Doing The Full Monte 90 Years After Forebear Was First Brit To Win Prestigious Rally

Published on: 26 Feb, 2016
Updated on: 2 Mar, 2016

A family from Wood Street Village have literally followed in the tracks of their forebear who was the first Briton to win the Monte Carlo Rally.

The Grimmonds pictured at John O’Groats. From left: Michael, Wendy, Richard and David.

And they have done it on the 90th anniversary of the feat and in a similar car, while taking part in the 2016 Monte Carlo Classic Rally.

Wendy Grimmond’s father was the Hon Victor Bruce, who, after serving in the First World War, started racing cars in 1919. He was a member of the Junior Car Club at Brooklands that was active in the 1920s.

The Hon Victor Bruce.

Living in the Cobham and Esher area, Mr Bruce got to know car maker AC Cars of Thames Ditton.

Wendy takes up the story: “My father managed to ‘borrow’ cars from AC and did publicity stunts for them. He took part in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1925, starting from Glasgow. But in 1926 he decided to start his journey to Monaco from John O’Groats.

“The further from the finishing point you started, the more points you could get.”

Snow and sheep in Scotland in 1926.

There was quite a lot of snow around as Victor Bruce and his co-driver W. J. Brunell, left the top of Scotland for the epic winning trip 90 years ago.

It was not without its drama and adventure as they took their AC car, that cost £450, all the way to win the coveted trophy.

The Hon Victor Bruce and his co-driver W. J. Brunell with the AC car in which they won the 1926 Monte Carlo Rally.

Wendy owns a fabulous album of photographs and press cuttings of her father’s 1926 trip, and when the opportunity presented itself to take part in this year’s rally for older vehicles, the Grimmond family could not resist.

Wendy Grimmond beside the AC car her family used for the rally in 2016.

And they knew of just the car to use – not the exact same car as Victor Bruce used in 1926, but another AC, dating from 1927, which contains the bodywork of a car he later broke further records in.

The vehicle with the same GB plate that had been attached to the 1926 winning car.

All that survives from the 1926-winning car is the ‘GB’ plate, which the Grimmonds own, so this was of course attached to the car for the rally.

The rally took place at the end of January and Wendy says: “There is cabinet at Brooklands Museum that features my father’s motoring trophies and I am a member of the AC Cars owners’ club.

“In October I read that there was appeal for AC cars to take part in this year’s classique rally, especially as it was the 9oth anniversary of my father’s winning in an AC.”

There wasn’t a lot of time to make arrangements, but the Grimmond family decided to take part, with Wendy’s son eldest Michael driving, plus co-driver Rob Hescroff, whose uncle David Hescroff owns the vehicle. Wendy’s husband Richard is a keen motor-car enthusiast and he helped to get the car ready for the trip.

Victor Bruce’s diaries of his 1926 run gave the Grimmonds lots of detail for their trip. Wendy and Richard were part of the support team with their younger son David who drove a Land-Rover Discovery with a trailer.

It took them two days to transport the vintage car to John O’Groats. From that starting point on January 27 they made their way through snow to Paisley where they joined up with another 12 cars whose drivers were aiming to make the same journey. There was a reception at the town hall followed by a big send off.

Their first destination was Hull for the ferry to Europe. But half-way there they learned that the ferry service had been cancelled due to high winds.

“Wendy says: “Most of the cars then drove down to Folkestone to use the Channel Tunnel, ours was the oldest car among them. It was more mileage but it was the same route that my father’s took, and by the evening of January 29th we had reached Chalon-sur-Soane. We had an early start the next day and were then on the last leg to Monaco.”

The car needing a bit of assistance during the rally.

Unfortunately, the car broke down a few times, both in the UK and in France, but with the whole team pitching in, each time they got it going again.

Wendy adds: “About an hour before we were due to finish the car wouldn’t start. It was a problem with the magneto. My son said: ‘If I can’t drive it all the way, we’re heading back.’ Luckily we found a way to make it work and with the car backfiring through the tunnels in Monaco we made it to the finish at about 6.30pm on January 30th.”

They were one of the last cars to finish, but that didn’t really matter. However, after time spent parking the support vehicle, there was no time to change clothes for the special buffet reception laid on for everyone.

In total, the AC covered about 1,600 miles during the trip. Overall, the support vehicle did nearly double that.

The trophy Wendy’s father received after winning the 1926 Monte Carlo Rally.

For the whole of the trip Wendy had close by her side the actual trophy her father and co-driver collected for their 1926 heroics. Wendy said: “I did not let it out of my sight for one moment.

Celebrating the completion of the trip.

“I think my father would be immensely proud of what we have done.

“He was quite shy and quiet and, when we were growing up, he had a young family and his racing and rallying days were like another lifetime for him. To us, he was just our father.”

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