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EBL
56C
Racing
History
1965 Alpine Rally Paddy
Hopkirk/Henry Liddon, 4th cat, 2nd Class
1965 1000 Lakes Paddy Hopkirk/Henry
Liddon, 6th overall
1965 RAC Rally Paddy Hopkirk/Henry
Liddon, 13th overall, 2nd class
1966 Geneva Rally Tony Fall/Henry
Liddon, 2nd overall
1966 Czech Rally S.Zasada/Z.Leszczuk,
4th overall, 1st class
1966 Danube Rally
1966 RAC Rally Marjetta Aaltonen/Carolyn
Tyler to 37th overall
1967 Sold to British Vita Racing
1967 Televised Rallycross - Paddy
Hopkirk
Club Rallying - Grahem Brown
1982 RAC Golden 50 -
Grahem Brown
1984 Coronation Rally
- Guy Smith
1989
Pirelli Classic Marathon - Paddy Hopkirk/Alec
Pool
Built by Mick Legge for the 1965 Alpine
Rally, driven by Paddy Hopkirk and Henry
Liddon, won a Coupe D'Or (Silver cup)
for three non consecutive clean (no penalty)
events. Results 4th category, 2nd Class
win.
1965 Alpine
Rally |
1965 1000
Lakes Rally |
1965 RAC Rally
of Great Britain |
1966 RAC
Rally of Great Britain |
1966 Geneva
Rally |
1966 Czech
Rally |
Restoration
All rally cars with history have had a
hard life. Works Minis were expendable,
being almost totally rebuilt after each
event. If it were not for the events,
however, then this would be just another
Mini Cooper. The car is restored to the
specification of its last works event,
the 1966 RAC rally, consequently 30 years
of further mini developement has to be
ignored.
1989 Pirelli
Classic Marathon in London |
1989 Pielli
Classic Marathon - Special Giau
Stage |
Paddy Hopkirk
and EBL 56C at Millbrook filming
for the BBC |
The car passed to Grahem Brown, who used
it for national rallies, and EBL was a
well known car on northern events. One
of its more noteable being the RAC Golden
50, driven by Grahem. As the restoration
neared completion in 1988 the Pirelli
Marathon was in the planning. What better
outlet for all the effort, than to put
Paddy Hopkirk back in the driving seat
just one more time. Some of the original
parts were temporarily removed to for
the event to comply with modern rally
safety rules.
Paddy duly drove EBL 56C for the 5 day
event down to Cortina. He was consistently
setting fastest times, and was leading
until the thursday. He then broke a CV
joint on the lower slopes of the Stelvio
pass into Italy, and although the car
was mended within the hour, it was enough
penalty points to push him to 64th place.
Paddy was still in the event, but with
only two more special stages to go (uphill),
he was second behind Makinen's Healey
3000 67 ARX on the two final mountain
climbs, his final place being 13th overall,
1st class.
Source:
www.smithmaps.fsnet.co.uk/indexmini.htm
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