The 8th Rally of the Tests - Route Outline

Bournemouth to Llandudno

20th - 23rd November 2008

Prologue: Thursday - Bournemouth  

The Thursday evening "Prologue" will follow what has become an established format with a combination of tests and a regularity section. The initial activity starts from the Bournemouth Flying Club at Bournemouth Airport and we retrace the wheel tracks of our 1956 RAC Rally forerunners to Matchams Park and the surrounding area. We then return to Bournemouth for a final test and the welcome dinner at Rally HQ the Menzies Carlton Hotel.

Day 1: Friday - Bournemouth to Taunton  

Taking the Waters

Friday competition gets underway with three tests and a regularity as we travel west through the chocolate box villages of Dorset and on into Somerset. A return visit to the national championship hillclimb course at Wiscombe Park awaits, before a test and the lunch halt at the ancestral home of the Kennaway family - Escot Park.

“Perhaps Fred meant left”

In the afternoon we call at a splendid military facility on the edge of Dartmoor before heading through North Devon and on into the classic rally country of the Exmoor National Park. Our route then turns east into the fabulous "Doone" country and on to what we hope will be an exciting regularity and our rest halt where the ladies of Porlock await! 2004 Rally of the Tests veterans know that CofC Fred Bent still fantasises about the refreshments at Porlock. Be prepared, we are promised more of the same before the evening section.

Details of the evening section will not, of course, be made available until the event but as some of you will know the south west is wonderful rally territory. You are sure to enjoy it. Our overnight halt is the Holiday Inn Taunton.

Day 2: Saturday - Taunton to Stoke on Trent

Sleepy Cotswold villages

Be prepared for an early start on Saturday as the MTC, at the Haynes Motor Museum, is 40 minutes from our overnight hotel.

From Haynes, we head north taking in three or four tests and a regularity in Somerset before our coffee halt and a morning in the Cotswolds, well-known for gentle hillsides (‘wolds’), sleepy villages and for being so ‘typically English’.

Lunch near Gloucester precedes an afternoon in the Malvern Hills. Commencing with a visit to a great test site – the "Three Counties Showground", where the complex of roads should provide a real driving challenge. We turn to the west and then north through Worcestershire, west of the river Severn, and into Herefordshire for our afternoon TC.

“I think we need Scripps Garage”

A final push north with a regularity and a test on the Shropshire border and along the very pretty Wenlock Edge takes us to our evening meal halt overlooking the World Heritage site of the Ironbridge Gorge. You will be able to relax in front of a roaring open fire before setting out on the second evening section.

Stoke on Trent where we overnight is not the most obvious town on the motor sport enthusiasts must stay lists. It is however close to an army training area with which some of you may be familiar.

Day 3: Sunday - Stoke on Trent to Llandudno

Testing a rare VX4/90

The final leg of the 2008 event starts from the rally HQ at the Stoke Holiday Inn. We begin with a regularity and a test a short distance away before turning to the west through Shropshire and heading for the spiritual home of rallying - Wales.

Much favoured by the original "Testers", the Principality, as most of you will know, is a special place and our route will pass along the lovely Tanat Valley en-route to the dramatic Snowdonia National Park.

Llandudno from Up The Orme

Tarmac venues are few and far between in this part of the world but we have a combination of all tarmac, tarmac and gravel and all gravel tests and regularities as we make our way to the Great Orme and our finale before the finish in the wonderful Victorian seaside town of Llandudno.

Those of you who were with us two years ago could not have failed to be impressed by the charm of the place. If you make it all the way from Bournemouth to Llandudno you will be suitably delighted.