#monte carlo rally

[eupat]

[308ferrari]

[magicalflower67]

[scotty-bloke]

MONTE-CARLO 1997

1. Piero Liatti - Fabrizia Pons (ITA)

2. Carlos Sainz - Luis Moya (SPA)

3. Tommi Mäkinen - Harjanne Seppo (FIN)

SWEDEN 1997

1. Kenneth Eriksson - Parmander Staffan (SWE)

2. Carlos Sainz - Luis Moya (SPA)

3. Tommi Mäkinen - Harjanne Seppo (FIN)

SAFARI KENYA RALLY 1997

1. Colin McRae - Nicky Grist (GBR)

2. Richard Burns- Robert Reed (GBR)

3. Ian Duncan - Williamson David (KEN)

🎥: [🇲🇨] [🇸🇪] [🇰🇪]

[britsyankswheels24]

🇬🇧 The 1959 Morris Mini Minor, commonly known as the Mini, revolutionized the automotive industry. Introduced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and designed by Sir Alec Issigonis, it became a symbol of 1960s British culture.

🏭 Morris Motors, formed in 1919, represented 42% of British car production by 1926. In 1952, it merged with Austin to form BMC, incorporating Morris, MG, Riley, and Wolseley. The Morris name remained until 1984 when British Leyland focused on Austin and Rover.

🚘 Debuting on August 26, 1959, the Mini was designed for affordability and efficiency during economic austerity. Issigonis maximized interior space within a compact design. The goal was to create a car that was affordable, economical, and practical for everyday use. Issigonis's design achieved this by maximizing interior space within a compact exterior.

🚗 The Mini featured a transverse engine and front-wheel drive, maximizing space and handling. Its rubber cone suspension by Alex Moulton provided a smooth ride, and small corner-placed wheels enhanced handling. The small wheels were placed at the corners of the car, further enhancing interior space and giving the Mini its characteristic go-kart handling.

🌟 The Mini became a cultural phenomenon, popular across social classes and successful in motorsports, including multiple Monte Carlo Rally wins in the 1960s. Celebrities and ordinary people alike were drawn to its charm. The Mini saw updates until 2000, and in 2001, BMW relaunched the brand, modernizing it while retaining iconic elements.

🎥 The Mini gained further fame as Mr. Bean's beloved car. This lime green Mini, driven by Rowan Atkinson's character, became an iconic element of the show, adding to the Mini's already extensive cultural legacy.

🏁 The 1959 Morris Mini Minor is celebrated for its groundbreaking design, influencing future vehicles and remaining a timeless classic. The Mini's innovative use of space, combined with its distinctive style and fun driving experience, ensures its place as a timeless classic in automotive history.

[visualvocabulary33]

[zerotosixty]

“Are these winters?” “Yeah. Winter tyres.” “I think you’re about the first one on winters.” “I like grip 😃”

Oliver Solberg, Monte Carlo Rally Recce Interviews

[etherealarte]

[sectoralchromatics]

sarah rumeau and co-driver julie amblard with michèle mouton during the 2025 monte-carlo rally opening ceremony

[coimbrabertone]

Motorsports is Back for 2025

Last weekend we saw the unofficial start of the 2025 racing season with the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the Rally Monte Carlo running simultaneously, two of the typical curtain raisers for motorsports.

Now, there is also the Dakar Rally, which took place earlier in January, and I keep meaning to look into it, but it just hasn't happened. First of all because it's just so hard to watch in the US, secondly because even if it were easier to watch, the time difference puts it super early in the morning, and thirdly...it's in Saudi Arabia.

I know that the whole Western Sahara situation - as well as instability in Mauritania - makes the historic Paris-Dakar route difficult, and the South American experiment didn't really work out either, but Saudi Arabia? It's just icky to me.

I hate it that sports are bending over backwards for one of the most repressive regimes in history.

Anyway, let's not get bogged down in that, because with the start of the WRC and IMSA seasons, motorsports is back.

