This year, rally celebrities will once again gather at the ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival (July 18-20, 2019). Now in its ninth year, the largest rally museum on wheels not only attracts a large number of historic rally cars to the Volcanic Eifel, but also their former drivers and many people from the world of this fascinating sport will meet in Daun. "In order to promote and preserve the history of rallying, only original or faithfully restored or rebuilt vehicles are permitted.
Reinhard Klein (Cologne) is visibly proud of the once again impressive starting field. The head of 'Slowly Sideways', the Europe-wide association of owners of historic rally cars, explains further: "This year we have many new cars that have not been seen before, or only rarely. The absence of any time classification makes it possible for us to include vehicles that would not be able to compete in any event with a competitive character." However, the concept of the Eifel Rallye Festival also attracts the organizers of other histo-rallies to the Vulkaneifel. "So far, organizers from Portugal, Spain, France and Austria have announced that they want to take a closer look at our concept," explains organization manager Otmar Anschütz, who as chairman of the MSC Daun holds the organizational reins of this major event in his hands.
Renowned drivers on special vehicles
The line-up of well-known drivers continues to grow. The field of participants is led by Timo Salonen from Finland. The 1985 world champion will be driving a Peugeot 205 T16E2, in which he won the world championship title. The Swede Stig Blomqvist is practically part of the festival inventory. The 1984 world champion will be at the wheel of a 1,000 hp Ford RS200 Pikes Peak prototype.
Isolde 'Isi' Holderied brings two world championship titles in the women's classification with her to the Eifel. She is driving her Toyota Corolla WRC, with which she won the women's classification at the 1999 Monte-Carlo Rally. Niki Schelle comes from almost the same neighborhood as 'Isi'. The former Suzuki works driver and current TV presenter drives a Group B Lancia Delta S4, which Miki Biasion drove in the 1986 WRC. British driver Nicky Grist and Spaniard Luis Moya, two legendary and extremely successful WRC co-drivers, will be coming to the Eifel. Jochi Kleint, the 1979 European champion, will be driving the VW Golf GTI 16V that he entered in the 1987 German Rally Championship.
Two-time German Rally Champion Harald Demuth has never missed an edition of the Eifel Rallye Festival. His co-driver Wolf-Dieter Ihle will bring the original Audi 80 GLE to Daun for him, in which Demuth scored the first WRC points for Audi in Portugal in 1979. The Brit Jimmy McRae in the Vauxhall Chevette HSR, the Swede Kalle Grundel, who will be driving two original vehicles from his career, the Peugeot 309 GTI and the Ford RS200, and Matthias Kahle, German record champion and permanent festival starter in the Skoda 130 RS, are other well-known drivers with very special vehicles.
Seat Germany with Erwin Weber and Spanish winners
Seat once again has two real treats in store for the trip to the Eifel. The Spaniard Josep Maria Servià will be driving the Seat Ibiza Bi-Turbo that already made fans' eyes light up in the Eifel last year. The prototype had one engine on the front axle and one on the rear axle and could be driven with either front-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, finishing second in the Spanish gravel championship in both 1986 and 1987. After making himself somewhat scarce on the rally scene in recent years, fans can now look forward to a reunion with Erwin Weber. The two-time German rally champion and 1992 European champion also has an, albeit unofficial, world championship title up his sleeve. In 1996, he contributed important points to the 2-liter World Championship title for the Spaniards during his starts in the Seat Ibiza kit car.
"I'm really looking forward to driving the Ibiza kit car from Monte 96 again," says Weber, looking forward to the festival weekend. "It wasn't so easy back then to tame this powerful front-wheel drive car, but it's certainly much more relaxed now without the pressure of competition." Above all, however, he is looking forward to "meeting old colleagues and friends, I've always wanted to come to Daun for this, now it's finally working out." The graduate engineer for vehicle technology also has his eye on the vehicles on the starter list, "I'll be taking a very close look at the old rally treasures.
"Rally around the World" - how the idea came about
It is often the coincidences in life that write the greatest and most beautiful stories. The 'Pikes Peak' event was the successful motto of the 2018 Eifel Rallye Festival. It came about because Wolf-Dieter Ihle not only acquired John Buffum's Quattro, but also the twin-engine VW Golf that Jochi Kleint had driven up the 'holy mountain' back in the day and made it ready for use again. The replica of the Peugeot 205T16 Pikes Peak by Erich Müller was also nearing completion and could at least be exhibited. Audi didn't take long to get the ultimate Pikes Peak conqueror out of the museum: Walter Röhrl's original Pikes Peak S1/E2. Just seeing this car live would have been reason enough for the 2018 festival theme, as it will not often be seen driving in the future.
In 2018, New Zealander Ross Clarke came to the Eifel as a spectator and showed photos of his recently completed replica of a Toyota Celica TwinCam Turbo from the Group B era. He was so enthusiastic that he promised to pack the Celica into a container and bring it to Daun for the 2019 festival. He was joined by Australian Darryn Snooks, whose 1977 Datsun 710 SsS was also dreaming of a trip to Europe. Two representatives from the continent of Oceania had already been announced.
Some originals from Kenya are regular festival participants anyway. As Franco Lupis' Lancia Integrale and Andreas Beyer's Mercedes 280 SE both drove in Argentina, the idea for the 2019 motto was quickly born. Vehicles from all five continents were to gather at the festival in the Vulkaneifel.
With Gerd Dicks' Turbo Celica, which was previously used in the USA, and Ernst Kopp's very rare Toyota 222D, which only completed its test kilometers in Japan in addition to a small test in Scotland, all continents were represented. The basis was there, and thus the "Rally around the World" theme for 2019 was born. You can look forward to the entry list, as many representatives of the individual continents have been added to this 'basic stock'.
Order documents now
As usual, all important information about the Eifel Rallye Festival is available in the comprehensive program booklet. The collector's edition contains detailed descriptions of the individual special stages, the designated spectator points, all overview maps and the lists of participants. All vehicles are presented in words and pictures.
A visit to the Rally Mile in Daun is free of charge, while various tickets are available for visiting the special stages. These range from a one-way ticket for the shakedown on Thursday to a weekend ticket for all three festival days.
Program booklets and weekend tickets can be ordered from the Eifel Rallye Festival rally store until 30 June 2019. can be ordered. Shipping to other EU countries is also possible. The documents will be sent to the customers from July 8, 2019. This leaves plenty of time to fully prepare for your visit to the festival.
Further information can be found on the website.
