1974 Rally of the Rideau Lakes Video

[Doug Woods]

While sorting through some old rally junk, I came across a video of the 1974 World Championship Rally of the Rideau Lakes. CBC Sports covered the rally and presented a one hour nationwide broadcast of the rally about two weeks after the event.

We made this video tape of that television broadcast. Home based video was almost unknown then and as I recall, we had to beg and borrow the equipment to make this video tape.

It is quite good, with action shots of the works Lancia Stratos, Lancia Betas, Fiat 124 Abarths, Canadian rally legends Walter Boyce and Jean-Paul Perusse, and a great sequence of Victor Wejer barrel rolling his Toyota (this sequence was shown on the CBC National Evening News the first night of the rally - imagine that happening now!).

This video tape is a real piece of Canadian rally history and may be the only copy that exists.

Here is my problem. I would like to get it transferred to VHS (for myself) but I would also like it to be available to the Canadian (and USA) rally community. It is on "Sony Video Tape for Helical Scan Video Recorders, V-32". It is on a reel about 7 inches in diameter and the tape width looks to be 1/2 inch. It is in a plastic bag and stored in an impressive looking fold out container. So, it should be in good shape. Probably last played in 1975.

If anyone can help, please contact me. I would be particularly interested in hearing from someone who could make the tape available to rallyists who would like a copy.

Doug Woods

[Foghorn]

Doug,

If you ever figure out how to get it re-recorded, I'd love to have a copy. Sandy and I have fond memories of our competition in that event even though our results were less than spectacular. Let me know how much. Hopefully less than the current asking price for a twinmaster. :P

Kent Gardam

[warwick]

Where are you located?

Perhaps National Film Board in Ottawa has some services that could help you out? Perhaps CBC archives have the equipment to transfer those types of tapes?

[bradyg]

Wow, what a great find! I'll see if I can find some help!

[Shawn]

Hi Doug,

You might also ask Lawrence Partington at TV2GO. He may be able to point you in the right direction.

Shawn

[patr]

in this years defi show I beleive they had clips of some old school defi footage - was it the same stuff ? whatever it was it looked really really fast. It was a tarmac bit of rally.

[Doug Woods]

>in this years defi show I beleive they had clips of some old
>school defi footage - was it the same stuff ? whatever it
>was it looked really really fast. It was a tarmac bit of
>rally.

Pat:

That was the World Championship Criterium de Quebec, 1977-1979 vintage, with the works Escorts, Fiats, Datsuns, etc. on the tarmac Tour du Lac stage around the lake in Ste Agathe.

Doug Woods

[Rvl]

I`d like a copy of the videos. Of course I`ll pay for it.
If anyone has videos from 1972 Quebec Rally , I am interested to get one for my sponsor as a gift. He participated in that event and now has no souvenirs of his time there to show his grandchildren.

Robert VanLane

[anikracing]

Jean-Paul Perusse eh....would John Bellefleur have been his co-driver and, would JB have had follicles on top back then? Hmmmmm.

Mark Ockwell

[Doug Woods]

>Jean-Paul Perusse eh....would John Bellefleur have been his
>co-driver and, would JB have had follicles on top back then?

Mark:

Yes. No.

Doug Woods

[anikracing]

Doug,

The curator of the CBC Broadcast Museum is a neighbour of ours and he is willing to help you out. If you would like to pursue this further, contact me off-list.

Mark Ockwell

[Rich Smith]

Doug,

I too would love to have a copy. Please put me on your list.

Rich Smith
netrecce@juno.com

Vive le "Pro-le-Ralliat"

[Doug Woods]

Mark:

PM sent.

Doug Woods

[craig]

Quite interested in a copy. We run many still existing RL roads on our road rallies.

Also, the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame may be interested in an archival copy. Randy Black told me at Mosport that he had found a rally Toyota in New Brusnswick for the Hall. So, lets keep rally history in the Hall, too!

Craig

http://www3.sympatico.ca/kchamm/rally.html

[rallydave]

Hi Doug,

I too would love a copy, I was there crewing for John Smiskol in his brand new Datsun 260Z. We actually set the jets on the carberators while driving the rally car from Chicago to Smiths Falls.

Thanks,

David Weiman
rallydave@pdq.net

[Foghorn]

Doug,

Were you ever able to get this copied onto VHS (or some other format)? Can copies be made available?

Kent

[lummer shawn]

yeah
did you ever find someone to transfer it?

id love to see it!

[Doug Woods]

>did you ever find someone to transfer it?

Everyone:

Mark Ockwell spent considerable time trying to get the tape transferred through a friend of his with CBC archive connections but with no success.

Recently Craig Hamm has given me some really good leads, especially a place in Maine that can certainly do the transfer.