The Monte Carly Rally started first, with a Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule. For those who don't know, the Monte Carlo Rally takes place on mountain roads in the French Alps just north of Monaco, with tarmac surfaces frequently covered in ice and sometimes even snow. Taking place this early in the year, many of the stages - which vary from 14 km in length all the way up to 27 - also take place at night, making the rally even more difficult.

So, it started with WRC legend Sebastien Ogier building an early lead, however, an early slip put him into the wall in a hairpin, handing the lead first to reigning champion Thierry Neuville in the Hyundai, and then Ogier's Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans.

Neuville ran into problems of his own on Friday, while Ogier's crew repaired the damage on his Toyota, meaning that Sebastien was back in the lead come the end of the second day. Hyundai, meanwhile, was in the odd position where Adrien Fourmaux, their youngest driver freshly signed on from Ford, was their highest placed car.

In fact, with Ogier in the lead and Fourmaux moving up to second, it was briefly a French 1-2 in the rally that takes place on French soil.

Saturday saw Elfyn Evans move back into second, while Ott Tanak in the third Hyundai surged forward, winning the final three stages of the day to surge back into contentions.

Under current WRC points, the bulk points are award at the end of Saturday, so Ogier got 25, Elfyn 17, Fourmaux 15, returning full-time Toyota driver Kalle Rovanpera got 12 in fourth, Tanak moved up to fifth place with 10 points, and Neuville received 8 points for sixth.

Tanak's charge came to an end on Sunday when he ran into issues and he'd score no regular day points that morning, while Elfyn would win the day, taking 5 points ahead of Rovanpera on 4, Ogier took 3 points as he coasted to win, Fourmaux took 2 points, and Neuville snatched the final Sunday regular point.

That brought us onto the Power Stage, one final high-speed run to the finish with another five points on the line.

Here, Ogier went for maximum points again, snatching the 5 points, ahead of Elfyn on 4, Fourmaux on 3, Rovanpera on 2, and Tanak who salvaged a point from his otherwise terrible Sunday.

So, Sebastien Ogier wins a record-extending 10th Monte Carlo Rally - clearing fellow Frenchman Sebastien Loeb who sits on 8 wins - Elfyn Evans makes for a Toyota 1-2, and Hyundai's new signing is surprisingly leading the pack in 3rd. Rovanpera finishes 4th despite being out of practice after skipping last year's Monty, ahead of Tanak and Neuville who both had issues. Josh McErlean in seventh was the only other Rally1 finisher, continuing Ford's somewhat token efforts in WRC as of late.

As these final Sunday stages were happening, however, another race was underway in North America.

The Rolex 24 at Daytona, the second biggest endurance race in the world and the traditional curtain raiser for North American motorsports. I've talked about this before, but it's a regular coming together of motorsports, with the IMSA regulars joined by WEC and ELMS crews, Indycar drivers, Trans Am drivers, ex-Formula One drivers, and even a few NASCAR drivers like Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, and Austin Cindric.

Here's a fun game I've played with some friends lately - look at the entry list for a big race like this and find the most obscure name you recognize.

I saw Benjamin Pederson in the #52 LMP2 - he drove for AJ Foyt Racing for one season in 2023.

Eddie Cheever III is another. Son of Eddie Cheever who drove in F1 in the 80s, CART in the 90s, and IRL in the 00s, Eddie III was born in Rome and races under an Italian license. He's a Ferrari GT driver these days and appears at the Rolex 24 fairly regularly - this time around he was in the #023 Triarsi Competizione Ferrari.

Speaking of Triarsi, they're another one, because they're the old Ferrari of Central Florida team from Ferrari Challenge North America. They've gone big and adopted a bigger sounding name, but it is still essentially Ferrari Orlando running a pair of IMSA cars, and I think that's cool.

Anyway, enough trivia of who was in the race, let's talk about the race itself.

It was a fairly clean race by Daytona standards - up until the very end anyway - with relatively few LMP2 cautions, not too many cars stranded on track, and no rain to disrupt things. That being said, the racing kept it interesting, as the #24 initially built a big lead before a bizarre pitstop where Dries Vanthoor parked in his pitstall at a sharp angle, making his crew have to awkwardly scramble to get the pitstop done. This moved the Porsches into the lead, but the Acuras and a resurgent BMW did their best to keep the show interesting.

