Audio
Find recorded interviews, the sounds or rally cars or listen to some rally podcasts
Everything in rally audio
Rallypedia expects to collect a diverse group of audio recordings relating to rallying. If you have one or more audio clips likely of interest to other rallyists, whether an interview or just the sweet sound of a car at full noise, we’d like to hear from you – use the contact form below.
We’ve been fortunate to be gifted a collection of interviews by 3AW’s Lox McGrath from the 1950s and 60s. Select from the menu to access them.
The following event pages include audio files you can listen to: 1978 Alpine Rally
The Lox McGrath audio collection
Rallypedia has indeed been fortunate to be gifted a collection of audio tapes from the Lox McGrath collection, with thanks to assistance from Simon Owens and Automotive Historians Australia. Lox McGrath was a radio host on Melbourne’s 3AW in the 1950s and 1960s.
Following Lox’s death, his daughter found a box of tapes under the house and fortunately didn’t throw them out. Rallypedia now has those tapes.
All tapes with rally content have been digitised and edited so that each recording relates to one event. They can now be accessed on Rallypedia by all rally fans.
The recordings have been sorted into 4 categories: Round Australia trials, BP Rallies, Mobil(gas) Economy Runs and an interview with Harry Firth after he won the 1960 Southern Cross Rally. The economy runs were not true “rallies” but have been included because many of the interviews are with well known rally competitors of the era.
Round Australia Trials
Three recordings are from Round Australia Trials.
The first is from the classic 1954 Redex, the event that made Jack Murray famous in Australia and gave rise to his nickname “Gelignite Jack”. The interviews are from Meekatharra, immediately after a “horror stretch” of road that claimed many competitors.
The other two clips are from the 1956 and 1957 Mobilgas Trials.
More information of Round Australia Trials is available at wikipedia and, with more of a focus on just the Victorian sections, here.
The BP Rallies
The BP Rallies of South Eastern Australia are famous endurance events. many were organised by the Light Car Club’s Donald Thompson, himself a legend of the sport as an organiser.
Here we have interviews from the 1959, 1960, 1961 and 1963 rallies. For 1960, we have the unedited recording made by Lox at the event and an edited version, presumably the one that was broadcast.
Go to our BP Rally page for more information about the BP rallies.
Harry Firth after winning the 1960 Southern Cross Rally
Lox hosted a weekly radio show on 3AW entitled Motorists Forum. The show dealt with anything motoring related. On 15 October, 1960, that included the interview we have here with Harry Firth, soon after winning the Southern Cross Rally.
Mobilgas and Mobil Economy Runs
From 1955 to 1966, 10 Economy Runs sponsored by Mobilgas/Mobil were held in Eastern Australia.
While the events weren’t “rallies”, we’ve included these interviews because many of the well known rally competitors of that era participated in the economy runs. For more on the Mobil economy runs, which were also run in other countries, see wikipedia.