Classic Rallies gives a wonderful look at rallying as it is now – and especially as it was in years past.
Today’s rallying is “made for TV” with everything happening under the eyes of the camera, often only minutes away from the rally headquarters and the hotels where the crews spend theirnights.
A far cry from the great events of the 1960s and ‘70s when man and machine were often alone for hours, even days, with little support. Cars now have expendable parts and a gearbox can be changed in twenty minutes. On the long tough rallies of yesteryear we had to drive 3000 kms exclusively up and down the French Alpes, against the clock for most of the way, and look after the gearbox and every other part of the car, since changing them was out of the question. Liège-Sofia-Liège was even worse, being almost a flat out drive from Belgium to Bulgaria and back, through the roughest roads the length of Yugoslavia and over the horrific little passes like the Gavia and the Vivione in the Italian Dolomites. Service was wherever the service crews could reach and was usually limited to a change of tires, refueling and, hopefully, minor repairs, since any time used for service had to be made up on the road bythe driver.
Today, rallies consist of short sprints over limited special stages in daylight, often disputed twice, or eventhree times, over a period of a few hours. Thirty or forty years ago more than half of the competitive distance on the classic rallies was run at night. Monte Carlo would have long sections running through the Chartreuse mountains between Chambéry and Grenoble before crossing the Rhone valley and continuing in what was often the deeply snowbound and ice covered Ardeche. All in the same night.
Classic Rallies will take you into the world of rallying today where you will experience the Golden Era of rallies and meet the stars who drove in them thirty or forty years ago.
Ollivier Jacq at www.classicrallies.com
Source: www.articlesbase.com