The #24 BMW was probably the fastest car all day and worked its way back into contention, however, they got a little too impatient in traffic and a little too free with the chrome horn, meaning they developed a tyre rub that dropped them a lap down an hour from the finish. The BMW would pass the #10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac to move into fourth place, the first car one lap down, but it couldn't overcome more than that.

Thus, it turned into a battle between the #6 Porsche which led, the #7 Porsche which was in second, and the #60 Acura which came alive right at the end of the race.

The #7 was under pressure from the #60 with IMSA all-star Tom Blomqvist on a charge for Meyer Shank Racing. This left Felipe Nasr in the #7 with little choice but to go side-by-side with his teammate Matt Campbell in the #6 to take the lead.

It was the right call too, because Felipe Nasr was able to break away and win the race, while Matt Campbell got caught and passed by Blomqvist, denying Penske Porsche a 1-2 finish.

It was a similar story in the GTD classes, where in GTD Pro, it was a heated battle between the Pratt & Miller Corvettes, the Paul Miller (no relation) Racing BMW, and the Multimatic Ford Mustang. Earlier in the race there was a big controversy where the lapped #48 Paul Miller BMW helped out their teammates in the #1 car by holding up the #4 Corvette, which turned ugly when they made contact and Corvette picked up some big damage on the rear end.

To which, Tommy Milner won the adoration of the internet by raising his middle finger out the window and flipping off the BMW while going full speed through the Daytona International Speedway's trioval.

God bless America.

The #4 Corvette got a tape job and got back into contention with Nico Varrone behind the wheel, as it and the teammate #3 Corvette started battling with the #1 BMW and the #65 Mustang.

The Corvette and BMW start touching on the oval and through the bus stop, so finally, Nico Varrone has enough of it and wrecks the #1 BMW in turn one while the #3 Corvette turns beneath the both of them. Varrone gets a penalty and the #4 drops out of contention, but the #3 Corvette moves into second place.

Unfortunately, the #65 Mustang took the opportunity to disappear into the distance.

Unlucky for Corvette, but we got the #65 Mustang in first, the #3 Corvette second, and the #64 Mustang in third - making for an American car 1-2-3 in GTD Pro.

As for GTD Am, it was more beating and banging as the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin barged the #13 AWA Corvette out of the way in turn one, however, the AWA Corvette managed to recover and retake the position. They even went three wide into the bus stop chicane at one point as the AWA Corvette and the #27 Aston battled for so long that the #120 Porsche entered the picture. The AWA Corvette held off the competition and won the class.

#13...unlucky for some, but not AWA.

So, Porsche wins in GTP, Mustang in GTD Pro, and the AWA Corvette in GTD.

As for the one remaining class in the form of LMP2, that honor went to the #8 Tower Motorsports car, driven by John Farano, Job van Uilert, Sebastian Alvarez...and Sebastien Bourdais.

Bourdais and Ogier both got wins this weekend.

A good weekend for French dudes named Sebastien, huh?

[eupat]

[justcarz]

[vintagevoiture]

Lancia Beta Monte Carlo 1980.

[visualvocabulary33]

[coolpascalserrethings]

[zerotosixty]

This is Monte Carlo, and these three gentlemen are here for the most high stakes game in the world of rallying. To win at this table requires talent, courage, and a sixth sense in reading the opponent. Kalle Rovanperä. Now, he may look young, but don’t let that fool you. He’s the best in the world. This relaxed-looking fellow, well, that’s Ott Tänak. The Estonian is not afraid to make tough decisions, and he’s trusted a familiar outfit to have his back in his push for the title. Thierry Neuville. He’s got all the talents to win at the top table: speed of thought and action, a calm temperament, even when the game doesn’t always go his way. So, our first spin of the wheel is here, in Monte Carlo. They’ve placed their bets, but who will take the first spoils?

World Rally Championship drivers Kalle Rovanperä, Ott Tänak, and Thierry Neuville — 2023 Rally Monte Carlo

+ bonus: Kalle actually won, but it wasn’t for real (x)