Description
In Issue #27 you will find:
Cover story
Rallye Monte Carlo 1971
- The grande dame of rallying – 40th Rallye Monte Carlo 1971
- Retirements galore – Arrival and opening loop
- Showdown – The night of the long knives
- ‘A rally to forget’ – Interview Jean-Pierre Nicolas
- ‘I don’t think we could have done better’ – Interview John Davenport
- ‘All I wanted was to finish the Monte’ – Interview Jean-Claude Andruet
The Rallye Monte Carlo is the oldest winter rally in the world. The 1971 event was both the 60th anniversary of the first Monte and the 40th running since 1911.
During the years of 911 dominance, the term ‘winter’ had been more an indication of the season rather than the conditions. The vast majority of the special stages was held on dry roads. Photographers and TV cameramen would travel hundreds of kilometres into the hinterland to find enough snow to keep the image of a winter rally alive through their pictures. A fairly consistent occurrence, however, was heavy snowfall three or four days after the event finished. So for 1971 the organisers decided to push the Monte back a week, to 22–29 January.
The event
Traditionally, all competitors had to set off from one of 10 specified starting locations (Almeria, Athens, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Marrakesh, Monte Carlo, Oslo, Reims, Warsaw) and make their way to the Côte d’Azur. From a sporting perspective, the 3,000-kilometre trek had no value – it wasn’t timed. There was only a minimum average that had to the maintained, and for professionals that wasn’t much of a challenge. There was, however, the risk of a traffic crash or a technical problem.
Those who made it through the two-day and three-night excursion met on the Monday morning in the French Alps north of Monte Carlo, where things got serious with the first 38.5-kilometre special stage. Between Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, the event continued with the Parcours Commun, a 1,500-kilometre loop including nine special stages above Monaco. Following a day’s rest, there was the smaller loop, including the Col de Turini night stage, otherwise known as the ‘night of the long knives’, on the Thursday night. There, the winner was determined over seven more special stages. On the morning of Friday, the 29th of January 1971, the winners would arrive in front of the palace in Monte Carlo. It was a Swedish/English pairing, driving a blue car…
Also in this issue…
- NEW SERIES: Uwe Mahla about the Deutsche Rennsport-Meisterschaft
- Eckhard Schimpf on Hans-Joachim Stuck
- Jo Ramirez about the Prost-Senna rivalry at McLaren
- Norbert Singer about Weissach 1994
- Marc Surer about the 1984 European Grand Prix
- Thomas Nehlert about the BRM P351 and BRM P301
- Jacob Queißner about the Gran Premio Perón 1951
- Back on Track – Gebhardt JC853
- and many more!
The magazine contains a large-sized fold out poster of the cover story including illustrations and technical data of the Alpine-Renault A110 1600 S Group 4 from 1971 on the back.
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