Rally History (part III)

A few more clues from a Jaguar book:
"In 1953, Ian Appleyard foresook XKs, which were no longer eligible for the Monte Carlo Rally, for a Mk VII and finished a fine second in the general classification." I don't know if this meant that 2-seaters were no longer allowed or whether cars now had to be closed - I suspect it was 'no more 2-seaters'
XK 120s competed in the Alpine, the Tulip, the Liege-Sofia-Liege and the RAC so obviously 2-seaters were admitted to those events. They wouild have been in a separate class, probably with a stiffer time penalty than the saloons.
I have even seen photos of C-Type Jaguars running in the "Rallye Soleil Cannes' and the 'Tour de France'. As about 50 C-Types were made, they may have qualified as 'Production' cars.

And a bit more.

The November 1954 Motor Sport reports on the October 6th meeting of the CSI and some interesting things come out.
(1) A resolution to rename the "Touring Championship of Europe as the "Rally Championship of Europe" was defeated
(2) The Championship was to be for Group 1 (Standard series production cars) and Group 2 (Grand Touring) cars
(3) The 1955 Championship to comprise the following rallies:
Monte Carlo
Sestriere
British
tulip
Nurburgring
Midnight Sun
Alpine
Adriatic
Liege-Rome-Liege
Viking
Geneva

Hello Jrally,

This is what I have, indeed it's very hard to find results from Austrian rallies

11. Lavanttaler Frühlings Rally 27-29 March 1987

1 Georg Fischer – Thomas Zeltner Mig Linz Audi Coupé Quattro
2 Franz Wittmann – Jörg Pattermann Funkberäter Lancia Delta HF 4WD
3 Franz Filzmoser – Markus Mitterbauer Volkswagen Golf GTi 16V
4 Andreas Karasek – Fritz Schweighofer Ford Sierra RS Cosw.
5 Alois Pfeiffer – Hubert Stadler Mazda 323 4WD
6 Eddy Schlager – Ernst Röhringer Mazda 323 4WD
7 Peter Holub – Wolfgang Jörg Mercedes Benz 190E 2.3-16
8 Karl – Müllner Mazda 323 4WD
9 J. Winkler – E. Winkler Volkswagen Golf GTi 16V
10 Langauer - Kisselbach Mitsubishi Lancer

9. Int. Pirelli Phyrn-Eisenwurzen Rally 1-2 May 1998

1 Raphaël Sperrer – Christina Hörner Renault Elf Team Mégane Maxi
2 Markus Mitterbauer - Detlef Ruf Team Castrol Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD
3 Achim Mörtl - Jörg Pattermann Sebring Technology Subaru Impreza WRC
4 Willi Stengg - Harald Wolf Sebring Technology Ford Escort RS Cosw.
5 Sepp Haider - Stefan Eichhorner Peugeot Rallye Team 306 Maxi
6 Raimund Baumschlager - Klaus Wicha Remus Racing Volkswagen Golf TDi
7 Herbert Lettner - Heike Feichtinger Team Castrol Volkswagen Golf Kit Car
8 Matthias Moosleitner - Sigi Schwarz Ford Escort RS Cosw.
9 Tomaž Jemc - Matjaž Korošak Petrol Racing Ford Escort RS Cosw.
10 Fritz Waldherr - Thomas Fleer Lancia Delta HF Int.

If you have more results of the 87 and 98 championship, please I'm searching for this, but hard to find.

Regards,
Infiniti

Infiniti,
As discussion has moved on to other topics since Jrally posted his query it would have helped to trace things if you had copied his query into your response.

Everybody,
As we have just a single thread for "Rally History" I think we need to adopt this type of approach when more than one topic are being discussed.

Duncan (in his capacity as moderator)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by D-Type

(3) The 1955 Championship to comprise the following rallies:
Monte Carlo
Sestriere
British
tulip
Nurburgring
Midnight Sun
Alpine
Adriatic
Liege-Rome-Liege
Viking
Geneva

---

Nurburgring? Could you tell me please what kind of rally was it?

