What a wonderful way to celebrate your membership of the 70's club! Like most people, Richard Smith had always driven road cars but had never had the opportunity to drive a rally car. His family thought his 71st year was a good opportunity to start!

Rather than arranging for Richard to dip his toe in the water they put him right in at the deep end. His course at Bill Gwynne Rallyschool International put him in two of the most famous cars in rally history. The 'Classic' MKII Ford Escort, made famous by Britain's first rally superstar, Roger Clark, in his Cossack hairspray sponsored car in the '70's, and the 280bhp Subaru Impreza! The turbo charged, four wheel drive fire breathing modern rally legend, driven by Colin McRae to the 1995 World Rally Championship.

In nearly thirty years of teaching people the art of sideways rally driving, Bill Gwynne can count the number the of seventy year old drivers on the fingers of one hand! So as a seventy year old himself, he wanted to teach Richard.

They had a great day, Richard really got the hang of sliding the 'Classic' MKII Ford Escort, tamed the more powerful Subaru Impreza admirably and didn't stop smiling all day!

"That was a great drive! Richard was a little nervous to start with but it didn't take long for him to really start throwing the cars around, I was very impressed. He's a great illustration of age being no barrier to learning new driving skills and having great fun doing so!"