Taking on the Silver Fern Rally in a classic Toyota

| 13 Apr 2023

There are three major international historic special-stage enduros that represent beacons of magnificent motorsport.

The Roger Albert Clark Rally in the UK, the East African Safari Classic and, perhaps less well-known but burning just as brightly, the epic Silver Fern Rally, set in the one of the world’s finest landscapes, the beautiful South Island of New Zealand.

It’s an event that manages to surpass its reputation when you see and feel it for the first time, as I discovered when hitting the stages for the 2022 rally from 20-26 November.

Tony Jardine and co-driver Warwick Martin go flat-out through the forest in their Toyota Corolla Levin AE86

You get to blast over some of the best roads I have driven in more than 40 years of rallying across the UK, Ireland, Scandinavia, Europe and the Middle East.

Imagine gravel as smooth as Tarmac, crests as high as a multi-storey apartment block, then mid-stage switches from flat-out in fifth to twisty forest tracks with snow-capped mountains as a backdrop.

On other sections we got in among those peaks, motoring through passes with huge drops and down rough tracks that looked to be in the same state as when early New Zealand settlers’ wagons rolled over them 160 years ago in their search for gold in the Kakanui Mountains.

Spectacular South Island scenery is a feature of the Silver Fern

International rallying in New Zealand has produced some cracking stages, such as Waitangi, Maramarua Forest, Tokoroa and Rotorua on the North Island, but the South Island has its own great rally territories to be found in Canterbury, Otago, Westland and Southland.

Starting and finishing in Christchurch, the Silver Fern covers a massive 3000km across seven legs and seven days, including 44 special stages totalling 956.27km.

The marathon event draws keen crews back every two years to savour the roads and the challenge of holding their nerve over sustained high-speed sections such as on the 17km Meyers Pass Road after service at Oamaru.

Tony and Warwick splash through a ford in the Toyota Corolla AE86

For local co-driver Warwick Martin and me, however, it wasn’t just the stages that gave us palpitations. There had been three car changes even before the event started.

The Historic category entry is dominated by the ubiquitous Mk2 Ford Escorts, but we would be taking part in something a little bit different: a 1985 Toyota Corolla Levin AE86 (also known as the Sprinter Trueno), prepared by the Bryce Biggs team and with our exhaust carbon emissions offset via NET-HERO.

In many ways, the top-spec AE86 was Toyota’s evolution of the Escort RS 1600: it had disc brakes all round, a five-speed ’box, MacPherson struts up front and coils rather than cart springs to suspend the live rear axle, with four-link longitudinal location and a Panhard rod.

An all-alloy 1587cc twin-cam ‘four’ gives the Toyota Corolla AE86 serious pace

There was a limited-slip diff available, too, all topped off by a 1.6-litre, 16-valve, all-aluminium twin-cam engine that had some similarities to Ford’s Cosworth-developed Belt-Driven A-type.

Everything was there, which is what drew me to them when they were new: I bought one in 1989 and rallied it until 1993. A cracking little car.

The Corolla’s classic layout made it an instant motorsport success, as good on the track as it was on the stages around the world.

A gearbox failure halted Tony and Warwick’s progress for a while

Win Percy had landed the 1982 British Saloon Car Championship in the AE86’s predecessor, the Corolla Coupé (TE71), but the new car did even better, winning back-to-back titles in 1986 and 1987 in the hands of the ever committed and spectacular Chris Hodgetts, and taking Per Eklund to overall Group A victory in the 1985 British Open Rally Championship.

Our early attempts at emulating Per’s achievements were promising. Pirelli shipped tyres over from Australia for us and we took a risk by using super-soft fronts for better turn-in.

Heavy rain during the first leg, a 370km loop through the vineyards and hills of Canterbury – including the super-fast Waiau West Road and Kaiwara – helped reduce tyre wear and we got great grip and durability.

With an alternative gearbox sourced and fitted, the AE86 was soon back in action

Leg two to Oamaru took us over the feared Hakataramea Pass, which has taken many prisoners in past events, before the teams rolled into the final control of the day in the old colonial town, rumbling along quaint cobbled streets and passing old steam engines and buildings dating back to the 1870s.

