Michèle Mouton - She has hardly lost any of her temperament

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Michèle Mouton - She has hardly lost any of her temperament

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Created on December 9, 2025

Text:

Martin Sigrist

Photos:

Daniel Reinhard

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Archiv Michèle Mouton

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Reinhard Klein | McKlein

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Renault Communications

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Peugeot / Werk

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Unternehmensarchiv der Audi AG

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Courtesy Bonhams

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Archiv

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She hasn't lost her temperament - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Michèle Mouton in front of one of her old "workplaces" - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Daniel Bachmann shares some anecdotes from his experiences with the Audi Quattro with his unmistakable wit - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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The device for success, the Audi Quattro that she drove from 1981 - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Mouton at the crazy time when Group B raced between spectator walls with powerful monsters - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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The first victory in a world championship rally by an all-women team at the 1981 San Remo Rally with Fabrizia Pons - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Mouton shows how strict the steering of the servo-less 131 was - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Journalist and organizer Dieter Schöni had his first encounter with Michèle Mouton in 1982 - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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A key moment in the Frenchwoman's career was winning the 1981 San Remo Rally - 4th legendary meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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The Autobianchi A112 would have given her a cramp in her accelerator foot, which with its meagre 80 hp didn't get off the ground, her worst car ever - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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According to Mouton, the most beautiful rally car of all time was the Lancia Stratos, in which she was allowed to drive the Monte in 1978 - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Moutin's career end was based on completely rational considerations - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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After the end of her career, she founded the Race of Champions in 1988 - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Mouton was appointed to the FIA by Jean Todt after he took office - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Michèle Mouton talks about her work as FIA safety officer - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Michèle Mouton on the Audi Quattro of Group B - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Not once did she have any disagreements with her co-driver Fabrizia Pons, she was the perfect co-driver - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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After her own Alpine A110, she competed for Fiat France in a 131 Abarth - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Profound facts and anecdotes about Michèle Mouton's rally career and life - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Mouton explains the tangible - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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The southern French nature becomes clear in her expressive style - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Mouton describes the events on Pikes Peak - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Temperamental to this day - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Eloquent and energetic - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Specialist Daniel Bachmann has restored an original Michèle Mouton vehicle - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Michèle Mouton signs an Audi quattro on the occasion of the 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf 2025

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She has long since forgiven Röhrl - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Rallying is a different discipline today than it was back then - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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The grande dame of rallying - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Stories and anecdotes with the greatest female rally driver of all time - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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She never needed mental training, only physiotherapy - "I know how my brain works" - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Michèle Mouton - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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She also answered questions from the audience - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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She doesn't want to give advice, but she is very clear about her opinions - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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The former world rally champion has a clear opinion on women in motorsport - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Papa Mouton was team boss, sponsor and Michèle's first manager all in one, the news of his death during the 1982 Ivory Coast Rally was a hard blow for Mouton - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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From the age of 18, Mouton's car, initially a Renault 4L, meant great freedom, but she is still not a petrolhead to this day - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Mouton gained her first rally experience as a co-driver in a friend's Peugeot 204 in 1973 - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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The Alpine A110 was a gift from his father, without success he would have abandoned the project after a year... - 4th meeting of legends in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Michele Mouton in the Alpine A110 in 1975

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Michele Mouton began her rally career in the Alpine A110

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According to Mouton, the Fiat was physically demanding - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Lacking a car, Mouton drove the 1978 Monte Carlo Rally in a Lancia Stratos instead of the factory Fiat 131 Abarth from Fiat France - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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From 1978 to the end of 1980, Michèle Mouton drove the 131 Abarth for Fiat France - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Fiat 131 Abarth - Mouton/Arrii in the Fiat 131 Abarth at the 1980 Monte Carlo Rally - Röhrl/Geistdörfer take victory

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Audi Quattro - Mouton and Pons in action at the Acropolis Rally in Greece 1982

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Audi Quattro - Michele Mouton at the 1982 San Remo Rally in Italy

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Mouton and Pons in action at the service point with the Audi team at the 1982 Ivory Coast West Africa Rally

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Audi Sport Quattro S1 (1984) - in rally use

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The Frenchwoman Michèle Mouton - Pikes Peak Hill Climb 1985

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Michele Mouton at the Pikes Peak race in 1985

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The track is wide, but traction is rather limited, even for this Mazda RX-7 - Pikes Peak Hill Climb 1985

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Helicopters film the racing action - Pikes Peak Hill Climb 1985

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Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 (1986) - the Frenchwoman Michele Mouton became German rally champion in 1986

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Michele Mouton celebrates the championship title in the German Rally Championship in 1986

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Michèle Mouton with her daughter Jessica, born in 1987 - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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In 1988 Michèle Mouton founded the Race of Champions where drivers of all kinds compete against each other in vehicles of equal value - 4th Legends Meeting in Laupersdorf with Michèle Mouton 2025

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Austin A40 Farina (1958) - Patt Moss and Anne Wisdom with their A40 at the 1959 Monte Carlo Rally

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Elisabeth Junek at the wheel of one of her beloved Bugattis

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Lancia Delta S4 - Toivonen races over a special stage of the 1986 Monte Carlo Rally in a Lancia Delta S4 Group B

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Summary

On November 14, Michèle Mouton spoke about her racing career at the Energypark in Laupersdorf on the occasion of the 4th Legends Meeting. Swiss photo reporter Dieter Schöni led the conversation. He had twice had the opportunity to experience some fast test drives with Mouton in an Audi Quattro in the 1980s.

This article contains the following chapters

A tradition as old as motorsport itself
Michèle Mouton remembers
As a woman in the 1970s and 1980s
Female rally driver on the race track
An implausible phone call
The Audi and San Remo
Safety concerns
The pretty, black volcano
World champion
The only machos in her career: The Americans!
End of group B
A child and other projects

Estimated reading time: 36min

Preview (beginning of the article)

On November 14, Michèle Mouton spoke about her racing career at the Energypark in Laupersdorf on the occasion of the 4th Legends Meeting. Swiss photo reporter Dieter Schöni led the conversation. He had twice had the opportunity to experience some fast test drives with Mouton in an Audi Quattro in the 1980s. The legends get-together is a charitable event for the benefit of the Synapsis dementia foundation, which Dieter Schöni set up with his son Marc. Grasse is a small town in the south of France, famous above all for its perfumers. The mild climate on the Côte d'Azur has always allowed flowers to flourish. The lavender of Provence is world-famous, but other flowers are also used by the manufacturers of essences for the perfume industry. Michèle Mouton's parents grew flowers in Grasse for the perfume industry. This required large tracts of land on which roses and especially jasmine could be grown. Mouton's father spent five years as a German prisoner of war, and he later said that he would probably have become a car racing driver himself had it not been for the Second World War.

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