After the outstanding 1 2 3 result on the 2014 Roger Albert Clark Rally, and a fantastic haul of championship silverware from their customers, the team at Malton based Rallysport Development have spent the winter getting ready for the 2015 season.

Matthew Robinson and Nick Elliott have got off to a great start in their RSD built MK2 Escorts. Both crews have already proved to be the ones to beat on the first few events of the 2015 calendar.

Most of the team’ s attention has been focused on developing the Fiat 131 which debuted on the Malton Stages Rally last year and finished 3rd o/a on the RAC.

“After our success on the Roger Albert Clark we came away with a lot of ideas for developing the 131 further” explains Chris Deighton of RSD “The car ran really well on the event, however we felt that there was more potential from the engine and a lot to be gain from the suspension. We have spent the winter working closely with Bilstein in Germany on dampers and have made some modifications to the cylinder head patterns. Both these components are now in production and we will be out testing shortly”. 

As well as developing the 131, RSD now stock a vast amount of new, remanufactured Group4 parts for the Fiat 131 Abarth. These are all available through the company’ s website www.rallysport-development.co.uk where you can also keep up to date with up and coming events and see the latest product launches.

RSD currently have 5 group4 Fiat 131 Abarth’ s in the workshop as well as a number of Mk2 Escorts, these should all be hitting the stages later on this year. Fabrication and preparation of the shells and components have always been the main stay of RSD’ s work, however the engine and gearbox build side of the business is really taking off. Kevin Theaker (MD of RSD) has been building Steve Bannisters and Matthew Robinsons engines for the last 2 years and is also responsible for the build and development of the 16 valve fuel injected Fiat engine. These and many more products are available directly from RSD.

Nick Elliott and Dave Price made it two wins from three rounds of the Mintex MSA British Historic Rally Championship on the Pirelli Carlisle Rally (Saturday 25 April).

As truly testing conditions hit the demanding Kielder stages, Elliott drove a superbly judged rally after heavy overnight rain on previously dry and dusty stages left everyone searching for grip. Just eight seconds split Elliott/Price from rivals Matthew Robinson and Sam Collis at the finish as other leading crews faltered. Both crews piloted their RSD built Mk2 Escorts to outclass the rest of the field.

Steve Bannister co driven by Louise Rae finished in fourth spot also in their RSD build Mk2 Escort.

Nick Elliott and Dave Price were the big winners on round two of the Mintex MSA British Historic Rally Championship. Despite some truly demanding conditions on some classic gravel stages, the Ford Escort Mk2 crew made it five wins from six in the historic section of the event.

On a day when strong winds, heavy rain, sleet and snow made conditions very tough, Elliott drove a faultless rally to finish 28s ahead of Matthew Robinson/Sam Collis

This was the second event of the BHRC’s new five-year term under the management of the Roger Albert Clark Rally Motor Club. Once again a fine entry assembled in Newtown with a total field of 82 cars covering 14 marques and 19 models. The outstanding effort and commitment of the organisers and marshals ensured a safe day’s rallying despite the dreadful conditions.

Four superb stages made up the route, including a mighty 16-mile stage that started in Sweet Lamb and then ran in to Hafren forest. The rally opened with the fabulous climb up the Pikes Peak stage followed by the second stage in Myherin and after those two stages Elliott had built a slender lead over Price with Pritchard and Matthew Robinson/Sam Collis packing out the top positions.

A big attack on the 16-mile Hafren stage set the seal on Elliott’s victory as rain, wind, sleet, snow, thunder and lightning made conditions very tough.

The rally finished in spectacular style on the descent of Pikes Peak and Elliott made sure of victory with a strong final stage. "Brilliant!" said Elliott as he arrived back in Newtown. "We just seem to go well on these stages." He also claimed the RSR Historic Engineering Category 3 spoils.

Read more about Nick here : https://90right.wordpress.com/tag/nick-elliott/

RSD (Rallysport Development) along with BILSTEIN proved to be the dominate force on the R.A.C (Roger Albert Clark) rally 2014.

The event, regarded to be the toughest historic rally in the UK, was ran over the weekend of 28th-30th November. Crews from across Europe tackled the 163 stage miles in and around the infamous Kielder Forest

RSD had three cars running, Matthew Robinson/Sam Collis and Nick Elliott/ Dave Price in group 4 Ford Mk2 Escorts and Julian Reynolds/ Patrick Walsh in the eagerly awaited group 4 Fiat 131. All 3 cars had been built in the RSD factory and use BILSTEIN damper units.

“The fantastic result is testament to the outstanding quality of the BILSTEIN dampers” says RSD spokesman, Chris Deighton “We are very proud of our relationship with BILSTEIN, these cars used BILSTEIN dampers in the 1970’s/1980’s and are still the damper of choice today”.

After 3 days of gruelling stages the rally finished with Matthew Robinson/ Sam Collis 1st overall (Ford Mk2 Escort), Nick Elliott/ Dave Price 2nd overall (Ford Mk2 Escort), Julian Reynolds/ Patrick Walsh 3rd overall and 1st in FIA appendix K category.

RSD would like to thank all the crews for this amazing result and would like to thank BILSEIN for their support during the development of the Fiat 131. This event is only the third rally the newly prepared Fiat car has competed in and is already showing it is on the pace of the dominate Ford Escorts. For more information on RSD and its cars please visit www.rallysport-development.co.uk .

RSD recently attended the Castle Combe Rally Day as guests of Pacenotes Rally Magazine. Our 131 Rallye was on display after it featured on the front cover of this fantastic publication. Our thanks go to the team at Pacenotes for making us feel very welcome and for a great weekend.

As an added bonus we had a VIP visit the stand, former Fiat works driver Markku Alen. Mr Alen was very impressed with the car and could not believe the attention to detail that has been put into the build. His former team mate Walter Rohrl, who has also seen the car, also commented on the "timewarp" feel to the car.