The third Moonlight Rally started last Saturday (August 13, 2011) punctually at 4 p.m. at the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne.
Swiss Museum of Transport Director Martin Bütikofer personally waved the starting flag and sent the 21 teams on their 230 km journey into the night at two-minute intervals.
The name of the rally is an obligation, as the date is determined by the moon. "Moonlight" means moonlight and there is the most light at full moon, but only once a month. There is hardly anything more beautiful than a drive in an open vehicle into the twilight and on into the night of the full moon. If the tour is also perfectly planned so that you really do drive through the right place in the right light, the trip will stay in your memory for a long time. The organizer Pitt Jung knows how to plan routes perfectly so that you don't miss everything "beautiful" in the "rally stress", but that you also find the time to store nature, roads and light conditions combined with the engine sound of your own car in your memory in such a way that they can be recalled months later.
The drive in the MG K3, chassis no. K0426, with daughter Sarina (11) in the hot seat for the first time, was a pleasure for all the senses from start to finish. After a botched first hose test in Meggen, we had to make up for the penalty points we had picked up. We managed the second night-time tube stage in the darkness of the forest almost perfectly and, thanks to the sensational MG six-cylinder compressor engine, we finished the mountain stage in a good 10th place with a delay of just under two seconds. We even managed the 17 km special stage around the Wägitalersee with a pre-calculated driving time of 35 minutes with a deviation of only 4 hundredths. But it's not the sporting part that sticks in the mind, but the ride itself. The acoustic play with the Wilson pre-selector gearbox, which produces a symphony of sound across the entire speed range of the six-cylinder engine that could not have been better composed even by Mozart. Then there is the view of Lake Wägital with the sun low in the sky, the reddening evening sky over Lake Zurich, later the "blue hour" with the full moon rising on Lake Sihl and finally the typical Hirzel hilly landscape with a tree on each hilltop under the full moon. All together, absolutely unforgettable sensory impressions.
Of course, there were also some real winners, who not only took home a souvenir but also a trophy. At the top of the podium was the Kistler / Kistler team in the 1971 Triumph TR 6, 2nd place went to Weibel / Wirth in the oldest car, the 1930 Austin 12/6, and 3rd place went to the Vultier / Vultier team in the 1967 Amphicar (perhaps only thanks to various shortcuts through the water!!). The winner of the mountain stage was the Panzera / Panzera team in a fast Jaguar C-Type.
Zwischengas would like to thank the organizer Pitt Jung and his team for the great rally. We are all already looking forward to the "little night music" of 2012!
