Goodwood Festival of Speed. Puff is invited to attend the Forest Live Rally Stage, as part of the Birth of Stage Rallying feature.

From Wednesday 28th June , Puff was trailered down to Goodwood so that she could be shown in immaculate condition. Although, as an original 1970 rally car she has not passed the MSA strict guidelines as a historic stage rally car, she was deemed fit and ready to run as a demonstration vehicle.

So, she took her place as the 6th car in the line-up of over 80 being shown. The clever organisers allowed her to keep her historic number – she ran as Car No. 20 in the World Cup Rally – and ran again here as Car No.20 at Goodwood 2017.

The Forest Rally Stage Is quite tricky – especially as it is on chalk, and very slippy in the wet. Once through scrutineering, the practice runs could begin.

Called out in order, we were the 5th car out on the stage. Everyone said we should walk the stage first, but I wanted to do it as we used to do stage rallies – sight unseen – driving on instinct. There was a good yump, ¾ of the way through the stage, and we took it with gusto. The second time round, there was a bit of a crash, and then a high pitched screetch. It transpired that the alternator had dropped a bit and the fan was catching on the cross member – the fan was wrecked. We decided that the fan could come off the alternator without too much of a problem, and we continued like that. Syd Wall took a great shot of that yump, too.

The whole event was a delight – Puff ran beautifully, in spite of being run into bales on the first bend on the very last day. Shame – a dented wing and some serious remedial work as it turned out. But just so wonderful to be there. Roll on next year!