Andrew Cowan

13 December 1936 -

Codriver: Brian Coyle

Andrew Cowan and Brian Coyle were a team since they did the 1961 RAC Scottish Rally in Andrew's Rapier. John and Anne Melvin won that time, but they did use a Sunbeam to do it. Cowan used to be a farmer in the Scottish borders.
In 1962 they were given Works support and finished 19th, proving that the combination worked.
Another source states that the team Andrew Cowan & David Thomson won the Scottish Rally in both 1962 and 1963 in a Sunbeam Rapier.

Name: DeLarge
Date: 22 Aug. 2006

Regarding your Andrew Cowan page, I now have two corroborating sources that Cowan did win the Scottish Rally outright in '62 and '63. The Scottish Rally's official site and the man himself, in an interview in the Scotsman last year.

Rootes noticed.
From then on Andrew had either a Works car or Works support for every international rally he did.
He started in Sunbeam Rapiers but also successfully rallied the Imp.

Monte Carlo Rally, January 1964. Andrew Cowan / Keith Ballisat in 4526 KV (an unmodified Group I Imp) with competition no. 90. Of the eight Imps that were entered by Rootes Works, seven drove the 3,000 miles from the Oslo start and arrived safely in Monte Carlo.

RAC Rally, 1964 Production Touring Cars, up to 1150cc (Group 2) 1st: Andrew Cowan / Brian Coyle (Sunbeam Imp Sport 875cc modified)

14th RAC Rally: 1965. Tough rally - due to snow, ice, fog and pouring rain, only 62 out of 162 participants finished. Amongst these 62 were all three Works Imps. Andrew Cowan / Brian Coyle drove 4525 KV.

Andrew Cowan with co-driver Don Barrow drove a works Imp in the 1965 Scottish Rally (June). They had the dreaded transaxle trouble and retired on Special Stage 13

RAC 1966. Andrew Cowan had to retire due to transaxle problems.

Monte Carlo Rally, January 1967
class: Production cars up to 1000cc
1st: Andrew Cowan/ Brian Coyle

Alpine Rally 1967: 9th overall

Scottish Rally, 1967. Andrew Cowan drove JRW 700E with unknown results.

He was second (?) on the 1967 Scottish Rally with Brian Coyle in a works Imp JRW700E.

Monte Carlo Rally, January 1968
Andrew Cowan / Brian Coyle win the 851cc to 1150cc class Production Touring Cars and finish 22nd overall. The Imp is JHP 100E with competition no. 45, a modified Sunbeam Imp Sport 875cc.

Scottish Rally, 1968. Cowan in LKW 700F had an accident and retired.

Andrew Cowan - Rallycross Lydden Hill Photos for sale at photohistoric.com

His greatest success was winning the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon with Colin Malkin (another quick Imp driver) and Brian Coyle in a works Hillman Hunter.

Scottish Rally, June 1969
The works Imp's last international event. (Hillman Imp, 1140cc)
From the Glasgow start 70 forestry Specials had to be negotiated. The forestry tracks were terribly damaging. Over half the field was put into the garage before the first 24 hours were over. 134 started, 71 finished. JDU 48E (with comp.no. 3) suffered transaxle problems. Andrew Cowan replaced the unit with one from his own road Imp, kept on his nearby farm. One night their Imp looked a bit kit-car-ish, with a complete engine and transaxle perched where Brian Coyle normally sits. They swopped their damaged transaxle, without losing any road time, the next morning. Andy and Brian continued to finish second overall to Simo Lapinen's Saab V4.
JDU 48E was later owned and rallied by Steve Brew.

International Scottish Rally, July 1969
Andre Cowan / Brian Coyle drove a Hillman Imp with which they gathered 3782 pts - good for a second place.

Cowan, A.
"Why finish last?" / Andrew Cowan. - Queen Anne Press, 1969. - iii-xi, 129 p : 16 plates, illus., ports ; 21 cm
ISBN 362 002 2
ISBN 0362000522
Subject: London-Sydney Marathon

When in the late seventies Competitions Manager Des O'Dell was developing the Sunbeam Lotus, Andrew Cowan did the competitive driving of the rally-prepared version, WRW 30S, with the 2 litre 230bhp Lotus engine. (Bernard Unett carried out development testing)

Nowadays Andrew Cowan is Team Principal of the Mitsubishi Ralliart Europe world rally championship team.

Non-Imp info

In October 1970 he drove a Works mini (YMO 881H) in the Southern Cross Rally - he and R. Forsyth retired.

In 1979 he won his class (codriver Johnstone Syer) in the Safari Rally, driving a Mercedes 280 E. That same year he did the Rallye Côte d'Ivoire in a Mercedes 450 SLC 5.0 (codriver Klaus Kaiser), finishing 3rd in class.
He ended up on position 8 in the 1979 World Rally Championship for Drivers (22 points). The following year he was no. 36 with 6 points.

World Rally Championship Classifications

Andrew Cowan's Rally Record