Quote Originally Posted by sonnybobiche View Post
My impression (because I wasn't following it then) was that this used to be Safari.
No, quite contrary to that, Safari was more of a specialist event with not even all teams and drivers taking part, instead using specialist drivers who would not then do the rest of the rounds at all (like Waldegård in 1990 or Ian Duncan). Maybe the car manufacturers felt like it was an important event to show off for car endurance, but us fans were more interested in fights for seconds (we didn't do timing in tenths back then).

I would say Monte and RAC, maybe also 1000 Lakes and Portugal had a special status already in the 80's 90's which made up a good entry list and good media coverage. And I think those events have still held up their status, despite name changes and route shrinks.

Meanwhile, I never really found appreciation for the 24h track races or rally raids in my young days when I followed motorsports more vastly, but again, maybe that's just me.