Alexander Sporner’s OLA 188

Alpenrallye 2013

In June 2013 we; (OLA188) my co-pilot and I joined our first rally.

OLA188 is a R-type from 1953. Normally she rests with her friends in Munich, Bavaria and we go out and enjoy life.

Her first owner was Lord Keith of Castleacre, who was a famous banker in the City of London. In the 90th she existed only in parts in boxes and an Austrian journalist started to give her an new live. This was a long way but he succeeded and from this time on, OLA188 was back again. In 2010, after a long search, even in London, for a good R-type I found her in Frankfurt and since then we are a team.

In this time, the most exiting thing she could do was to bring the daughter of my friend to the church during her wedding.

And so we started to find a new challenge. The alpenrallye is a famous event in Kitzbühel, Austria and about 230 cars take part in two categories. 55 in sports competition and the rest in tourist or classic competition. It was clear that we joined the sports competition because a Bentley is a silent sports car and 60 jears ago a R-type entered The Monte Carlo Rally and survived.

The only preparation we did was to make a full service, install a tripmaster and find a place for a small refrigerator for our cool drinks!!

When we arrived in Kitzbühel we saw our competitors and became a little bit smaller. They had all more power and it seemed that the drivers and copilots had so much experience that we should concentrate not for a price. Therefore we had our refrigerator.

But is was great. The weather was perfect and the roads up and down and we had a splendid view of Austrian mountains. The course had to be shortened because one week ago there was a terrible rain and some roads were still under water. Several trials made the whole rally more exiting and in the end we had place 16 out of 55. In no situation the power was too few or the size of the car was too big.

So I can only say that it would be nice not to bee the only pre war Bentley and encourage other Bentley owner to join historic Rallies.

More Information www.alpenrallye.at

Alexander Sporner