Andrew Hamilton enjoys a new book on the life of racing legend Paddy Hopkirk
Those of us who were around in the 1960s, grown-up or growing up, will remember with a certain nostalgia the cars that were around at the time. A dominant force on the motoring scene then was the Mini. One man more than any other at that time, built and sustained the little car's image as a go-getter in international rallying. We refer to Ulsterman Paddy Hopkirk who had a stream of Monte Carlo victories, the first being in 1964.
It's all wonderfully chronicled in The Paddy Hopkirk Story: A Dash of the Irish, just published. Somewhat erroneously described as an autobiography, Hopkirk talks to Bill Price, former competitions manager and the format is a mixture of first and third person. That aside, the book is a forceful reminder of the glory days of the British car industry and the influence British cars had in the big international rallies. The competitions department of the old BMC (British Motor Corporation) was regarded as the best in the business and to the fore there were the cheeky little red and white Mini Coopers that were the steed of Hopkirk.
There were other steeds too. He competed at Le Mans in Sunbeam Alpines and MGBs, rallied the big Austin Healey, and came second in the 1968 London-Sydney Marathon in an Austin 1800, a BMC car that many of us will recall as less than memorable.
Hopkirk was born in Windsor Avenue, Belfast, in 1933, his father being Captain Francis Cecil Hopkirk, an engineer in the British Army who had spent some time building railways in India. During the Second World War the family moved to Whitehouse in the north of the city.
The captain had a wonderful garden with six greenhouses and grew lots of tomatoes, cucumbers and even grapes. Young Paddy used to deliver the grapes to a local clergyman who was later to bequeath him his 250cc Harding invalid carriage. As a young schoolboy it provided him with his first driving experience.
Truly a rare if very unstable contraption, it came with a three-speed gearbox, tiller steering and braking only on the rear wheels. Hopkirk believes that early formative experience made him the good driver he undoubtedly is.
Amazingly he is now reunited with the bath chair. Some years ago on a radio show, he recounted his first driving experience with the Harding. There was a subsequent call to the BBC from a man in a council house in Dulwich, London, who restored motorcycles. Hopkirk visited him, found the Harding in bits in boxes and, sure enough, there was the old Northern Irish number plate IJ 9670. "It was my old bath chair. I bought it but unfortunately it's still lying in crates in my barn waiting to be restored."
Subsequent driving was in a second-hand Triumph 650 bike with side car. The combination also honed his driving skills. "You could steer it with your body, with the accelerator or with the brakes. A combination like this teaches you a lot about handling."
After Clongowes Wood College which he describes as "Ireland's Eton", he attended Trinity College Dublin where he became friendly with another student, Michael O'Flaherty, son of Stephen O'Flaherty, importer of the VW Beetle into Ireland. That led to a job as a salesman with the O'Flaherty retail outlet, Ballsbridge Motors.
The Beetle provided him with his first real entry into motor sport and rallying and he was co-driver for O'Flaherty in various events. First success in a major rally came in 1954 Circuit of Ireland when he finished second in class in a Beetle.
Early victories and later international acclaim are all covered in the book's fast-moving chapters, peppered with anecdotes about sometimes volatile people and sometimes difficult locations. For instance, a sticky time with Argentinian customs was quickly resolved when Hopkirk said that he was a friend of Juan Fangio - he had met the Formula One legend a couple of times.
The book which runs to 216 pages comes with many pictorial reminders of the cars of yesteryear in their rallying garb but needless to say, the Mini takes pride of place.
Hopkirk, now 72, is the happy driver of the Mini in its second generation BMW-owned manifestation. "Some of us didn't like it, the first Mini was so much part of the British motoring heritage. But thank God for the Germans, otherwise that heritage would have been lost."
The Paddy Hopkirk Story is published by Haynes