Just up to me now to get my finger out and get it done.

Doug Woods

[lummer shawn]

i am currently enrolled in a broadcast television program, and we have a bunch of old machines, ill see if we have anything to transfer it with too, give you some options. :)

[jpperusse]

Hi Doug,

If you ever get this film on digital media, please put me on your list as well. I have lost all my Riedau lakes pictures but one which can be seen at perusse.ca

Cheers,

JP

[jpperusse]

Hi Doug,

Whatever happened with this conversion exercise?

No need to say that I would be interested in getting a copy.

Cheers, JP

[Lawrence Partington]

Just logging on from Oregon and haven't been on the Canadian forum for a while. This is really interesting, Doug. Back in 74 portable cameras shot 16mm film and that was the standard for news. The only way video could have been used was with a mobile truck and cabled cameras, the way you'd shoot a circuit race. I was there and that's how I remember CBC doing it with lights and generators out in the woods. I don't think colour video tape had been invented yet, that came a couple of years later with 2" wide Quad tape. If the reel you've got is actually half inch, it's sure to be black and white and I'd be very worried that there's nothing on it at all. Tape is still not a stable medium for longterm (20+ years) storage and you've got a very early sample of the form. Someone suggested the NFB in Montreal, which is the best idea I can think of too. As a rally fan and a competitor in the 74 Rideau Lakes, I'd love to be wrong. Good luck. Rest assured, if TV2GO can assist in the restoration project in anyway, just ask.

[Doug Woods]

Just logging on from Oregon and haven't been on the Canadian forum for a while. This is really interesting, Doug. Back in 74 portable cameras shot 16mm film and that was the standard for news. The only way video could have been used was with a mobile truck and cabled cameras, the way you'd shoot a circuit race. I was there and that's how I remember CBC doing it with lights and generators out in the woods. I don't think colour video tape had been invented yet, that came a couple of years later with 2" wide Quad tape. If the reel you've got is actually half inch, it's sure to be black and white and I'd be very worried that there's nothing on it at all. Tape is still not a stable medium for longterm (20+ years) storage and you've got a very early sample of the form. Someone suggested the NFB in Montreal, which is the best idea I can think of too. As a rally fan and a competitor in the 74 Rideau Lakes, I'd love to be wrong. Good luck. Rest assured, if TV2GO can assist in the restoration project in anyway, just ask.

Lawrence:

You are correct in the manner in which CBC produced the orginal television show. When the show was broadcast, we (the rally organizers) video taped it with the Sony equipment. The video is in colour and is very high quality. We only showed it twice in 1974/1975, and it has been sitting in a case wrapped in plastic since then.

Mark Ockwell tried to help me out early in this exercise through contacts he had at the CBC, but no one had the old Sony equipment to run the tape.

Last year, Craig Hamm found a place in Maine that had the equipment and could definitely do the job. At the MFR, I gave the tape to Dave Getchell to bring to this company (since they are only a short distance from his house). I won't go into the sorry details of what happened next, but this company played silly buggers with him.

Dave then found a company in New York city that can do the job and got quotes from them. This was around Christmas time and I put Dave on hold as I had a lot of things on the go then.

Basically, I have been too lazy since then to re-activate the project. Perhaps, this is the incentive I need. However, I am not really interested in getting into the business of creating copies and distributing them. Are you? Might be some CBC rights issues involved.

Doug Woods

[Lawrence Partington]

We'd only be involved if it was done legally and I'll happily make the call to secure the rights from CBC. The current Head of Sports is a former staff producer at TV2GO who has gone on to a much better career. I think he was 4 when this show was produced so I'm sure he can be persuaded to waive rights issues. Making dubs and selling to the rally community is not a viable business venture because pirating rally tapes is our inalienable right. There was a guy with a booth here in Oregon openly selling homemade DVDs of the 2007 WRC shows! But in the interest of preserving some important Canadian rally history, you've got all the technical support you'll need from my gang.

[Foghorn]

Hey Doug, assuming the price comes in somewhere close to reasonable, I gotta have a copy of a world championship rally that I participated in too.

Kent

[jpperusse]

Doug, I am sure I can find 10 people interested inchipping in for this souvenir.
Let me know if you want me to take it from there on.

JP
514 776-6786

[rightseat]

Rideau Lakes tape is still safe n sound here in my office.

Case is marked, "V-32 Sony Video Tape for Helical Scan Video Recorders"

V-32 tape is 2370 feet, 720 m long according to liner card.

[Doug Woods]

Rideau Lakes tape is still safe n sound here in my office.

Dave:

I will be in touch off-line shortly and hopefully we can get this moving again.

Doug Woods

[John Cassidy]

Quick google turned up this place:

http://www.videointerchange.com/

Perhaps not helpful, but I had a second! :-) I'm interested in seeing this as well.

