Vintage & Classic Car Rally Adventures

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A brand-new event on the Rally the Globe calendar
will take us from Belgiums rally capital of
Ypres to Istanbul.
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Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Austria,
Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey
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ON THE ROAD TO THE EDGES OF THE ORIENT
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Recce Day 1
We had already driven a route from Prague to
Ceský Krumlov back in August 2020 so today was
all about re ning it. The weather was grey and
wet as we left Prague and we soon decided the
rstregularity was far too easy and deleted it.
The other sections were top class however and
they, combined with some great tests, will
present a good challenge after the rest day. Our
rally hotel was HOME ABOUT RALLIES ? MEMBERSHIP
RALLY HIGHLIGHTS ? NEWS CONTACT US still closed
so we stayed in the lovely town of Budweis where
the beer, of course, was great.
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Recce Day 2
We visited UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ceský
Krumlov, rst thing next morning and started the
road book from the main square where our rally
hotel is situated. An excellent, new, gravel
section was rst o followed by a fairly long test
round a few farm buildings. Then a regularity to
a remote border crossing into Austria. This was
unmanned, although it wont be on the event, and
our PCR tests went unchecked. Austria looked as
immaculate as ever even on a gloomy afternoon and
another decent regularity on super smooth roads
before descending to the River Danube, which will
be our frequent companion for the next two weeks.
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Recce Day 3
Very early on our third day the snow started to
fall and didnt really stop. Minor roads were
impossible so having found a charming co ee stop
in a mountain Gasthof we descended to the plain
and entered Hungary. Immediately over the border
the appearance of the towns, villages, farms,
roads and people, was totally di erent from what
we had seen before. The town of Koszeg has a
pretty square and we arranged for the cars to be
parked there while competitors have lunch in one
of the adjacent restaurants. Forest regularities
and an intriguing gravel test took us to Sumeg
and our hotel.
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Recce Day 4
We awoke to a cloudless blue sky and bitterly
cold temperatures. The previous afternoon we had
visited a tremendous permanent race circuit and
tried to rent it for a test at the end of Day 9.
This was impossible but an agreement was reached
to open Day 10 with it so we retraced our steps a
little to integrate it into the route. It
promises to be a busy morning with the circuit, a
Rallycross track and a testing gravel regularity
before a café lunch overlooking Lake Balaton.
After lunch we are in the Great Hungarian Plain
where, as expected, the countryside is at, and
the roads are straight. Just outside the city of
Pecs, thanks to our friends in the local motor
club, we hope to have a short hill climb followed
by a twisty, and wonderfully hilly, regularity..
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Recce Day 5
A short way out of town we found a long, twisty
regularity before going back down to the plain,
where everything was shrouded in fog. We stopped
in Baja, again on the Danube. This city is known
to Mark Appleton and me as it was a stop on John
Browns 1998 London to Cape Town Rally. We
stopped at our original choice for the rally, the
Novotel in Szeged, and by this time snow was
falling heavily, everything was shrouded in fog
and the maps were out to help stitch the new plan
together.
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Recce Day 6
From Szeged it was a short run to the border with
Romania where once we had our COVID vaccination
certi cates scanned we were quickly on our way.
Our original plan was for the rally to do a test
or two near the city of Arad and then sleep in
Timisoara. The latter city turned out to be
surrounded by miles of industrial warehouses and
having seen a decent looking hotel in Arad plans
were changed yet again.
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Recce Day 7
Jim and I had two nights in Arad to let me catch
up on route notes, maps and future plans. We had
got into Romania, which already felt like a
victory, and in the evening found a very pleasant
pub attached to a micro-brewery with decent food
and no goulash to be seen. Bliss!
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Recce Day 8
Back in Arad, where the streets were treacherous
with ice, we searched for a city o cial to help
arrange things in the area. I was sent from o ce
to o ce and saw levels of bureaucracy that I
thought had disappeared with the fall of
communism. Finally, after 90 minutes of queues
and disinterested shrugs I found a charming
multilingual woman who worked directly for the
mayor. After a tour of the rather grand City
Hall, we were o on our way through snow covered
roads happy in the knowledge that Arad would work
for us. The afternoon got better and better a
tremendous, long section through a forest was
followed by an amazing hunting lodge in the
middle of nowhere.
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Recce Day 9
With everything under a thick covering of snow we
headed o to cover the end of Rally Day 12 in
reverse before returning to make the road book
notes. The snow got increasingly deeper and just
as we were considering a U-turn we got stuck, and
properly so. It was minus nine degrees and it
took a full hour before we nally got some
traction from a wooden pole wedged under the
front right wheel. Finally free, we turned
around, contemplated a warming brandy, but
decided the mountainous section of Rally Day 13
could be explored. And what a section it was. The
Transalpina is Romanias highest road, built by
the military in 1938 and opened to tra c in 2012,
although for safety reasons it is still closed
from 18h00 to 08h00 each night
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Recce Day 10
Today we descended from the mountains and onto
the plain heading for the capital, Bucharest, but
not before discovering some interesting back
roads and a couple of test venues. Our arrival in
Bucharest was surprisingly simple and the luxury
of the JW Marriott hotel was much
appreciated after some hard days on the road.
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THANK YOU