An introduction to a marvellous friend who is returning to rally driving at 72

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Charles Morgan

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While my W114 coupe was being restored by Project Shop, I met the lovely Bron Burrell, who is returning to rally driving at a mere 72. Her car, Puff the Magic Wagon, took part in the 1970 London to Mexico Rally, and she was part of the team of three. Tish, who owned the car then, has sadly passed on, but Tina Kerridge (slightly older than Bron) will also be taking part. Lovely to see such a report on the BBC website this morning. Bron's daily driver is an E63 AMG biturbo and I can report she doesn't hang around. With luck she'll be at one of Project Shop's meets this year, so I'll keep you posted. She intends to do about 6 rallies this year.

BBC - Bron and Puff the Magic Wagon

Here is Puff having some work done

puff%202_zps0sb6xttc.jpg
 
damn right - why stop for a number? if you can still do it, then do it.
 
Just seen a bit about this on the news. Good for them - it gives hope to us young 70 year olds! As someone who owned a Maxi many years ago, I had to chuckle at the BBC's introduction when they referred to the "Austin Maxi sports car".
 
Yes, journalism nowadays is remarkably devoid of sense. During the filming of this Bron reported back that the BBC camera crew in the car were screaming at her to slow down. As she said, it wasn't exactly fast even at top speed.

I asked her why Puff - apart from the song of the time, she said the car was so underpowered with the original 1500 even a puff of wind had more power!
 
My Dad had a Maxi in the 70s, he hated it though had to concede that it had a decent radio and was unusual in that all the seats folded to make a usable bed.

I don't think that he kept it long enough to test out the bed theory.
 
Puff was on the Austin Maxi owners club stand at the NEC this year and there was another Maxi with the seats in full 70s shagwagon mode.

puff4_zpsxyyxivis.jpg


puff%201_zpsckei9kyd.jpg


The astonishing thing is how the Maxi now is so rare and is highly endangered - about 140 are left in the UK, which makes it the second most rare of the British mass market cars of that period, the Ital only having 35 left.
 
I lived in Brighton in the seventies and worked on the Hollingbury Estate. For those that know the area? There is a hugely long & steep hill that we had to get up every day on our way into work in my friends Austin Maxi!! In the dry it just about made it when it was four up. In the snow we all had to do a synchronised bounce to get the car to grip in the snow. It never failed us once and was often the envy of many others, stranded in the snow at the side of the road.
 
This is where I have an announcement to make about my future in Motorsport. Oddly Mercedes AMG didn't express any interest in me taking over from Nico, but I am happy to report that I shall have a vital role in Team Puff as she rallies all over the world this year. Namely, I have been appointed as the team wine consultant. Probably the most important role after driver, mechanic and tea boy.
 
The astonishing thing is how the Maxi now is so rare and is highly endangered - about 140 are left in the UK, which makes it the second most rare of the British mass market cars of that period, the Ital only having 35 left.
They were both products of the era when BL were skint and their build quality was terrible. Look closely at the doors of the Maxi and you'll see that they're the same as the ones on the earlier 1800 / 2200 "Land Crab" because BL couldn't afford to invest in new tooling :doh:

The Ital was a quite unpleasant car and generally unloved. At least the Maxi had the USP of being a large(ish) hatchback in an era when pretty much everything else of a similar size was a three-box saloon.

Perhaps some cars are best forgotten?
 
They were both products of the era when BL were skint and their build quality was terrible. Look closely at the doors of the Maxi and you'll see that they're the same as the ones on the earlier 1800 / 2200 "Land Crab" because BL couldn't afford to invest in new tooling :doh:

The Ital was a quite unpleasant car and generally unloved. At least the Maxi had the USP of being a large(ish) hatchback in an era when pretty much everything else of a similar size was a three-box saloon.

Perhaps some cars are best forgotten?

As a founder member of the 'Don't scrap an Ital, bury it with a stake through its heart' club, I agree, but one or two would be sensible to retain in every manufacturing town, hanging say from old gallows, just as a reminder of how letting standards slip can kill entire industries.

I rather like the old Maxis and don't really worry about the Landcrab doors. It was a nice, comfortable and practical family car (my aunt owned one).
 
The year the Maxi was launched, Mercedes created the C111 concept car. There's a new Jay Leno's garage video on it

As I say on my website, if you ever wanted a clue as to why the British car industry failed, just contrast the Maxi and the C111

The Maxi was brilliant in its own way - a triumph of ingenuity over lack of investment. We'll never know what car makers in the UK could have done with sufficient investment

C111
Mercedes C111 | Bolide

Nick Froome
 
I lived in Brighton in the seventies and worked on the Hollingbury Estate. For those that know the area? There is a hugely long & steep hill that we had to get up every day on our way into work in my friends Austin Maxi!! In the dry it just about made it when it was four up. In the snow we all had to do a synchronised bounce to get the car to grip in the snow. It never failed us once and was often the envy of many others, stranded in the snow at the side of the road.
I do. You probably mean Coldean Lane which is steeper than the longer Carden Avenue at the other end. I used to cycle down the former daily at one point, damn fast.
Puff was on the Austin Maxi owners club stand at the NEC this year and there was another Maxi with the seats in full 70s shagwagon mode.

puff4_zpsxyyxivis.jpg


puff%201_zpsckei9kyd.jpg


The astonishing thing is how the Maxi now is so rare and is highly endangered - about 140 are left in the UK, which makes it the second most rare of the British mass market cars of that period, the Ital only having 35 left.
Fantastic pics and info. I remember the unlovely cars then and wonderred what happened to them. This is a real blast from the past! Interesting that the all female team did better than some men's teams and the stories around the Maxi factory support for the two private teams.

On non-British makes our family car for many years was a newish Renault 12 TL, quite popular then, but I've not seen one of those on the roads for decades.
 
nteresting that the all female team did better than some men's teams and the stories around the Maxi factory support for the two private teams.

Interestingly, Puff was prepared by Marshalls who provided a ground crew for Europe, but they really didn't expect the team even to reach Lisbon, let alone go on to South America. The problem for Bron and co was when they got to Argentina they had no ground crew so were reliant upon upon the factory team for support - so they came last in the queue. The evening before their failure to make the time stage, the factory team had been prioritised so after starting the stage they had to go back for the work to be done (repairing a cracked manifold) and so they were so late that torrential rains had come through and made the road impassible, so they slipped into a drainage ditch and couldn't get out. They did in the end with help but arrived 20 minutes after their stage closed, so had to drop out.

With support, Bron is sure they could have made the rest of the journey, she drove up with another team so knew what they would have faced.
 
What drama. And no mobile phones. They must have needed resourcefulness and resilience in buckets. The route they took as described in the article looks a little wacky races if it's in that order: (London)...*Munich, Budapest, Monza, Lisbon .....
Shame there is not more of these kind of events
 

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