DAVID LLEWELLIN: ROLLING BACK THE YEARS WITH A RALLYING GREAT

It’s hard to think of a more popular title than David Llewellin’s 1989 British Rally Championship success. It had all come good for the affable Welshman who steered his Toyota Celica GT-Four to, neatly, four event wins that year.And of course he’d back it up in crushing fashion a year later in 1990.

But Llewellin was known on the world and European scene too, often recalled for his swashbuckling efforts in an MG Metro 6R4 – a car that was supposed to propel him into the World Rally Championship before the Group B era was outlawed.

These exploits have cemented his place in rallying folklore. Even now, 30 years after he notched up his second British title, Llewellin is a hero to many and regularly is approached for an autograph or picture by rally fans.And with questions coming in from none other than WRC and ERC regular Craig Breen, it’s clear his popularity is showing no signs of waning.

Here he discusses encounters with the Irish police, the flawed design of the Nissan Sunny GTI-R, an old tactic Jimmy McRae used to try and pull and the hairy moment that led to him deciding to retire from professional rallying, thanks to the MN readers’questions.

:[I was] definitely involved in the golden era of rallying, there’s no question in my mind about that. The Group B era was very special and it was a victim of its own success really wasn’t it because the cars were very exciting, the noise, the flame-spitting and the speed for that time. I know World Rally cars are going faster now but they [Group B cars] had to be driven so much harder because with the locked centre diff, you had to move them about to get them around corners.And I think that just added to the spectacle of that whole era. It was special to be involved in but also special to me because my first international win was in a Metro 6R4, Circuit of Ireland 1986, so of course that’s got really fond and strong memories. Unfortunately the banning of Group B was a big knock for me career-wise as well because I had a three-year contract withAustin Rover. The first year was British championship, the second year European championship and the third year was World championship.