New Pictures of 6003VC

Yet more trawling through the pile of old classic car magazines brought in from home for shredding revealed the following pictures of 6003 VC's past exploits. Found in the February 1990 edition of Thoroughbred & Classic Car they show 6003 VC going on to to win overall the Historic Car Register's Weston Park event on the RAC stage. As this entry, and result is new to me I shall have to add it to the car's other battle honours further down this page (when I've worked out how to do it!).
That pile of old magazines is finally getting smaller, I'm on my third boot full in the Chicane, and you can get quite a few magazines in a Chicane boot I will tell you!

Donnington Track Day

Following it's return to the UK 6003 was quickly fixed and then took part in that December's Club Triumph Donnington track day where it was mostly reliable!

Castle Donnington 2005
(picture courtesy James Carruthers)

10CR 2005

Brought out of retirement in 2005, and refitted with it's (now rebuilt) original engine 6003 was entered for the Club Triumph 10CR (10 Countries Rally). We got as far as Italy before a broken half-shaft meant an unceremonious tow truck ride home for the car (we continued in a hire car Seat Toledo!).

Broken half-shaft 2005 10CR St Barnard Pass

Magazine Articles

6003VC continued to be my road car until August 2003 during which it appeared in articles in Practical Classics (June 2003) and Retro cars, bringing with it fantastic publicity for the business. Alas during the Practical Classics photo shoot at Bruntingthorpe airfield I got rather over enthusiastic and popped the head gasket again! As a temporary measure we shoehorned in the Kastner/Macau triple 45DCOE equipped full race 2 ltr engine. Wow! What a buzz that was, but half a tank of petrol to get backwards and forwards to work (12 miles), I think not!

Kastner/ Macau Full Race 2 ltr Triple 45DCOE

Rallying Results - 1980/90's

work in progress!

Date	Event	Crew	Entry Number	Result
1989	Pirelli Classic Marathon	Woolley / Woolley	46	7th Overall
1990	Monte Carlo	Woolley / Woolley	-	Not classified (started event in another car!)
August 1990	Targa Rusticana	Young / Shapland	-	49th Overall
November 1991	Rally Britannia	Woolley / Kukula	18	12th Overall
1992	Pirelli Classic Marathon	Woolley / Dixon	20	Retired (halfshaft!)
August 1992	Telford Historic Stages	Woolley / Kukula	6	4th Overall (1st in Class)
November 1992	Rally Britannia	Woolley / Kukula	34	34th Overall
January 1993	Coronation Rally	Woolley / Kukula	4	Retired (engine!)
April 1993	Historic Imber Stages	Woolley / Kukula	208	9th Overall (3rd in Class)
November 1994	RAC Historic Rally	Murray / Kukula	111	16th Overall (7th in class)
April 1995	Historic Imber Stages	Murray / Kukula	219	TBA
May 1995	Mid Wales Stages	Murray / Kukula	213	10th Overall
November 1995	Rally Britannia	Murray / Kukula	-	TBA

1992 Telford Historic Stages (courtesy Sean Kukula)

1993 Coronation Rally (courtesy Sean Kukula)

John Woolley

Reappearing in the 1980's (or at least the registration 6003VC did!) it was campaigned by John Woolley, and others, in (it seems) every historic rally for nearly a decade.

Many thanks to Sean Kukula for providing the following history of 6003 VC's busy career at this time;

I did quite a few events in the car including the Rally Britannia 3 times (An event that ran in front of the RAC rally during the Sunday on the spectator/stately home stages), the Telford Historic, Imber stages a couple of times, Epynt (Between Xmas & new year where it was so icy you could barely stand up in the services area which resulted in a rather exciting moment which involved us running out of braking room & going straight down a very steep bank only just avoiding the river at the bottom). Another classic was the Coronation Rally at Pembrey in January which again was very icy. A recent storm had made a telegraph pole weak which then broke near the top bringing the wire with it across the road, we were next car on the scene & somehow the wire got caught on the sumpguard hence we did a very commendable impression of a plane landing on an aircraft carrier! Later in the day whilst trying to regain the time lost a rod came out of both sides of the block & also the sump pan (At around 8000 rpm), the gudgeon pin had broken but the rod didn’t, it just turned into a squashed “S” shape.

