Safari Rally IV

SAFARI RALLY IV

THE ROUTE

Starting from Nairobi, Kenya's capital, the route was in the form of a figure eight, forming a northern and southern loop. The total distance being 3080 miles, this to be covered in three days and four nights of almost non-stop motoring.

The Rally, on leaving Nairobi, headed north to skirt Mount Kenya. Then it crossed the equator into Uganda, on through the Sebei District and round Mount Elgon to the one hour rest halt at Kampala, then back to Nairobi through the night and following morning to the welcome promise of an afternoon's rest.

The southern loop took the crews into Tanganyika, the roads ranging in altitude from the heights of Mount Kilimanjaro to sea level at Dar-es-Salam; the final section was north up the coast to Mombassa and finally ending back to Nairobi on Easter Monday.

THE EVENT BEGINS

The cars lined up on the starting ramp on the afternoon of Thursday 19^th April. The event started with the departure of car one, a white Renault, followed at one minute intervals by the rest of the field, including, at No 5, Pat Moss driving a Saab.

The Ford Anglia of local crew Shah and Vangla were at No 25. Then the VW team with John Manussis at No 36 driving KHC 913, followed by Banks & Bradley in KHD 304 at No 39, Tommy Fjastad & Bernhard Schmider in KHD 302 at No 40, and the brothers Jodinger and Jaswant Singh in KHD 301 at No 44.

A total of 104 cars set off and raced through the night towards the difficult, steep and twisting tracks round Mount Kenya. Here the cars had an unexpected hazard to contend with. Locals amused themselves by throwing rocks at the rally cars and many competitors suffered damage to windscreens lights and bodywork. This was one aspect of the rally that did not change over the years, drivers are still complaining of children throwing stones to this day!

The pace was now starting to hot up with the big cars like the Mercedes, Ford Zodiac's and the Australian Falcons using their power to good effect as the roads reached altitudes of up to 9000ft above sea level. The thinner air robbed the smaller engined cars of much needed power even though the VWs would have been fitted with altitude correctors to the carburettor main jet to maintain the correct air/fuel mixture to the engine.

Daylight brought Good Friday - and the rough rocky section round Mount Elgon. Here disaster struck many cars including the leading VW of Manussis, he hit a rock and despite the provision of a stout sump guard, it left him with a fractured sump and no option but to retire - this was sadly to be Manussis' last Safari.

John Manussis moved to England soon after and died in 1964 aged 47. Manussis still holds the record of being the only driver ever to win the Safari with a three-man crew in 1961. He drove a Mercedes on that occasion and he also held the record for the drive from Nairobi to Nakuru –100 miles in 57mins (105.26mph) - that time in a D-type Jaguar!

Anne Hall, driving a Ford, smashed her radiator and Bill Fritchy, last year's winner, driving a Mercedes, crashed out of the event. Jodinger Singh hit a washaway and bent the front axle of his VW; later he repaired a hole in the sump using a mixture of mud and soap and went on to finish a creditable second in class and fifth overall.

The remaining cars battled onward towards the rest halt at Kampala. 15 cars failed to make the checkpoint here.

After a 25-minute break the crews set off south, driving through the Friday night and Saturday morning to reach Nairobi with the welcoming prospect of an afternoon's rest and the publishing of the half distance results.

The results so far showed that a total of 25 cars had retired and that the best placed VW was the Fjastad & Schmider car in eighth place. So at this stage - apart from the demise of Manussis - all was going as planed for the VW team but with over 1500 Safari miles to go anything could still happen.

The Southern leg started on Saturday night and the crews faced a dash through Tanganyika and the roads and tracks skirting Mount Kilimanjaro, then, as an added bonus for the organisers it started to rain as the cars approached the most difficult section at Umbulu.

This section was the death knell of the larger cars as they slipped, slithered and ground to a halt on tracks where the rain and dust had combined to turn the roads into a sea of bottomless black stinking mud that saw cars bogged down to floor level.

At Bashenit the two leading Mercedes stuck fast and, despite strenuous jacking and pushing by their crews, lost any chance of victory. To combat the conditions some competitors even fitted snow chains to the tyres in an attempt to find traction.

The same fate almost befell a VW when tackling the roads through the sisal plantations at Ubenazamizi; it became stuck in 18" deep ruts, the crew having a hectic hour extricating the car. Most competitors lost time here but the majority of the VWs came through the section unscathed despite using normal tread tyres instead of Town and Country "snow" tyres favoured by many other teams.

The deep treads of the snow tyres did give more grip in the mud, but it was found that due to the superior traction of the VW and the fact that these tyres sapped more power it was decided, before the start, to gamble on not fitting them.

It was a gamble that was however starting to pay dividends, because when the crews reached the coast and the control at Dar-es-Salam. Only 65 cars were still running, and the VW of Tommy Fjastad and Bernhard Schmider was leading the rally by two minutes.

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