Seasoned competitors warned of the challenges that lay ahead on leg three to Dunedin, with six long, hard, high and treacherous special stages including the perilous, boulder-strewn 28km Danseys Pass and the 54km of settlers’ tracks at Paerau, a real brute of a stage whose washed-out riverbeds and muddy, rutted trails were reminiscent of the East African Safari.

Setting out on leg four to Invercargill, one of the southernmost cities in the world, we were beginning to feel confident.

Damp conditions on the early stages helped to prevent the Toyota’s soft Pirelli tyres from wearing too fast

This stretch included the Ironwood Bush Road, parts of which were used in the original 1971 Heatway Rally New Zealand when the New Zealand Motor Corporation entered a team of Minis with Andrew Cowan as lead driver.

Aside from some pretty major manifold cracks, meaning regular welding was needed along the way, the car was holding up well, but during leg five, after the mammoth 71km Stout Road special stage in the streaming rain, disaster struck.

While our fellow historics struggled to cope with misting windscreens, our Corolla dramatically slewed sideways to a halt with 1845km of the rally under our belts and two stages of the run to Dunedin left to go.

Smooth gravel tracks follow the contour of the land

The Toyota was jammed in gear after bits of a failed bearing dropped into the transmission, savaging the flywheel on the fast, flowing and appropriately named Cannibal Bay Road.

We had to miss four special stages, including the early part of leg six, while an alternative gearbox was sourced three hours away at Invercargill, and the final components were picked up at a local dealership.

Fortunately, on the Silver Fern you can put in a temporary withdrawal notice then rejoin once you are fixed, almost like Super Rally regulations.

‘Some tracks looked in the same state as when settlers’ wagons rolled over them 160 years ago in their search for gold’

With five gears available once again we were back in the thick of the action, tackling the spectacular switchbacks of the Meyers Pass then reviving memories of the Welsh forest stages along the Parkers Bush forestry roads up in the Kirkliston mountain range. Glorious.

The final day was a short but sharp 346.53km and six fast, tight sections, flanked by gulleys to catch out untidy drivers who were still going for it.

Just out of service, however, the AE86’s Panhard rod snapped in two. There were more anxious moments as the team lashed a makeshift strap across the axle and sent us wobbling on our way, while they set off to hunt for a welder.

There are plenty of flat-out sections of the Silver Fern Rally to test both car and driver

After midday service in Methven, and with the rod welded back together, we pushed hard, setting two top-five times.

The final Malvern Hills Road stage was only a 9km sprint, but it took full concentration to be quick yet ensure arrival at the Riccarton Park racecourse finish line.

It was touch-and-go at times, but Bryce and his crew were incredibly resourceful and found fixes where none looked possible.

Despite car changes and broken manifolds, gearbox and rear suspension, we had not only achieved the long-held ambition of driving the Silver Fern Rally, but also managed a top-10 finish.

Taking on the commanding Mk2 Ford Escorts in the rally’s Historic category was a tall order for Tony and Warwick

Up at the front, Kiwi Jeff Judd was attempting to be the first local to win in a decade aboard his Mk2 Ford Escort with ex-WRC star Stéphane Prévot alongside, giving him his first taste of professional pace notes.

Sadly, they lost the lead after a puncture threw them into the soft earth, handing the Historic category to Englishman James Ford and his Scottish navigator Neil Shanks.

Rounding out an all-Escort podium was locally based Scot Ally MacKay with Michael Hendry in a Mk1. “Our high point was winning two stages,” said Ally, who came to work temporarily in New Zealand but loved it so much he decided to stay.

The biennial Silver Fern will return in 2024

“To get on the podium was wonderful, and half of it was filled by Scots – me, Michael and Neil,” he continues.

“We all used to live quite close to each other in Scotland: who’d have thought we would all share a podium together on the other side of the world?”

Further demonstrating the international nature of the rally entry was Kenyan farmer Frank Tundo, who was seventh in a Jeff Judd-run Ford Escort on his second Silver Fern with NZ Historic champion co-driver Donna Elder sitting beside him.

Frank competed in the WRC in New Zealand in 1985-’86 when he was teammate to Possum Bourne, and rates these roads even above the stages in his native Africa: “This is the most amazing rally on earth. These roads are made for rallying – they are incredible.”

