Here for the craic
Posted by Maurice Hamilton at 5:00PM on Thursday 12 June, 2008 0 Comments
So the barman says: 'Ask me how much for a Coke. Go on. Ask me.'
'OK, how much is a Coke?'
'Two Euros fifty.'
'And your point is?'
'Well, two Cokes will cost five Euros, and they don’t even make up a pint. On the other hand, a pint of Guinness costs four Euros, so it’s cheaper to have a decent drink. Ah go on, go on. Have one!'
It's difficult to argue with logic like that. Particularly in Ireland. Naturally, the Guinness over here is to die for. And I have a feeling I'll be needing a few pints come Sunday night. Assuming, that is, we get to the end of the Topaz Donegal International Rally.
It seemed like a good idea at the time when Tony Jardine asked me to co-drive in what is considered to be the very best among many good rallies in Ireland. Then he told me he'd borrowed a WRC Skoda Octavia, the very one I'd watched Armin Schwarz drive on the Monte Carlo and Rally GB a few years ago.
Until now, Jardine and I had shared all sorts of production-based rally cars. So we reckoned taking up the very kind offer of Richard Hogg, the owner of the car, to 'come over and have a go' was a sound plan. That was until we saw the special stages when doing the recce during the past two days.
Dear God. I don’t know who's the bigger eejit (as they say in these parts): Jardine, me or Hogg. I mean, Richard owns LGC Engineering and they make these massive gearboxes for the wind farms you see all over the place here. You'd think he'd know about making wise decisions. Then again, they say Jardine is all wind and p***, so I suppose that fits.
These stages make your eyes water while doing 30mph in a hire car, never mind coming over a blind brow at warp-speed, or whatever that turbocharged WRC car will do.
I mean, I haven't even sat in it yet and Jardine has only driven it briefly on a press day last week. Normally full of chat. I've noticed that he’s been a bit quiet ever since.
The Irish are nuts about rallying and motor cars. They have a wonderful expression to sum it all up: if you're into rallying, they say you’re 'mad for the road.' A couple of days here and you can see why.
In Ireland, they can close a public road at the drop of a hat. So every inch of the 190 miles of special stage is on tarmac, with all the attendant dips, bumps, stone walls, banks, steep drops, telegraph poles, loose gravel and pot holes that you would find on any country road. I'm not convinced Kumho have a compound that deals with freshly laid manure, but they assure me everything is under control.
And there's more. One or two of the stages are on roads that must vie for the top ten of The Most Beautiful Drive in the World; immaculate A Class roads running round headlands with the Atlantic beyond.
Trouble is, they're bloody quick in a rally car. The only view we'll be admiring will be a couple of perfectly poured pints when it’s all over.
Sebastien Loeb won this rally in 2007. Since he can't come this year, I've done the decent thing and offered to have his pint. Seb now knows about being 'mad for the road'. I'm sure he'd understand.
Advertiser links
0 Comments for "Here for the craic"
POST A COMMENT USING THE FORM BELOW
Comments are now closed for the blog archives.
Bookmark with:
What are these?