East Africa Safari 1966

East African SafariEast Africa Safari 1966

The East African Safari is surely the toughest organised endurance test ever invented for man and his car. Every April nearly a hundred crews set forth to do battle with the elements and the tortuous terrain, and every time only a handful survive. This April it was a smaller handful than usual with only nine finishers out of the 88 starters. Curiously it is not just the appalling monsoon type rains of this time of the year that make the organisers hold the event over the Easter week-end, but the fact that most of the 70-odd far-flung controls on the 3,000-mile route are manned by enthusiasts, farmers in the main, who can only spare time over the holiday.

While on the subject of organisation it is worthwhile examining the two most interesting sides of the Safari, the organisers and the cars. If you have recently been surprised at the painstaking and pernickety thoroughness of the scrutineers on the Monte Carlo Rally and the Italian Rally of the Flowers, you would be even more amazed at the ruthlessness with which the Safari organisers scrutineer. When they say that only cars complying with Group 1 of Appendix J may compete you can take it for granted that competitors’ cars will be as near standard as Group 1 allows them to be. Naturally enough some manufacturers have cars which are more Group 1 than others, as an example the 1966 Ford-Lotus Cortina with wide rim wheels, twin-cam engine and limited-slip differential—very difficult to imagine this as a docile standard production family touring saloon which is what most Group 1 cars are. Nevertheless, 5,000 models of that high-performance vehicle have rolled out of Dagenham, and so Group 1 it is. In fact it is a tribute to technical advancement that one of the once oh-so-fragile Lotus Cortinas should finish the tank testing terrain of the Safari, let alone he placed fourth overall.

Once the scrutineering is over, nearly all the major engine, transmission and suspension parts are marked and sealed. Enough is enough you say, but the organisers are not satisfied yet. They will occasionally suddenly appear out of the bush and check cars for replaced parts. This practice aims to prevent competitors from changing damaged components enroute and replacing them just before Nairobi, in order to avoid losing marks at final scrutineering. Such a devious operation is possible if you consider that, the minimum amount of lateness allowed is six hours, and this year it was extended to ten to get as many cars as possible in from the entry-decimating first leg through Tanzania. Replacedpart penalties have become quite a bone of contention, many competitors feeling that the road penalties incurred by time taken out for servicing are severe enough without them being penalised again at the finish. Anyway all this is to ensure that everybody abides by the same set of rules so that the private entry is not at a disadvantage to the works entries, in terms of service.

Talking of entrants, apart from the two official factory teams of SAAB, and Nissan, the bulk of the so-called private entries come from garages or importers of cars to whom a result for their particular brand of car means much extra business. Of the nine finishers only the two Datsun P411-TKs were official works entries. The Japanese with their as yet infant car industry are trying to penetrate new markets all the time, and events like the Safari are good for prestige value. It is a thought, though, that the Nissan Motor Co. had hired local drivers for their cars, whereas if top class European professional drivers had been hired they would have most probably driven the pretty little Bluebirds that much harder and the cars might not have lasted nearly as well as they did.

There are some things which are allowed by the East African organisers that would not be allowed in Europe, such as removing the rear seat to take spare wheels and water and hand and foot grips on the rear for co-driver to use while bouncing, but these are a peculiarly African requirement dictated by the conditions that exist over there.

Getting bogged down in the thick oozing mud is perhaps the most common cause of retirements. Crews shattered and exhausted by the sheer horror of manhandling their cars through axledeep swamps just expire left and right. One may well wonder why the average speeds are set so high if the conditions are so difficult. The answer lies in the unpredictable weather. It only requires the rain to let up for some few hours and the waterlogged roads become dust tracks which are capable of taking the high speeds. The same reason explains why six hours’ lateness is allowed from the beginning. The fact that the order of starting is obtained by drawing numbers from a hat also has a bearing on this problem of getting stuck. Top class crews complain that without seeding they may well he started after novice drivers who become immobile more easily and so baulk them. The organisers retort that crews do win from the back of the field, but this only shows that an expert crew will do well anyway given a certain amount of luck.

Those who competed in the rally were certainly unanimous that this had been the toughest ever—funny, every year they say the same. Certainly, though, the 1966 event was a gruelling one. Not since 1960 had the cars been sent southwards first, and this disastrous first leg removed all the overseas challengers, to leave the Safari with its jealously guarded reputation of never having been won by an overseas driver.

The first withdrawal was the Alfa Romeo of Bettoja, and after helicopters, aircraft and cars had been sent out to scour the African bush for the crew they were discovered sleeping in their hotel room in Nairobi. Bettoja had felt depressed and had turned back after only three miles !

After Annie de Montaigu and Nicole Roure retired their Peugeot 404 at Soni, Pat Moss-Carlsson and Elizabeth Nystrom in the Saab became the only contestants for the Coupes des Dames award, while being second overall as well. Unfortunately this didn’t last for long as they retired at Dar-es-Salaam after having lost a lot of time repairing their rear springs. Pat was consoled to hear that her husband, Erik Carlsson, had taken over second place in his Saab. He was the only overseas entry left but lasted only to Mombasa, half-way round the leg, to retire with a cracked crankcase.