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NEWS
MOTORSPORT: Eifel Rallye Festival
Group B rally car corroboree towers above other classic eventsGoodwood's Festival of Speed is the highpoint of the northern hemisphere summer for motoring enthusiasts, but there's another festival that's worth a look around this time of year too.
If you're hooked on the glory days of Group B rallying then get on a plane and head for the Eifel Rallye Festival next July. With close to 160 cars covering the entire modern rallying era, you'll have your ears ringing from the waste gate chatter for weeks to come after you get home.
Based around the picturesque village of Daun in the Eifel Mountains just south of another famous motor racing mecca, the Nurburgring, none of the stages are more than a 15 minute drive from the rally village and main service park in the centre of town. Organisers claim around 40,000 spectators made the pilgrimage for the 11th and biggest yet running of the event.
It was a previously a round of the European Championship with a handful of classic cars at the head of the field to warm up the punters, but the trouble was the punters were then luke warm by the time the modern machinery came along and so the rally monsters squeezed out the current swag of sequential gearbox traction control mickey mouse racers – it's now only for "real" cars.
It's not a rally as we’ve come to know them. Given many of the cars are the real deal or at worst a perfect replica (a Group B Audi Sport Quattro replica can set you back close to 200,000 euros) some of the drivers could do with spending a little of their hard earned cash on driving lessons but most are hard into it with the right foot buried to the floor.
Importantly there's no timing, no winner and it's ok if you miss a stage or two while you carry out repairs to your pride and joy. This makes it tough spectating if you are trying to follow the entry list to see who's next but it also means the action is spread over two and a half hours at each spot and there's no seeing the fast guys then rushing to the next location, they're spread right through the field. A Fulvia with a Stratos up its clacker or a Quattro hunting down a two stroke Trabant is bloody brilliant entertainment!
The local Audi club turned up in no less than 12 Sport Quattro road cars and parked them all on the forecourt of rally HQ, more than a few million dollars worth in that lot? And if you think that's cool, then you'll be impressed at the start list riddled with names like Quattro, Lancia 037, Delta Integrale, Peugeot 205 T16, Ford RS200, Fiat Abarth 131, Opel Manta, Celica Turbo Twin Cam, the list goes on and on and on….. There was even Ari Vatanen's Peugeot 405 T16 Dakar car from 1988, previously you would be lucky to have seen this in a museum!
Walter Rohrl, Bjorn Waldegard, Stig Blomqvist, Harri Toivonen (yes the brother of the late Henry Toivonen killed on the Tour de Corse in 1986), Simo Lampinen, they were all there driving and, in the case of Rohrl, more than one car.
Considering none of these cars were ever driven on our local roads and most are never likely to be seen on our shores it's rallying heaven for those that make the long trip from Australia.
So forget the Festival of Speed, that's for the black top boys with run off areas. Rallying is for real men (and women) in real cars.
Now for the Rally Legend around the gravel roads of Tuscany in October and more Group B monsters. You just can't overdose on these classic rallies during a European summer. The hotel room at San Marino is already booked; now it's just a matter of waiting another 10 weeks.
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Written byStuart Bowes
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