I
competed in
a beautifully restored 1973 Lotus Europa 1600 Twincam John Player Special with owner Amnon Needham.
The Rally started in Paris under the Eiffel Tower, with several special stages on each day. The cars were parked in Parc Ferme
overnight in the town square of each town we stayed in. The squares were barricaded off from the general public and securely guarded, as there were many millions of pounds worth of vehicles. Also within the
Park Ferme were 'all you can drink' champagne tents, as the event was sponsored by Mumms Champagne (as well as Chrysler, Hermes and 'Classic and Sportscar' Magazine).
The last day we ended up in Cannes, with a police motorcycle escort along the seafront to the Parc Ferme. There is something very
special about following a Ford GT40, Ferrari 250GTO and Porsche 906 in normal traffic, with a Porsche 911RSR driven by Danny Sullivan right behind you.
There is a very confusing handicapping system in place that allows Minis to compete against Ferrari
250LM's. We were 66th overall from 300 entries, and in the top 5 in the class,
despite heavy handicaps for the relative youth of the car. The
rally included over 1000 miles of road, 10 special timed stages and 3 circuit
races in 5 days. The car was engineered by Dermot Healy, who also co-drove for
the last 2 days of the rally.
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