A P5B for the Kenya Airways East African Safari Rally
- RICHARD MARTIN-HURST

Following the demise of the East African Safari Rally as a round of the World Rally Championship, Mike Kirkland and a bunch of resident enthusiasts decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original Coronation Safari Rally, first held in 1953, by putting on in 2003 a replica event for Classic cars produced before the end of 1971. The original founder of the rally Eric Cecil, now in his 80s was there to flag us off and to recount some of his adventures over 50 years of the East African Safari.

The route was very similar to that of the early years, with 5000kms of the most testing roads in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and some 1200 of those kilometres run as competitive sections timed to the second, but on open roads. However the near complete lack of maintenance of the Kenyan roads ensured that they were even harder than those used in the 1960s. Enormous holes, ditches, ruts and washaways, were to be found between the mudholes and the African version of the sleeping policeman (speed bumps) were so severe and unmarked on the road that many cars suffered damage as a result.

In July I bought back the P5B which I had originally prepared for the 1993 London Sydney Rally, and which since I sold it had competed in the Peking to Paris Rally as well as several other events. Time for preparation was short before the car had to be shipped from Felixtowe to Mombasa at the beginning of October. We only had time to go through the mechanicals, and ended up having to replace the callipers, discs and master cylinders in the brakes due to the accumulated rust and corrosion formed during the ten years since we had fitted Range Rover vented discs and four pot callipers. The engine was refitted with higher compression pistons and a sports cam, although we left the twin 2 inch SU carburettors as they would largely adjust themselves for mixture when we climbed to over 9000 feet in the higher regions of Kenya. A new clutch and overhaul of the starter completed the preparations.

As the route was partly at altitude, I opted for a 4.7 final drive and fitted a new crown wheel and pinion from a Land Rover. Although I knew this unit to be of dubious robustness for shock loadings, I had hoped that it would survive if we used the clutch kindly. We also made a bold choice on tyres - deciding to run Goodyear Wrangler MTR 235/75x15 which are normally used on 4x4s and have an aggressive off road tread and a reinforced sidewall. Other competitors scoffed at the choice opting for full Pirelli or Dunlop rally tyres, but we were, we believe the only competitor not to have a flat and to compete the event with only one change of tyres.

The original twin Bilstein shock absorbers on each corner (which had already done Peking –Paris) were sent off for overhaul, and these again performed magnificently, without a breakage during the entire event. Many of the Escorts and Porsches, which were the predominant makes in the rally were having to replace shock absorbers six or more times during the event.

We opted for two large bag tanks as the sections were long, the tuned engine thirsty and petrol stations in those countries far apart. One little problem was to find a good pair of front torsion bars. We shipped the car with unsatisfactory handling whilst I searched for new units. We eventually obtained a pair off a 3 litre which was being dismantled. Previous owners had managed to end up with I believe a 3 litre bar on one side and with a 3.5 litre on the other which gave the car different handling characteristics on left and right hand corners. So on the day before the start we fitted the replacement units which had been hand-carried.

During the event which started in Mombasa, the Rover showed an excellent turn of speed and chuckability, putting the power down well and the large tyres proving ideal in soaking up some of the bumps, but we rapidly discovered that the sump-shield was inadequate for the pounding which it received. The front mounting for the sump-shield was formed by two triangular plates fitted into two tubed holes through the siderails of the chassis, and about 7 inches lower supporting a square section cross member to which the aluminium shield was bolted. We were using 6mm dural, but with hindsight it should have been at least 10mm, so horrendous were the rocks, humps and holes on the sun baked mud roads.

Over the first three four days we managed to work our way up to 3rd overall, the leader being a local in a Datsun 240Z prepared in Australia, followed by a very high spec Porsche 911 for which each set of suspension cost ten thousand pounds. Not only were the competitive sections challenging but the road sections were set to a tight schedule which made it impossible to drive sufficiently slowly to avoid the monstrous potholes which litter Kenya’s main roads.

One could not imagine a more friendly set of marshals, most which had come hundreds of miles to man controls and some who boasted having helped run over 30 previous Safaris.. Also the local population turned out everywhere in force and were frantically waving one on to greater effort. The only thing to watch out for was that they were often concentrated at particularly destructive humps or gulleys hoping to see a massive accident!

