Fiftieth anniversary visit to the revival of the Mü-Wi-Bu three-city rally
10/06/2013
On October 3, the "50 Years ADAC 3-City Rally Munich-Vienna-Budapest" started in Munich. The first stage took place in southern Bavaria and passed through Landshut's old town between 11 am and 12 noon. Numerous visitors had gathered at the timekeeping point in the old town in the fresh, sunny weather to inspect the old gems.
From A for Alfa Romeo to V for VW, a lot was represented. A total of around 60 vehicles were entered. The oldest vehicle in the field was probably a BMW 503 from 1953, more than ten years older than the legendary event. The newest vehicle at the start was a Lancia Delta Integrale from 1993. Naturally, the sporty brands BMW and Porsche were very strongly represented, as was to be expected.
From Landshut, the route led along beautiful country roads via Neufahrn and Wallkofen to Straubing. The weather was sunny and the temperatures relatively cool, which prompted most of the convertible drivers to keep the top down.
At this rally, everything was represented, from leisurely to sporty and ambitious drivers. For once, the field of vehicles did not include the super sports cars from Ferrari, Jaguar and so on, but many other beautiful vehicles, which were then also driven in the proper manner. A nice revival with memories of the origins of the event, because the 3-City Rally was initiated as a joint project of the Austrian automobile club ÖAMTC, the Hungarian Magyar Autoklub and the ADAC Südbayern back in 1963. The idea of organizing a cross-border sporting event with a destination beyond the "Iron Curtain" in times of the "Cold War" was courageous and politically explosive, but also demonstrated the will for international understanding beyond ideological borders.
50 years ago, the Munich-Vienna-Budapest long-distance reliability ride was started for the first time. Back then, the fastest participants took almost 30 hours, the route was exhausting and sleep was out of the question.
The importance of the event was high right from the start, as it was included in the European Rally Championship and the reliability drive was run in its original format until the end of the 1970s. The list of winners includes well-known names such as Aaltonen in 1965, Mäkinen in 1966, Andruet in 1970 and Röhrl/Berger in 1973.
The list of winning cars also reads like a who's who of rally sport: BMC Cooper, Renault-Alpine (A110), Porsche 911, Opel Ascona 400, Opel Kadett GT/E, Fiat Abarth 131, Lancia Rallye 037, Audi Quattro Sport, Peugeot 205 T 16, ....
At the end of the 1970s, the event had to adapt to the times and the endurance full-throttle stage became a classic road rally with special stages.
