Portmeirion village is not modelled on a specific location in Italy; a charge that always annoyed Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, its architect and creator. As a project born of passion and commitment rather than logic, it makes it a peculiarly suitable point to pause a classic car rally.   The village has two hundred and fifty year-round, full-time employees, and on June 6th, that number was supplemented by marshals and officials from the Three Castles, covering timing, parking, and hospitality. 

As ever, the morning had challenged competitors with a mixture of regularities and tests.  It was the regularities that had proved most difficult for Malcolm and Martin Davies in the 1934 Alvis, their Brantz having begun to switch itself off, leaving diligence and guesswork as their best guide for much of the time.  The Alvis had a fuel starvation issue too. Still, they had learned to adapt to that and on arrival had the Brit Assist team get to grips with the more pressing problem before enjoying lunch at the Portmeirion Hotel with its spectacular views over the Dwyryd estuary. 

Between the coffee halt at Plas Heli and lunch at Portmeirion, the gap between first and second place had shrunk to one second, Graham Walker nursing a final drive problem and Mark Godfrey poised to overhaul him.  David and Sally Ward were holding a solid third and leading the intermediates, while the rally’s oldest car, the Shoosmith / Baker Bentley, was leading the Heritage class.

Contesting their third Three Castles, Robert and Timothy Carr, running in the novice class with their Sunbeam Imp, were enjoying the event.
“It’s been hard but brilliant fun - if we finish in the top twenty, we’ll be really pleased.” 
At lunch, the pair were in fourteenth position, on target to exceed their goal after their disappointment at being forced to retire last year due to clutch failure.

Despite the determination of the crew, the Thunderbird's misfire eventually led to their retirement, but at Port Meirion, there was little sign of widespread last-day mechanical anxiety. The sun was shining, the cloud no longer hovering over the high hills, and the sky was blue - set fair for another tense finish to the Three Castles Rally in Llandudno.