Auto Addicts own ‘Rally Legend’ Peter Scott hits the road to Italy to report on last weeks Rally Legend…

It is only when one arrives at Rally Legend that one realises just how special an event it is.  When at 11 am two days before there are 50 pissed up –er, I mean inebriated, of course – Italians sitting on a grass bank just to watch the cars going in and out of scrutineering it rather focuses the mind on what is likely to happen during the rest of the weekend. Their leader and musical conductor is drinking straight from a Johnnie Walker Black Label bottle. There are cars parked everywhere, atop roundabouts, on traffic islands and some, now including mine, at ridiculous angles half way up a steep grass bank.

A Delta S4 passes, the driver gives a big blip for the Italian gang and they go nuts but they equally appreciate a quiet ‘Vroom’ from a rally Fiat 127!  Talking of S4s, there were 15 in total, nine on the stages and the rest joining in during a pre event display. Integrales were everywhere, about 30 of them, including works Lancia ex-world champion Mikki Biasion.  There were eight of rallying’s first supercar, the Ferrari Dino engined Lancia Stratos, led by Frenchman and former Ligier F1 driver Erik Comas. Just as an aside, I did some work for Erik a few years ago when he had his collection of Alpine Renault A110s for renting to the very rich to use on rallies.  I clearly remember the first time he took me out in his personal car, the last iteration using the upper and lower wishbone rear suspension from the A310, and we came to a 90R 90L over a bridge. He fired it in, well sideways, half way across he flicked it the other way and we came out the other side in a fantastic drift. Don’t let anyone tell you the guys at the back of the F1 grid are also rans. They are all superstars, just the guys at the front are even more super.

After the Stratos came the Lancia Rally 037, and there were six of these brilliant cars with the incredible whine from the supercharged engine.  In my eyes the most beautiful is the one owned by Sussex based New Zealander Rob Whitehouse , an ex-Tabaton car in Olio Fiat colours, but that may just be bias as I did a few events with Rob in the car and also before that in his ex-works Stratos. We couldn’t have an event like this without Quattros, of course, and Michael Gerber’s Quattro S1 was by far the quickest. Dave Kedward had his Peugeot 205 T16 and John Saunders his Metro 6R4. WRC Lancers, Asconas, Porsches, 20 older WRC cars. Pure porn, and hard porn at that. Former World Champion Markku Alen was in one of the S4s, multiple champion Juha Kankkunen was in Toyota Celica ST205 – and he led the competitive Historic Rally for a while, but another of the World Champions entered, Mikki Biasion, didn’t seem as up to speed.

I was doing the event in a wonderful BMW M3 in Motul colours – there were a total of eight in the entry list –  belonging to Liverpool VW dealer Adrian Kermode and when we arrived we were pretty shattered  after the 1,287 mile tow. We had only a quick stop for sleep in Jean-Paul Cloudel’s 16^th century Hotel de la Couronne in the pretty walled village of Riquewihr in the Alsace where we just had to sample the Gewürztraminer produced by my good friend and top local wine grower Etienne Hugel. Etienne was out of town but left us a few bottles!  The organisers of Rally Legend had put the UK and some other foreign crews up in a monastery – basic, but surprisingly comfortable – and also some officials.  Among the non-competitors was the stunning – I did hear some other adjectives being used – Tiziana Fait who has her own motoring web show in Italy www.motorinrosa.com  and was doing the start commentary. Her table was the most popular at breakfast!

Anyhow, back to the event. On arrival our quick night time recce of the stages used in the dark had us on the most incredibly twisty roads. Although the roads were short on distance they would take a disproportionally long time. Each stage took many pages of notes. There were four stages in the dark on Friday night, six, mostly in daylight on the Saturday and four more on Sunday morning. Before that, there was a shakedown and here Markku Alen had a bit of a drama when a wishbone failed going into a hairpin but, luckily, a strategically placed bale prevented serious damage.

By Friday the spectators had arrived in their thousands, well equipped for long sessions of – well, of everything you can imagine. Some camped stage side. Some rolled out of bed and staggered across the fields and some behaved themselves. They were everywhere, even on the second day when the rain was so heavy and the roads were awash.

There were four ‘pre’ course cars, the first driven by Valentino Rossi’s Dad, Graziano. He proceeded to plant it in the scenery on the first stage. Another was Paulo Diana in a Fiat 131. He was just sideways everywhere. Doubt if it was quick but it was fun to watch.  Jari-Matti Latvala had his factory Polo WRC with ‘zero’ on the doors and was undoubtedly quick but not in the spectacular way of New Zealander Hayden Paddon who must have had a very dirty windscreen because he was continuously having to look out the side windows.

The first two stages were in the dark and were only six and nine kilometres but were demanding. Then came a regrouping halt in the centre of San Marino, a tiny city of 4,000 people on a peak high above the rest of the tiny enclave. This is a perfectly preserved ancient fortress, pretty impregnable, I would have thought and visited by three million tourists each year.  To hear the virtually unsilenced (noisy cars appear compulsory on Legend!) rally cars even trickling through the narrow streets was pretty special and to walk up to the square and see the first 60 cars parked there with food and refreshments laid on for everyone is something no other event has. The superstars mixed and chatted with everyone while waiting for their second run over the stages. Just Fantastic.

The Group B cars, of course, aren’t allowed to be timed and most of the others entered in the Legend section were just owners who loved the chances to drive their special cars well within their limits. Not so the competitive Historic section where Comas in the Stratos led the 037 of ‘Pedro’ buy a full 2.9 seconds with an Open Kadette and an RS1600 next up. In the Myth section for 86-95 cars Kankkunen in the Toyota led by even less, 0.4 seconds from the M3s of Miele and Colombini and the section for early WRC cars was, incredibly, led by the ‘kit car’ two wheel drive 306 Maxi of another Colombini brother.

Rain was forecast for Saturday but no one expected just quite how much. The stages were mainly steeply uphill or downhill and were just rivers. Wets were the order of the day for those who had them and extreme caution for those who hadn’t. Our rally ended at this point when the car was reluctant to start and when it did wouldn’t run for any length of time, and looked to be a failed head gasket. Comas in the Stratos showed his talent remaining ahead of a selection of vastly more competitive 037s to the end the Historic Rally with a 28 second victory. Kankkunen went out with car problems so Tony Cairolo took full advantage of the wet conditions to lead home an Integrale 1,2,3 with Colombini dropping back to fourth in the M3. In the WRC cars the older Colombini showed huge talent continuing his domination in the dreadful conditions beating the 4WD 206WRC  Peugeots of Olczyk and Vojtech by nearly two minutes.

The famous ‘Legend’ special was run on each of the last two days and is in an industrial estate. Each car does three laps of a 1300 metre circuit and with many cars on the stage at one time it is unbelievably spectacular. A Stratos, a Quattro and an M3, having caught each other, all on opposite lock, door handle to door handle isn’t often seen – unless you are at Rally Legend in San Marino.

What a weekend, what a place, what an event! Everybody needs to make at least one trip to Rally Legend in San Marino and if you have a very special car why not try for an invitation. Lawrence Clift has made a wonderful video of this year’s event and it can be seen on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6OtQf38cdU

Words: Peter Scott – Photographs by Lawrence Clift: http://www.lawrencecliftphotography.co.uk