1979 Opel Monza "Rally Car Ex Austin McHale"

I wrote the article on McHale's Monza and it was for Pacenotes, about 3 years ago. At the time I spoke to McHale, Effe, O Rourke ... and later also Ian Cuddy who helped build the car but that was after I'd written the article. Heres a rundown on the article and a few photos

Up to 1987, Austin McHale had been backed by and part of the team that was Dealer Opel Team Ireland for many years from when he and team-mate Billy Coleman first challenged the STP Tarmac Championship for overall honours, both in Manta 400’s.

As it happened, through the connection of Frank O’Rourke, who had direct connections with DOTI on the circuit racing scene, McHale was able to bring in an Opel Monza which has been used on and won production saloon races in England and Ireland. So because of the spec the car already had, it didn’t take much to adapt it to tarmac rallying specs.

McHale’s mechanics, spearheaded on as ever by Mickey Eiffe soon got down to work, re building the car from ground up in a race to meet the Easter deadline.

Before the event McHale had been quoted to say.."The Monza should suit me alright. It's a bit bigger than the Manta, but we think we can get the weight down to within 50 kgs of the minimum 1050 allowed for the class and quite a few parts from the Manta 400 can be used in the Monza, like the gears, differential and brakes. The six-cylinder engines has 245 BHP and should be smooth to drive "

"It is not going to be as fast as some of these new so-called Group A cars on the rally, but we'll not be far away."

McHale took delivery of the car just the night before the rally and just as he went to take it out for a quick test, it suffered fuel pump failure, and the Dubliner was looking a little unsure of his chances. As he would soon find out on the real stages the following day, the car was more than a handful “It was a tank, very heavy, but reliable”.

He struggled with various problems throughout the event including collapsed front suspension whereby the car was bottoming out and wallowing on the yumps. The mechanics fitted harder springs, but later the front bulkhead and inner wings started giving way under the strain. An ever-disappearing rear windscreen due to its weight and mass was also a major issue for the DOTI team mechanics. McHale also bent a wheel and damaged the car slightly as he hit part of a wall which Sebastian Lindholm and Dai Llewellin had also hit, on the Gortnapeaky stage.

But despite these problems, he and co driver Christy Farrell indeed weren’t “far away”….finishing in 5th position overall, a good result for anyone in a new car. Ahead of them McRae won the rally in a Sierra Cosworth while the Audi Quattro’s of Lindholm and Llewellin lay 2nd and 3rd respectively, with another Sierra of Phil Collins slotting into fourth, although well ahead of McHale and Farrell in 5th. Terry Kaby finished in 6th in his Peugeot 205 Gti, not far off McHales final times.

“Mobile Chicane”

Here is the story of 99 GZJ, an Opel Monza which had its fair share of hits and bangs.
The car had originally been owned as a road car by a General Motors worker, but when they crashed it around 1983, it was unable to be used a road car any longer.

Frank O’Rourke who is an Opel Dealer from Wexford town then bought the car and built it to do Production Saloon car racing.

Frank raced it for about three years from 1983 to 86 up and down Ireland from Kirkistown to Mondello to Wexford and occasional hillclimbs across the country too. He also completed one rally in the car as an official, 002 safety car on the 1984 Wexford Rally.

However he never found it an easy car to drive

“Not only was it a boaty car but at that time all of the Production Saloon cars ran on exactly the same fixed size Dunlop tyres and just as the Alfa Romeo boys found out, tyres with a dimension 16” at 50 psi on a big car meant they were just like balloons.”

“It was no front runner and in ways the old Commodores we raced years before were better than the Monza. In fairness it was a good car on the faster more open circuits like Kirkistown, but found great difficulty steering it through the tight bends of Mondello and the likes. So much so that the car got the nickname “Mobile Chicane”.”

His connection with the big Monza came to a sudden end however, as he once crashed the car into a ditch and hit the stump of a tree. The car was heavily damaged at the front and due to him having a full face helmet he fractured his sternum in the process.

The damaged car lay in O’Rourkes garage for about 6 or 8 months coming near the end of the 1986 season and it was then that the opportunity came up for McHale to buy and use the car.

Mickey Eiffe, McHales chief mechanic, takes over the story from here

“Well after it had been crashed and Austin bought the car we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare the car but it was quite well geared for Group A spec anyway.”

“The only things we used from the Manta which was obviously lying not used were the gearbox and diff setup which were actually Group B spec, and same wheels.”

“The brakes on the Monza were terrible…very small and for the size of the car non-proportioned.”

“The problem with the fuel pump the night before the rally wasn’t with this car alone though….they also went on the works Kadetts which DOTI had running.”

After the Manx Rally which was the only other European qualifying event McHale had down to do in 87, a friend of an RED mechanic who had heard the car would be for sale came and had a look at it…was interested in buying it and so met Mickey Eiffe at the boat where they exchanged it to the Englishmans trailer and that’s the last I can trace of the car.