A delighted Tony Jardine celebrates his top-10 finish

“Every country in the world says their roads are the best,” enthused Silver Fern boss Peter Martin, “but we are lucky in New Zealand to have a colonial history with trails that were formed by horse and dray, then turned into gravel tracks that follow the contours and undulations of the land.

“They have the flow of the countryside – they weren’t just bulldozed through like a European highway.”

The lingering effects of the pandemic meant a reduced entry in 2022, exacerbated by the increased freight and shipping costs due to the war in Ukraine, and organisers are looking into changes for 2024 to make the event more affordable.

I’ve already started saving.

Words: Tony Jardine

Images: Geoff Ridder/Clint Thambi

Thanks to: the Bryce Biggs team; Ultimate Rally Group; NET-HERO

Allan Dippie/Paul Coghill – 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS

Allan Dippie’s Porsche 911 completed the Silver Fern route intact

Fourth-placed Allan Dippie was relieved to reach the finish in his much-campaigned 911 with navigator Paul Coghill, having previously come unstuck on the daunting Danseys Pass section used as part of the Silver Fern course for 2022.

The duo thankfully negotiated the highest region of New Zealand without incident this year, but Danseys holds some scary memories.

“We were chasing another car, and were watching them instead of the road,” recalled Allan. “Our historic London-to-Sydney Toyota Corolla lost its footing and rolled over the edge, destroying itself against the rocks on its flight down to the riverbed.”

Unbelievably, the crew emerged unscathed and the car, although it looked like a pile of junk, was eventually rebuilt.

James Ford/Neil Shanks – 1977 Ford Escort RS 1800

Driver James Ford teamed up with co-driver Neil Shanks for his first Silver Fern

“It was a big surprise,” said driver James Ford, who made a winning return to gravel after a decade away: “I haven’t been on the loose since the British Rally Championship in 2013!”

After completing rally raids on two wheels, and winning on Tarmac at the Circuit of Ireland and Jim Clark rallies, this was a fresh challenge.

“Despite being used to endurance events, I didn’t think this was going to be as hard as it was,” he said. “The 50km Paerau stage up in the Rock and Pillar range was the toughest – 71km of the wet Stout Road was bad enough, but one mistake up in those mountains could result in a massive accident.”

“Not bad for your first-ever Silver Fern,” smiled Neil. “It’s an amazing event – you must do whatever you can to come here.”

Steve Cox/Laurie Brenssell – 1984 Toyota Starlet 1300

The plucky Toyota Starlet 1300 was a handful in the fast stages

One of the more unusual cars was Steve Cox’s Starlet, co-driven by fellow Kiwi Laurie Brenssell. Steve was returning to the stages after 20 years with his “little terror”, which represents 27 months of hard graft by his F40 Motorsport team.

It now revs to 9000rpm and produces 170bhp on 45mm sidedraught Dell’Ortos. The rear-drive hatch wanted to swap ends on the fast, straight stages, but came into its own in the tight forest sections.

“We know every inch of the Starlet,” enthused Steve. “It’s light and quick, and once on to the twisty stuff we were gone.

“We were among the BDA Escorts, but my car and all its spares probably cost the same as one of their engines – so I challenged them to step down and drive something different!”

Jeff Judd/Stéphane Prévot – 1977 Ford Escort RS 1800

Ex-WRC co-driver Stéphane Prévot and driver Jeff Judd finished second in a Mk2 Ford Escort

“These are the finest roads in the world,” said Belgian ex-WRC star Stéphane Prévot, who navigated Jeff Judd to second in a Mk2 Escort.

“They are the best I have seen in 35 years of rallying, and on the South Island they are also the fastest.”

Stéphane, who co-drove Bruno Thiry in works Fords and Peugeots, should know; this was his 17th time in New Zealand: “I was also lucky to be invited to co-drive Markko Märtin and Mads Østberg in the Otago Rally, on territory we went into in the Silver Fern.”

“It is a huge challenge, with so many variables” said local driver Jeff.

“Stéphane was brilliant and it would be interesting to see what might have happened without our puncture and the off, but we had a lot of fun trying to charge back.”

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