The car was sold to Jim Murray who had previously rented this or another car from John. I then did 3 rallies with Jim, Rally Britannia, The Mid Wales Stages & also the Imber stages (not sure in which order)

John and Allison Woolley in 6003 VC
on the 1990 Monte Carlo Rally

Road Book for the 1994 RAC Rally (6003 on the front cover!)
Courtesy of Sean Kukula (Artwork by Ian Shapland)

1963 Alpine Rally

Thanks to Fred Nicklin (Triumph test driver) for donating this original copy of an internal memo from Graham Robson (head of Triumph Competitions at the time). It shows the route of the 1963 Alpine Rally when Fred took along 6003VC as a service support vehicle, with Graham Robson co-driving.

Here lies a dilemma in as far as these documents prove that 6003VC in original 1600cc form, as Fred remembers, was serving as rally chasing service vehicle throughout June 1963, not finally returning to the UK until early July? Is this then the same 6003VC radically modified in triple SU 2 ltr form with many bodywork modifications that caught the ferry in late July to take part in the August Spa-Sofia-Liege? What a fantastic effort by Triumph to modify a car to that extent in a couple of weeks, or more evidence of the number plate/identity swapping prevalent in competition departments the world over? If this is the case which 6003VC burnt out in Yugoslavia, we shall probably never know?

6003VC

In April 2002 we got to hear that John Woolley's re-creation of the 1963 works Monte Carlo Vitesse was for sale. It had lain dormant in a north London motor traders premises for some time and now the owner was looking to sell the registration or the car or both together. It would have been a great shame to have lost the works registration 6003VC to a less deserving home, so we jumped at the chance of keeping it attached to a Vitesse and bringing it home to Coventry. This Vitesse is possibly one of the most rallied Triumph's of all time and as such it deserved to be saved (see it's entry list below).

6003 VC On The Starting Line 1992 Pirelli Classic Marathon

Besides being assured the car would be ready to view, all fired up and ready to go, we were a little disappointed when we initially found it sitting forlornly at the back of the garage under an inch of dust. Anyway the deal was done, the registration stayed on the car, and the car was on the trailer on its way back to Coventry.

Courtesy of Triumph World magazine (August 1995)

Back home the next day after washing the dust off, it was evident that this Vitesse had hardly turned a wheel since it's last outing. Still covered in stickers from the 1995 Safety Devices Historic Challenge, it looked like this was the last time the car had been used in anger. On closer inspection I was more than happy with what we had bought as the car came complete with full built in roll cage, plumbed in fire extinguishers, triple SU engine, one of our own heavy duty J type overdrive boxes, Salisbury LSD, perspex window's etc, etc. The carbs and the rest of the fuel system (including twin petrol tanks) needed completely stripping and rebuilding as whatever concoction of fuel had been in there when last used had set hard. The brakes were completely renewed to be on the safe side, and the halfshafts needed rebuilding as they were completely knackered. Apart from that it needed very little doing to get it through an MOT, although the examiner did comment on the state of the underneath of the car, he said it looked as though it had been pebble dashed with house bricks, this car has had a very hard life!

6003 VC On The 1989 Pirelli Classic Marathon

There then followed a couple of months of mundane every day use, or as mundane as you can get in a stripped out full house racer on the public highway! The temptation got the better of me and we booked in for the Classic & Sportscar Action Day at Castle Combe in August along with most of the rest of the Canley Classics crew and their Triumphs.

Castle Combe Track Day

On the second time out on the track we suffered a spectacular head gasket failure whilst pulling 7,500 RPM trying to overtake a DB7 Vantage, with Craig Gingell (our web maestro) acting as ballast in the passenger seat. It was worth it though, the car handled brilliantly and felt bomb proof, up to the point when the head gasket blew! Soon fixed and back on the road, it continues to bring me to work most mornings, complete with the biggest grin a bloke is allowed to have outside the bedroom.

Brief history before our ownership. Built along with 6001VC, 6002VC, and 6004VC (spare car) for the 1963 Monte Carlo rally in which it finished 24th overall and third in class. substantially rebuilt (now 2ltr triple SU) for the Spa-Sofia-Liege of August 1963 it burnt out in spectacular fashion before the finish.