keep a fl ask of brandy in your pocket. Sports car drivers wore sheepskin jackets, leather gloves, and hats that covered their ears. The Beetle must have changed the whole way of life for the motorsport competitor in 1951. Joe O’Mahoney (don’t you just love these Irish names!) became a Volkswagen dealer in Cork in Southern Ireland. He drove a Beetle in the Munster trial in 1951 and won an award. This is one of the fi rst appearances of a Beetle in motorsport outside Germany that I can trace. O’Mahoney went on to win the Munster Trial outright in1953. In 1952, Brendan O’Hara and Michael O’Flaherty (Stephen’s son) both drove Volkswagens on the circuit of Ireland rally. Within a few years, VW Beetle was winning big time in rallies in Ireland. T.P. O’Connell won the Irish Motor Racing Club’s 900-mile rally outright in his VW in 1956. T.P. also scored outright wins on RIGHT Was this the fi rst-ever VW Buggy? This artist’s impression shows the trials special with Alf Potter built in Ireland in 1952, based on a shortened VW chassis. (Drawing by Melodie Nightingale, based on archive images). events such as Irish experts Trial and the Circuit of Munster. In 1959, Kevin Sherry won the International Circuit of Ireland Rally outright in his Beetle, beating the factory team of Triumph sports cars, with Joe O’Mahoney in second place and third, fourth, fi fth, sixth and seventh places all being taken by more VWs. Declan O’Leary, who had also won a lot of rallies in Ireland, brought his VW over for the RAC rally in 1956 and won the 1300 cc touring car class. He was eighth overall, out of 213 entries, and the cars ahead of the VW included an Aston Martin, two Jaguars, a 2-litre Morgan, and a works-entered Austin A90 with a 2.6-litre Austin Healey 100 engine. Do you know that the VW Buggy was invented in Ireland? Alf Potter built a trials special in 1952 that was based on a shortened VW chassis. It had no doors or bonnet; there was a sloping metal panel beneath the steering column, ending at the torsion bar tubes, which covered the LEFT Noel Gleeson competed in trials in Ireland in 1951 in this chopped open top beetle. Good all-round vision was essential on tests that involved stopping and starting from marked lines, tight turns around cones, and reversing. (Drawing by Melodie Nightingale). driver’s feet. There was a box-like bit of bodywork behind the seat that enclosed the engine and (presumably) the fuel tank. I assume it had a VW engine although the rear wheels didn’t look like VW wheels. Even before Potter’s Buggy, a certain Noel Gleeson did a tin-opener job to make an open-top Beetle, which he drove on the Irish Inter-Club (that was South v North) Trial in 1951. The car was cut right down to the waistline with no windscreen frame (just a couple plastic aero screens) and a tonneau cover over the rear seat space. Did he chop the roof off a new car? It was only 1951 and the car was righthand drive. Was it a car that had been in a rollover crash, perhaps? It is clear from the photo that the paint was two-tone, with just the wings a dark colour and the rest, including the bonnet, a light colour. I can appreciate Gleeson’s reason for wanting an open-top VW. It wasn’t just to “ ” Kevin Sherry beat the factory team of Triumph in outright 1959 prove he was a macho sports car driver who enjoyed being cold, wet and muddy. For the sort of tests that were the basis of trials and rallies in Ireland at the time, you need good all-round vision, particularly when reversing, which was not the Vee Dub’s best feature, especially during the split-window era. Less weight was also an advantage. Combining the sports car’s advantages with the VW’s traction, rough road capability and reliability certainly seemed like a idea, even if it did mean you had to wear gloves and a silly hat. www.volksworld.com February 2006 53
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