IRELAND-OBITS-L Archives

From: "Peter_McCrae" <>
Subject: ADAMS: Ronnie Adams--d.app.04/2004
Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 12:47:13 +0100

> Ronnie Adams
> (Filed: 17/04/2004)
> The Daily Telegraph and the telegraph .co.uk
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> Ronnie Adams, who died on Easter Monday aged 88, was one of the last
> gentleman rally drivers to win at the highest level.
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> His performance in the heavyweight Jaguar Mark VII saloon when he won the
> 1956 Monte Carlo Rally was outstanding. Sir Stirling Moss described the
> big Jaguar as "having a chassis which handled surprisingly well
> considering its size, while the body trailed along behind like a scarf".
>
> Ronnie Adams was born in Northern Ireland on March 8 1916. He was educated
> at Wrekin College before joining the Belfast-based family linen company,
> William Adams, founded by his grandfather. Ronnie was a fine all-round
> sportsman, a crack rifle shot and good cricketer who missed the
> opportunity to shoot for his school at Bisley on account of his cricketing
> commitments.
>
> Aged only 11, he was taught to drive by the family chauffeur and held a
> legal licence when he was 13. In 1934 he talked his father into buying a
> new MG sports car in which he entered hill-climb competitions; in 1936 he
> won the first Circuit of Ireland Rally, driving an Austin 16 Sports
> Saloon. From 1939, he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Ulster Horse,
> but was invalided out in 1943.
>
> Resuming his motor sport career after the war, Adams drove Triumph,
> Sunbeam and Jaguar cars. He shared his Monte Carlo Rally win with
> co-driver Frank Biggar and their navigator/timekeeper Derek Johnston; it
> was a period when three-man crews were common (Adams described their
> duties as "driver, navigator and barman"). Although it had been a
> relatively snow-free "Monte", their Jaguar was the only car of more than
> 2.5-litre capacity to finish in the first 38.
>
> Adams drove a Kieft sports car in the 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy at Dundrod,
> Ulster, in which three drivers were killed. He raced the big Jaguar at
> Silverstone, and took part in a series of East African Safari Rallies
> (staying on to shoot kudu), as well as in the Alpine Rally and - in 1962 -
> the famous Liege-Sofia-Liege Rally which the Belgian organisers hoped
> would be so tough that nobody would finish. Adams's international rallying
> career finally ended on medical advice, due to an irregular heartbeat.
>
> He had meanwhile become managing director of William Adams on his father's
> death in the mid-1950s. He quickly recognised that the specialist fine
> linen and damask market offered little potential growth, and moved into
> man-made textiles.
>
> Adams sailed competitively in Dragon class dinghies, and also took up
> classic car motor sport, driving MGA and Daimler Dart sports cars. In 1996
> he and the Daimler survived a high-speed somersault on the Isle of Man,
> Adams sustaining a broken collarbone and cracked ribs. Only last January
> he demonstrated a 400-hp Porsche Turbo on the Kirkistown circuit in
> Northern Ireland, remarking that the 127 mph his passenger saw on the
> short straight was "the fastest I have ever driven".
>
> Ronnie Adams was twice married. With his first wife, Eileen, who
> predeceased him, he had three sons and a daughter; they survive him with
> his second wife, Sheila.
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> © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006.
>

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• ADAMS: Ronnie Adams--d.app.04/2004 by "Peter_McCrae" <>