Simon Ayris has built lots of rallycars – they get to the end and prove reliable, built to a basic philosophy of “To Finish First, First You Must Finish”. Bits that drop off or go wrong, or break, only give frustrations, not good results, and when things go wrong its usually just at the wrong moment, and often because of the way the parts have been screwed together… it’s the methods that makes the critical difference, not the actual part itself.
Workmanship with experience matters…the person who screws each nut together has to have some sympathy and full appreciation of where its going, what demands its being called to do. Simon Ayris has both appreciation, understanding and experience because he has been a competitor himself – he has not just sat in rallycars, he’s worked underneath them in the heat of competition. International Special Stage events abroad, to 12-car events round the lanes, Simon has been there, experienced it personally. From classic cars to Subaru Imprezzas and Mitsubishi Evos.
Simon was co-driver to Martin Kernahan in the final works Mini appearance at World Championship level when he took part in the 1998 Rallye d’Catalunya – the swansong outing for the Mini Cooper’s illustrious career in international rallying. Simon previously helped to win two rally championships as co-driver in a Group B Talbot Samba, with Martin Snell.
Recent rally preparation experience has been with the upsurge of interest in Endurance Rallying within the UK - Simon was on the first Lombard Rally, and has competed as a co-driver in other local events, and built cars that have achieved good results. He has also tackled more unusual projects, such as this Rover City which was bought and prepared on a strict low-budget, and driven by the Secretary and Competitions Secretary of Wessex Motor Club for their first-ever foreign venture, the route-survey for the Himalayan Challenge, not missing a beat, nothing falling off, crossing the deserts of central Iran on a bumpy road to India… and also prepared the Ford Ka for “Motorsport News” driven by the Deputy Editor on the Lombard Rally in 2006.
Cars for the major Historic events are no stranger to Simon, who is the former workshop manager of Kernahan’s of Oxford, with 17 years of professional experience in the motor-trade behind him. Ancient or Modern, Simon has wielded spanners on on a wide range of vehicles, tackling a wide range of events.
What Simon offers is simply sound preparation, based on years of past experience, with an understanding of what a car is being called upon to try and achieve. “Preparation is everything – good results start when the car first arrives into the workshop,” says Simon.
With dedicated workshop premises at Standlake, near Witney, close to the A44 and A35, and a short run from Oxford, Simon specialises in only one thing – competition cars that are put together with an attention to detail that could almost be described as loving care, attention that comes from being an enthusiast… and therefore a belief in what he’s being undertaken to carry out. A bit of passion for the task in hand is a rather rare quality these days…
