Van Hool does it again
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Brighton Coach Rally reported by Gibb Grace and Martin Hayes Pictures by Dick Ross
THE UK's premier coach awards have Fallen to Belgian bodybuilder Van Hool For the second year in succession. A body of theirs, on a Ford Ilm chassis, and operated by Winsway Ltd of Accrington won last Sunday's Brighton Coach Rally exactly a week after scoring top honours at Blackpool.
Entries at Brighton this year were 26 Fewer than in 1972 but that did not prevent plenty of hot competition in both iriving and concours sections.
An innovation at this year's Brighton event was the start of the road section at Crawley. Coaches left there on Saturday morning smartly at two-minute intervals. This arrangement should have ensured adequate gaps between the vehicles but unfortunately traffic hold-ups caused some severe bunching. In fact traffic congestion caused the last road section to be cancelled. Out in the country, though, some careful driving was required to keep bodywork from nicking banks and overhanging trees.
At the end of the road section two entrants Mr V. Lonton of Tillings Travel (NBC) and Mr C. B. Kenzie of Kenzies Coaches Ltd had dead-heated with equal points. A short tie-breaker of Highway Code questions was arranged and Mr Kenzie was declared the victor.
For the second year coaches had to pass through technical tests on the sea front on Saturday afternoon. These were run by Ricardo engineers. Each coach was tested for noise by means of a micro phone 12ft from the exhaust pipe when full throttle was applied. An attempt at measuring smoke emission by means of a new American opacity meter was made. However, because of a breakdown results of this had to be discounted.
Results of the noise test were not announced in detail but the figures were taken into account in the overall placing.
The method chosen of measuring noise levels was not altogether representative of the overall noise but a full test of British standards requirements would be too time-consuming. However, a drive-by test or acceleration test could be easily arranged, giving more realistic results.
The top 16 coaches went through the final driving tests on Sunday in almost
perfect weather conditions. There was some notably spirited driving from many of the entrants but the results showed that accuracy was more important than speed.
Coach driver of the year. Peter Bostock, for instance was particularly quiet and unexciting to watch but his patience paid off in the end.
As usual judges in the concours section had a very difficult task in choosing the winners. However, there was little doubt about the final result when people saw the lavishly equipped but seemingly practical Van Hool body operated by Winsway.
After the prizegiving CM asked Mr Hicks, the company's managing director who also drove the coach, how winning Brighton compared with winning Blackpool. "No comparison", was the reply. "Brighton is much the harder." Mr Hicks was emphatic that he will be back next year because the rally fever "gets in your blood".
Driver of the year Peter Bostock has been in the final six at the last 12 consecutive rallies. Aged 39 and married with two children, Mr Bostock told CM that winning at Brighton made up for the Blackpool event where a dispute penalty kept him from the top spot.