Rally of the North caters for all vehicles

Rally of the North caters for all vehicles

This year's Rally of the North has seen a strong entry with a wide variety of cars ranging across 45 years of rallying.

Vehicles ranging from Cameron Walbran's 1963 MG B right through to Stewart Taylor's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 will face the starters flag in Paihia on Saturday morning.

Taylor's Lancer, which is the top seed for the event, represents the latest competition offering from the famous 'Evo' line and Taylor will be looking for his second victory on the event, having won previously in 2006.

The car was built by Taylor when he was campaigning in the New Zealand Rally Championship and still runs in the production class (Group N) trim that the rules of the time dictated, meaning he gives away power to his rivals, although he is still amongst the favourites to claim outright honours.

"We built the car as we felt it gave us the best chance of winning the NZRC," says Taylor. "Besides which, it is a lot easier to run than a classic car, it is a lot less noisy and my feet don't end up swimming in mud!"

On the other end of the scale is three-time New Zealand Rally Champion and 1999 Rally of the North winner Neil Allport, who will be campaigning his freshly built 1972 Ford Escort RS1600, which runs to Group 4 specification, the highest international specification throughout the 1970's and early 1980's.

Although famous for his exploits in Mazda's and more recently in Mitsubishi's, Allport made a name for himself in the infamous BDA powered Escorts, although this car is no nostalgia trip, but more a promotion of the high standard of vehicle his business produces.

'As much as I would love this to just be for a skid, this is just a shakedown for this car, which will available to lease or buy at the end of the year," claims Allport, despite spending the last 10 years building the car.

Rally of the North, which is supported by Tanoa Hotel in Paihia, runs on Saturday 13 October. Based from the tourist town of Paihia, the event covers four stages in the morning to the south-west before returning to the host city for a lunch-time service. A further four stages to the North of Paihia rounds out the afternoon before returning to the event finish, back in Paihia, after more than 10 hours on the road.

As well as support from Tanoa Hotel in Paihia, Rally of the North receives support from stage sponsors MRT Construction Ltd, Team Ralliart NZ, Rally Drive NZ, Kumho competition tyres, LJ Hooker Manurewa, Dunlop Motorsport Tyres, EcoLight and RCK Contractors.

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