Our fortunes took a downturn when I lost the rear of the car on a particularly tight gravel corner, which I had taken a little too wide, and once the outside rear wheel went off onto the wet grass things were taken out of my control and we came to rest with the rear wheels over a considerable drop. We were lucky that the car did not roll end over end down a 100 metre steep grassy hill. With a fist full of small bank notes we persuaded about 20 locals to try and push the car off the bank but to no avail, when the owner of an old tractor offered to pull us off the bank for two thousand Kenyan shillings. A deal was quickly done but first we had to despatch 20 people, who themselves required paying, to push the tractor to start it and then wait for it to climb the very steep 100 metres to reach road level.. Luckily we had bought a special 12 ton breaking strain kinetic energy rope and the tractor returned us to the road. Despite some 7 cars ( which started at two minute intervals) passing us before we got going again, we found we had only dropped to 5th place.

Worse was to happen two days later. As we completed the first competitive section of the day, within 200 metres of the finish there was a loud knocking from the back of the car at the same frequency as each wheel rotation. We believed we had broken the Quaiffe limited slip differential and limped over the finishing line of the section expecting to have to withdraw from the event as we had no Quaiffe spares.. However, Tony my super navigator and preparer of the car jacked it up and removed the differential only to find that the clonk was caused by three teeth which had detached themselves from the crown wheel without any other resultant damage. Luckily we had chucked into our spares box the 3.54 Range Rover crown wheel and pinion which was previously installed, so in under two hours he was able to completely rebuild the axle beside the road surrounded by some 150 Kenyans ( mostly children) all pushing for a better view. Remarkably we lost only an hour and 27 minutes at the next control and dropped to 15th place., but were delighted to be still running. The change of ratio from 4.7 to 3.54 effectively lost us all the competitive performance of the car as now all the top three of the five gears were too high to use on the hilly and twisty stages even if they did permit us to cruise at 100mph at only 3400rpm on the ever so rare bits of smooth tarmac! However the larger and meatier crown wheel and pinion was to survive the rest of the rally

During the spanner checks each evening we found that we were doing more and more damage to the front end. The sumpshield had taken a heavy blow on the left front corner and had put a crease and a split in the side rail of the chassis. This did not interfere with the suspension geometry except causing an interference between the drop arms from the steering relay with the anti-roll bar bracket. Probably the most vulnerable part of a P5 for rough rallies are the forward projection and low height of the two drop arms and the links which attach to them. If I ever rallied the car again, and the regulations permitted I would be very tempted to fit a powered rack and pinion steering system.

Our sump-shield in 6mm Dural was insufficiently strong and rapidly straightened and made contact with the sump, so Tony cut a slit on the centreline at the front and inserted from underneath the end of an abandoned leaf from a truck spring, fixing it further back to the middle of the sump-shield through the bolt hole that originally located the leaf in the spring. This served its purpose and kept the sump-shield out of contact with the sump until the end of the rally.

As the days passed more and more splits appeared in the bodywork, especially on the inner wings and under the front wheel arches. Galloping rots within the subframe and on the body will necessitate a major rebuild if the car is to ever be used again. Scuttle shake became so bad that the top of the front wings split from the front and the bonnet fixing pegs and pins wore right through.

On the penultimate day we were back up to 11th place, but halfway through the first stage of the last day, there was a retirement when one of the Escorts hit some bumps too hard, went end over end and then caught fire luckily with the crew escaping in time and unhurt. This brought us momentarily to 10th, but there were some enormous un-noted bumps in the road book shortly afterwards which we hit very hard, and at the end of that stage there was a loud noise from the rear end and very vague steering. A quick examination showed a broken main leaf of the left rear spring and also the forward top inner mount of the front wishbone had become detached. Another roadside repair using two Escort alternator brackets to clamp the broken ends of the main leaf to the other leaves resolved the rear suspension enough to continue, but once Tony had also done a jury rig on the damaged front suspension we decided not to attempt to drive through the last two stages, as the car was unable to absorb any more punishment. We managed to clock in at the final control to be placed in 19th position, slightly disappointed not to have made the top ten but proud of our achievement in bringing home a car which had cost probably a third as much to prepare and run as the leading Escorts and Porsches. We also had the immense satisfaction at the looks of incredulity on the first few days when people saw a car that they had discounted so high in the results


The event was won by Rob Collinge, a local in a Datsun 240Z with the Porsche’s of Frederic Dor and Stuart Rolt in second and third place.
The prize giving brought us a pleasant surprise when as well as our finishers award we were given the Henry Liddon Memorial trophy for the competitive performance, which surprised so many from such a large and sedate car. Henry was one of famous works BMC navigators of the 1960s and a sadly missed enthusiast of the East African Safari Rally.

It was the hardest competition in which I have ever driven, and it will be days before I can get all the dust out of my system, but a wonderful event and a memory for a lifetime.

RICHARD MARTIN-HURST - CAR NO. 14