News from France

[Porschinelle]

By opposition to the FIA WRC Monte Carlo rallye who is a real race on closed to traffic roads, the historical Monte Carlo is a regularity competition with competitors due to respect an average speed they have choosen betwen 3 levels
Low
Average
High
The competitors have also to choose their start city between 6 European cities
Glasgow in Scotland
Lisboa in Portugal
Copenhagen in Denmark
Bad Hambourg in Germany
Barcelona in Spain
and Reims in France
and from there to arrange to be in Monaco by Saturday January 28th evening
This morning all the cars still in the race started their first race day toward Valence along the Rhone river
Around 500 kilometers with several "specials stages" on closed roads
To night the cars spend the night in Valence

[Porschinelle]

At the end of the first race day the leaders are a Swiss team on an AUDI 80 followed by a VW Golf GTI
The best Porsches are in 21 st and 22nd positions
To morrow Monday January 30th second race day with again over 500 kilometers form Valence to Valence on narrow and windy roads in the Massif Central mountains with of course ice and snow
Tuesday January 31st 3rd race day from Valence back to Monaco and then 4th race day with a loop Monaco-Monaco in the South Alps above Monaco with of course the mythic Turini pass and 1609 meters high

[Porschinelle]

[Porschinelle]

This year the Monte Carlo historical rallye celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Finnish pilot Rauno Aaltonen victory in 1967 with the BMC Mini

Rauno Aaaltonen 79 years old is present this year on a similar car

[Porschinelle]

Some other pics
Although it is not a race you may have problems as this BMW

Some of the Porsches on the start line at Reims

[Porschinelle]

[Porschinelle]

a really astonishing performance as most of the leading cars are from the mid 70's

[Porschinelle]

Daniel Elena (usual co pilot of Sebastien Loeb) share a Golf GTI with Olivier Campana

They were leader the first day and still 2nd yesterday but had a bad day to day
Sme of the known pilots
First Jurgen Barth
in the region of the 170 th place
Jean Ragnotti who was an official Renault Alpine pilot but now aged of 71 is also very far back with his Renault factory museum R8 Gordini


idem for Rauno Aaltonen (79 old)

[Porschinelle]

Some of the Porsches on the snowed up roads

[Porschinelle]

It is 8H45 PM in France
All the cars still in the race for the 20th edition of the Monte Carlo Historical rallye are parked along the Mediterranean sea in Monaco
First start for the 2 final stages will be ginen at 9H00 PM for Monaco/Monaco loop including the Turini pass
Final results to be known to morrow morning
At this moment classification as follows

As you may see the 1961 356 BT5 is still in the top 10

[Craig Richter]

I love #103's driving style. You guys are having fun!

[Porschinelle]

The XX edition of the Monte Carlo Historical rallye has ended
Our courageous 356 BT5 had a very bad night pushing her back to the 42nd place
The first Porsche is now an Italian 911 who finish 20th

[Porschinelle]

The overall winner the Belgian team Michel Decremer/Yannick Albert finish the ralye with a mere total of 1400 penalty points

What a difference with the last finishing cars with penalty points over 200.000

[Porschinelle]

Just for fun a last pic of some of the 36 Porsches who entered this difficult edition

[Porschinelle]