Instead of TV and a gentle program - an expedition into the unknown in Styria
It's finally that time of year again, the Christmas holidays are forgotten and the New Year's Eve hangover is over. The new year is still young, but the classic car scene is already impatient and looking forward to the start of the new season all the more.
Start numbers can be collected and put on. The cars are ready, because the first rally of the 2016 season, the Planai-Classic, finally starts today in Ennstal, Austria.
It is celebrating its 20th birthday and, as always, is an expedition into the unknown, as the weather in Styria at this time of year shows no mercy to man and machine.
The pilots and their navigators don't give a damn about the warm oven and the TV program, which becomes increasingly bland year after year, and their classic cars don't enjoy any garage-maintained monument protection. They all want to get out and climb the mountains of Styria equipped with winter tires and snow chains.
Equipped with every conceivable utensil - note the bottle of windshield cleaner on the dashboard of the Mille Miglia Beetle - to combat the cold and snow, the 49 intrepid teams will set off on their first special stage today at the Gröbming trotting track.
The celebrities are also braving the cold, as the picture at the top shows. Hans Joachim Stuck arrived early with his son Ferdinand and personally inspected his 1956 Mille Miglia Beetle.
Together with Franz R. Steinbacher, the ex-Abarth factory mechanic (left in the picture), he enthusiastically leafs through the Zwischengas annual magazineand is delighted with the pictures of the BMW M1 ProCar, as he was also one of the successful long-term starters in this series.
In addition to the regular guest and 2014 Planai winner in the dark blue Mini Cooper, Rauno Aaltonen, the two Porsche works drivers Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb are also expected to take part.
Of course, we will be bringing you a comprehensive report on the whole rally soon.
