The Brothers de Rooy

[TimD]

This is something of an odd enquiry.

I have an abiding memory from my childhood of Saturday afternoon television, watching the rallycross from Lydden Hill.

The stars of the show, for me, were a pair of Ford V-6 engined Daf 55 Coupes, both bright red/orange, driven by two brothers, Jan and Harry de Rooy.

Whatever became of these two fellows? Are they still racing? Did the Dafs survive into preservation? Any of our mainland European posters have any clues about this?

I would love to know. I still remember pedalling my little bicycle down a dirt track near my home. On Saturday afternoons, I WAS that souped-up little Daf!

[Gerard]

There's not much information I can give you, Tim.
I followed Jan de Rooy while he was in rallycross.
He and his brother are living some 25 miles from where I live, in a city called Eindhoven.
All I know is that after his rallycross experience was over, Jan de Rooy competed in the Paris-Dakar rally with a DAF truck and he even won it but I can't remember the year.
He and his brother have always been in business, so I think they went back to that.
They own a transportation company.
I don't know if they are still racing but I can't imagine it because they are older than I am.
That's all the information I can provide but I will look it up, although there's very little information to find.

[Graham Clayton]

Originally Posted by TimD

This is something of an odd enquiry.

I have an abiding memory from my childhood of Saturday afternoon television, watching the rallycross from Lydden Hill.

The stars of the show, for me, were a pair of Ford V-6 engined Daf 55 Coupes, both bright red/orange, driven by two brothers, Jan and Harry de Rooy.

Did the Dafs survive into preservation?

TimD,

According to this blog post, one of the cars has been fully restored:

http://dudtub232.blogspot.com/2008/0...-car-1969.html

[Peter Mallett]

Woah, e-chaeology!

Welcome Graham. Wonder if our two famous posters above will come and look at this. Haven't seen them for many years.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by TimD

This is something of an odd enquiry.

I have an abiding memory from my childhood of Saturday afternoon television, watching the rallycross from Lydden Hill.

The stars of the show, for me, were a pair of Ford V-6 engined Daf 55 Coupes, both bright red/orange, driven by two brothers, Jan and Harry de Rooy.

Whatever became of these two fellows? Are they still racing? Did the Dafs survive into preservation? Any of our mainland European posters have any clues about this?

I would love to know. I still remember pedalling my little bicycle down a dirt track near my home. On Saturday afternoons, I WAS that souped-up little Daf!

IIRC the engines were Ford BDA's not V6's (sorry to be so pedantic).
I also remember one of the UK magazines running a test on the car entitled "Two diffs from Amsterdam which I thought was clever! (My memory is telling me that this was Custom Car magazine, but that doesn't seem right, it must have been Cars and Car Conversions).

[GORDON STREETER]

It's all here folks http://translate.google.co.uk/transl...26prmd%3Divnso

[chunterer]

Yeah I remember pics of the Daf when I was a tiddler in Rallysport magazine and stuff like that. Looked a bit weird compared to the Minis and Escorts! Thought he had a brother but was never sure.

I hadn't realised Jan was still a front runner when the supercars came in, in the early 80's? 3rd in the European series in a Quattro then?

Must've been one of the first guys to run one in Rallycross along with Arnesson and Wurz I would guess?

[Metroman]

I can remember the cars competing at Croft and Cadwell. Some events gave a penalty for 4WD so they just disconnected a belt!

Very quick but weird as the variamatic transmission meant the engine revs were virtually constant. I think it was Jan's car where the driver sat over the transmission tunnel and had a power bulge in the roof to accomodate his helmet.

[chunterer]

Robert Clayson image on flickr:

It's a Daf but is it one of the bros?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertc...57616885741750

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Robert Clayson image on flickr:

It's a Daf but is it one of the bros?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertc...57616885741750

You'd be inclined to think so, it is on Dutch registration plates, but it looks a bit too 'normal' (apart from the angle it's attacking the corner!) for a de Rooy car as far as I remember them, but maybe this is very early on before the development got going?

[KA]

Looking at the other rallycross pics in that set (David Angel's Mini, the Saab might be Per Eklund, no idea on the 911, though I reckon it's a British driver- RHD 911, and look at the flag on the door and the reg number on the front)...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertc...7616885741750/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertc...7616885741750/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertc...7616885741750/

...they all look as if they're taken at Lydden.

There's 'Embassy' sponsorship on the race number panels on the cars, as well as trackside advertising- which if I'm reading the European Rallycross Championship history on http://www.rallycross.com/ correctly, might suggest it's the 1973 or 1974 ERC at Lydden (2 visits to Lydden back then, Sept and November)

Take a look at this- scroll down the page to the heading '1973 Lydden Hill'- that Robert Clayson pic turns up again, amongst some colour shots of the same car at Lydden, suggesting it is Jan de Rooy in 1973
http://www.rallydaf.nl/Rally.html