Cheers! John

[Steve McKelvie]

John/Dave,
I looked at the website noted by John. At the very bottom it says they do not want to work for anyone based in Maine because of taxes. There is a long discussion on this.

Steve McKelvie
Franklin, Taxachusetts

[rightseat]

they do not want to work for anyone based in Maine because of taxes. There is a long discussion on this.

Steve McKelvie
Franklin, Taxachusetts

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: x 47

don't get me going on this guy!

[John Cassidy]

I though you were joking Steve...until I scrolled down! Crazy! :-(

John

[PRT]

Someone suggested the NFB in Montreal, which is the best idea I can think of too.
Hey, I got a friend that works at ONF/NFB in Mtl... But I don't know how busy they are. I'll ask him if they have that kind of "technology".

[rightseat]

Hey, I got a friend that works at ONF/NFB in Mtl... But I don't know how busy they are. I'll ask him if they have that kind of "technology".

the difficulty with dubbing old video is that the medium (as Lawrence said) is not stable long-term. often the process involves 'baking" the tape to make it flexible and readable. there are only a few labs that specialize in this, and the guy in Maine is well known in the film biz for exactly this sort of archival work. he's just a wing-nut with a serious attitude about paying taxes in his home state. :rolleyes:

there's a good chance the Rideau Lakes tape is still in usable condition--it's still in its original Sony hard case and plastic wrapping. it does not appear to have been used much at all.

[Shawn]

If you can get it out to Calgary, we have a guy here who specializes in that kind of stuff.

Just had the 1961 Loop Rally put on a DVD. It was a 16mm film and seperate audio tape and worked out great (not cheap though). Some other 'old' film found at the CSCC clubhouse as well.


http://www.armycadethistory.com/ has some samples of his work. You are correct in that it depends a lot on the quality of the original film.

Not sure if I can get the Loop video up on Youtube or not but we'll see.

Shawn

[Steve McKelvie]

Dave,
I'm no tax lawyer and I do not I play one on TV, nor does my salary equal one either, but I was there when Doug handed you the tape. I thought that you were merely delivering it for Doug to that silly bugger in Maine. So if you tell him that the work is being done for Doug Woods of Canada (true), you have been only entrusted to deliver the tape (also true) in person, and Doug pays the guy directly (could be arranged, I'd guess) then no Maine tax. This does not seem like the folks in Maine are getting less tax as had Doug mailed it to him, then there would be no tax either.

Steve McKelvie
Itinerant Co-Driver

[Doug Woods]

If you can get it out to Calgary, we have a guy here who specializes in that kind of stuff.

Just had the 1961 Loop Rally put on a DVD. It was a 16mm film and seperate audio tape and worked out great (not cheap though). Some other 'old' film found at the CSCC clubhouse as well.


http://www.armycadethistory.com/ has some samples of his work. You are correct in that it depends a lot on the quality of the original film.

Not sure if I can get the Loop video up on Youtube or not but we'll see.

Shawn

Shawn:

I doubt that he can do it. This is not film, it is video tape. We video taped the orginial CBC show from the television. This was almost unheard of in 1974. In order to process this video tape, one has to have the exact VCR equipment that was used in 1974. This equipment is very rare. Believe me, a lot of people have been trying to help me out on this.

The sad thing is that the guy in Maine has the equipment, is an expert in the field and could have done an excellent job. Also, as Dave stated, there is a lot of preparation work that has to be done on the actual tape before it can be run through the machine.

Unfortunately, the guy in Maine was a total jerk and won't even consider doing the work now. He knows what the tape is about and even if I got it back from Dave and mailed it from Canada to Maine, he would not touch it.

So, the bottom line is that this work is a lot more complicated and equipment intense that simply putting a 16mm film onto a DVD.

However, if you can check with your source in Calgary, to see if he has the original VCR equipment and, if he does, then we would be in business.

Doug Woods

[Doug Woods]

Dave,
I'm no tax lawyer and I do not I play one on TV, nor does my salary equal one either, but I was there when Doug handed you the tape. I thought that you were merely delivering it for Doug to that silly bugger in Maine. So if you tell him that the work is being done for Doug Woods of Canada (true), you have been only entrusted to deliver the tape (also true) in person, and Doug pays the guy directly (could be arranged, I'd guess) then no Maine tax. This does not seem like the folks in Maine are getting less tax as had Doug mailed it to him, then there would be no tax either.

Steve McKelvie
Itinerant Co-Driver

Steve:

See my other post. If you want to hear the whole horror story about this guy and the video, give Dave Getchell a call.

Be prepared to hear some new swear words.;)

But, hey, if someone could convince him to do the work, there would be a free copy of the DVD and a few beers available.

Doug Woods