Editorial S-Turns

Classic rally action, Euro-style

By Dave Getchell
PORSCHEFORME Editor

Recently, I took a trip to England, France, and Africa. Sitting in a pub at the Heathrow airport, I watched an amazing historic rally on "the telly" (aka TV to us Yanks).

Whew! Those drivers really know how to throw old cars around--as fast as they can go--on tiny little roads. Euro TV audiences are hot to watch rallies of any type…one wonders why Americans aren't as hooked on the pastime.

European rallies aren't the buttoned-down affairs we know in the US. Euro rally cars are full-race versions of everyday autos (sort of like NASCAR) that go absolutely totally flat-out, not on antiseptic superspeedways, but on cliff-lined mountain roads and impossibly narrow forest tracks. Crowds press in on either side, usually with nonexistent barriers…it's motorsport at its most elemental. Only your own bravery (or foolishness) separates avid spectator from helmeted racer.

The historic event I watched was SO cool…there were old 911s wearing 10 Cibie lights, steroidal Mini-Coopers, and bat-wing turbo Peugeots--all going airborne and crabbing sideways around hairpin bends. Tires screeched, engines wailed, crowds cheered like mad.

A Euro rally makes NASCAR look downright pedestrian. Watching one part of a single telecast, I saw more electrifying race-car action--and more sheer car-control prowess--than Jeff Gordon ever imagined. Despite heroic driving, several cars flew crookedly off jumps and bounced into the scenery like so many wayward Dinky Toys. The rest somehow escaped disaster and stayed mostly on the road.

The 911s would round this one right-hand gravel hairpin by throwing the car LEFT at the entrance, chopping power to purposely half-spin car around the bend, and then absolutely stand on it before the apex. Yeah! The in-car footage was AWESOME, drivers twirling the wheel, navigator's helmet bobbing like a crash-test dummy. “Those lads are fookin' nutters!" said one breathless fan. Can you possibly imagine a better use for a classic Porsche?

Dave

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