As for my list I would have a couple of more questions:

1. What happened to Rallye Wiesbaden? It was a part of ERC in '53 and '54 but not in '55 anymore.
2. When rallies with multiple starting points (Monte-Carlo, RAC, Lisboa, Tulip) ceased using this formula?
3. Which rallies used at least 70% non-tarmac roads? AFAIK, Acropolis and Moroccan had almost 100% gravel roads, and Safari a mix of gravel, sand and mud I guess. Also Rallye del Sestriere was a bit different since it was held in late February and most of the roads were covered in snow (but I'm judging it only from some pictures I googled). And what about the others?

I am simply quoting what the magazine report said. I'm afraid I don't know details. Maybe the Nurburgring and Wiesbaden Rallies were the same event as the two places are only about 60mi / 100km apart.

Your description of East African roads is about right. Very few inter-town roads were tarmac. Some roads were classified as 'dry weather only' and some as 'all-weather' - the latter being those with a higher stone and gravel content. As the rally developed, the route tended to follow secondary roads which were never tarmac.

The first Safari (1953) had multiple starting points (Nairobi, Morogoro and Kampala) but this was abandoned in subsequent years.

I think Lisboa sunk after foreign crews were heavily penalised for not having black numbers on a white background and local crews won. They were penalised twice, once for each side of the car...
The old story of factions within the sport in certain countries. No evidence, but the more welcome faction may have only finally emerged victorious when the TAC Rally became a popular International in the late 60s (ironically with multiple starting points, when the Monte was the only other remaining multi-start event).

I don't think you will ever establish the exact mix of surfaces, even with all the official rally documents. For example, it is comparatively recently (70s) that the RAC Rally began to issue any meaningful advance information about the stages. In total mileage, the Acropolis had plenty of tarmac, just not used for most of the more competitive sections. The competitive element in Sweden and Finland was gravel and there were (are still) comparatively few tarmac main roads. The Liege had reduced gravel as more and more Alpine passes became surfaced but more as it pushed further into eastern Europe.
The 58 RAC Rally still had a choice of starts (Blackpool or Hastings). I don't think the 59 edition did (Jack Kemsley's first as organiser) and the "forest" RACs of 60 onwards didn't.

Grisza, a few more pieces for your jigsaw from Motor Sport magazine. What are you planning to do with this information?

In addition to the European Touring Championship, ie Rally Championship, there was also a European Women's Touring Championship

In 1952 the CSI first defined a Standard Touring Car and in 1954 they introduced 'Forms of Recognition', ie homologation forms.

The 1958 Acropolis Rally had Trieste and Athens as starting points

The 1954 Championship rounds were:
Monte Carlo Rally
Sestriere Rally
RAC Rally
Tulip Rally
Travenmunde Rally
Rally to the Midnight Sun
Alpine Rally
Liege-Rome-Liege
Viking Rally
Rally of the Snow (Geneve)
Lisbon Rally

In 1959 the qualifiers were:
Monte Carlo Rally
Sestriere Rally
Tulip Rally
German Rally
Acropolis Rally
Rally to the Midnight Sun
Alpine Rally
Adriatic Rally
Rally of the Million Lakes (Finland)
Liege-Rome-Liege
Viking Rally
Portuguese Rally
RAC Rally

Points in the 1959 Championship were only awarded to 'Production Touring cars (1000 off, saloon car bodies)

Thank you guys for all your replies and information provided. As for ERC '54 - are you sure it was Rallye Travemünde?

The website I'm using says it was Rallye Wiesbaden:

European Rally Championship


And it seems that Rallye Wiesbaden became later the International German Rally. That's what German wiki says:

Rallye Wiesbaden

Unfortunately I couldn't find any information on Rallye Travemünde.


D-Type, would you be so kind and post here also rounds of ERC from 1956-58?

I'm afraid that's all I could find searching the 1950's Motor Sport CD ROM - They didn't list the Championship rallies every year. The lists were published in the November or December magazines and were the lists provided by the CSI or the RAC for the following year.
Perhaps the Weisbaden was originally listed as Rallye Travemünde in October 1953 and by the time it was run it had become the Rallye Weisbaden. As I said above, the two towns aren't that far apart so it could well be the same rally. Or perhaps one club found they couldn't run a major rally so the other took over, or ....? Even in those pre-sponsorship days the names of rallies did change.