I’ll never forget my 13th birthday. I had an appointment with an orthodontist in Cork to have a brace fitted, so my dad drove me down from Limerick in his new E21 BMW 320. Zero present presence on my first day as a teenager had left me suitably depressed, with the prospect and process of a brace fitting killing it completely. But all was not lost.
After the dentist, we went to see my dad’s buddy, Dermot. Dermot was a gas man who ran a company out near Cork airport, importing German hi fi gear which we sold in our music shops. Dermot, the airport and Jury’s Hotel were my top three things about Cork.
When we arrived at Dermot’s HQ and warehouse, it was obvious I was not enjoying my first day as a teenager. He promptly took us through to the back and opened up a crate that had just come in. Inside were some Formula 1 look-a-like cars that were actually FM stereo radios. One of those got the party started. Then it was tea and biccies upstairs looking out over the airport and the (admittedly not many) planes coming in and out. The finishing touch was a bit of business with Jack, followed by a spot of lunch at Jury’s. My birthday had gone from dead loss to dead good in a matter of seconds. 29 years later, I remember it vividly.
While I was riding the emotional teenage rollercoaster down in Cork, another Porsche fan was having his own ups and downs in the French Alps. Deep into the 1981 Monte Carlo rally, Jean-Luc Thérier (below) was battling to keep his Alméras Frères 911 SC ahead of a pack including Bjorn Waldegaard and Ari Vatanen in Mk 2 Ford Escorts, the always-entertaining former European champion Jochi Kleint in the Ascona, Mikkola and Mouton in their Quattros (first WRC outing for them), Ragnotti in the R5 Turbo and Fréquelin and Henri Toivonen in the hard-charging Sunbeams. Also racing was a certain Herr Barth in a Porsche 924.
Jean-Luc’s first WRC event had been in 1973, the year of his first French Rally Championship, driving an Alpine A110. On the Monte, J-L took his first stage win and finished fourth, behind Mikkola in the Escort. The Alpines had been a force to be reckoned with: 6 of the top ten were A110s, with Porsche man Bob Wollek finishing 14th in another. Rear engined, rear wheel drive set set the scene for Thérier’s year: the erstwhile 110 powering him to victory in Portugal, Greece and San Remo.
In 1975 and ’76, Jean-Luc ran the Monte in A310 Alpines and retired both times. 1977 and ’78 brought a Toyota drive, and retirement from every event he started. ’79 brought him back to the Monte in a Golf (if only everything in life was as reliable), but again retirement beckoned. The dawn of a new decade was a chance to wipe the slate clean. For the Tour de Corse, Jean Luc and the faithful Michael Vial jumped in a Porsche: an SC built by the Alméras brothers in Montpellier. They won the event.
Life was pretty sweet for Jean-Luc when he rolled into Monaco on January 23rd, 1981 and prepared to drive a car he had already won in; a car he knew could win. He was immediately on the pace and, by the last day, held a useful lead over Ragnotti’s Renault.
That final night, some spectators pushed a load of snow into a corner close to the end of a stage. Thérier’s SC, first on the road, slid wide, damaging the nearside rear corner (seen above en route to the scene of the accident). Jean’s lead was gone, and the 911 was out. Dead good to dead loss in a matter of seconds. Note the face in service afterwards:
1982 was a good year for JLT: a second French championship, again in a Renault and another Monte 911 drive, this time finishing third. The 911 was in good company: behind Rohrl’s Ascona 400, which had led commandingly all event and the Quattro of Mikkola, which had fought back on the last few slippery stages of an otherwise dry event to snatch second.
And so, Jean Luc, we salute you. Porsche life would be so much poorer without the following Super 8 footage of your exciting Esso 911 SC charging through the Alps on the way to what might have been, and so very nearly was.
Part 2 is SUPERB but watch part 1 first.
