TITLE     Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo Porsche 1952-1982

              

AUTHOR    Dasse, Louche  

   ENGLISH/FRENCH/GERMAN

ISBN 10          no ISBN 10

ISBN 13        9783871661082

No longer available @ BLOCKS-BOOKS           

 

Comment to 356TALK

In the new book Rally Automobile Monte-Carlo Porsche 1952-1967, not only as might be expected do the body bumper cars have bumpers, but ALL 60+ pictured different bent window cars as well as the around 100 A,B,Cs pictured. The 356B-T6 Carreras (including factory entrant #122401-- who knew in 1963?) ran bumpers but without bumperettes as did factory and private Carreras in 1964. Perhaps it was Monte-Carlo thing, but the book stresses that the Monte conformed to whatever rules the championship imposed. Rally Automobile Monte-Carlo Porsche 1952-1967 is available at BLOCKS-BOOKS.com.

Book Review by Gordon Maltby in the 356 REGISTRY:

    There has been little written in English about the Monte Carlo over the years, and only a small percentage of the involved Porsche.  That oversight has now resolved.  This huge two-volume set is a comprehensive look at the cars from Zuffenhausen that took part beginning in 1952 with seven private teams in 100cc and 1300cc Porsches that year.  The factory did not take an official part until 1963 with a Carrera 2 coupe, but privateers -- including many woman -- upheld the marque’s honor with as few as seven and as many as 37 entrants during the 1950s.  In 453 pages, the first volume offers details on each of the 356 (and the first few years of 911 and 904) entries with driver and car specs.  There are also hundreds of photos, many in full-page form, showing a simpler time when the cars were basically stock.  It’s interesting to note that most modifications had to do with supplemental lights, and some of these creative additions are strange looking indeed.  The photos also show that beyond the dust, mud and snow, there were real dangers on the Alpine passes.  body damage was common.

    The test is in French, German, and English and gives background about this seminal rally, first run in 1911, with cars beginning their trek in different cities and “coming together” (French rallier) at a common destination:  Monte Carlo.  The Cote d’Azur at the time suffered from a lack of tourists in the winter months, and the rally was intended to bring not only participants but spectators to the area in January.  From 1924 to 1939 the rally brought  winter business to the area, and in 1949 it resumed with enthusiastic post-war support from car manufacturers who benefitted from car the exposure.  Porsche tried to enter in 1951 but were turned down on an interesting technicality:  their engines were considered “third-party”  (i.e. VW).  A change to the rules for the 1952 event allowed the 356 “production touring cars” to take part, but a theme throughout the book is the “moving target” nature of the rules and handicaps imposed by the Automobile Club of Monaco, all along with the event’s ever-changing place in the hierarchy of series championships.  Each year seems to have brought a new wrinkle to the rules, all in an attempt to level the playing field.  but the end result was that unlikely models took the podium, like an overall win for a Renault Dauphine in 1958.  For Porsche entries, “creative’ solutions to the rules were employed by both private entries and the Factory, making for great stories.

    Unlike other forms of racing where the track or course was a known quantity, each year’s Monte route changed.  Starting cities, special stage and “concentration runs” would vary; and another significant variable entered the equation:  the weather.  Competitors ran during daylight and at night, on almost every imaginable surface, with both weather and elevation changes adding to the difficulty.  Driver and navigator needed to work seamlessly together, tire choices had to be make (and adapted, as studs were lost on dry section), and on-road repairs were often required  All in all, the Monte-Carlo Rally was a tremendous challenge.  Porsche generally did quite well, but could only claim class victories through 1967.  When the tire limits and handicaps were remove for the following season, Porsche took its first overall victory with Vic Elford in a 911T.

    For 1961, the B models began to supplant the A coupes and within a few years there were several Carrera 2 coupes entered, one of the few motorsport areas were the heavy coupes were effective and successful.  In 1965, the sharp end of of the911 spear wedged its way into the event with Falk and Linge, along with two others factory 904 entries.  The last 356 was entered in1966, and in years to follow it was pretty much all 911s, all the time.  There were a few 912s in the mix, and in 1973 three factory914-6s were entered, mostly to shore up the model’s image in the marketplace.  A tie for third overall was not enough that year and the 914s were soon gone.  Another overall win cam in 1978 with a privateer 911.  The next year, a 924 was entered with Jugen Barth and Roland Kussmaul, and the same team completed in 924 Turbos the next three years.  And while 911s evolved and continued to carry the Porsche banner, other carmakers brought new products to the mix and the cars became so specialized (Lancia Stratos, Renault Alpine, Audi Quattro) that the 911 eventually lost ground and the Factory’s efforts now concentrated on other models and other series.  Privateers, however, kept the Porsche competition sprit alive just as they had in the earliest days.  The las years documented in the book show some heroic efforts and surprisingly good results by the evergreen 911.

     German author Patric Dasse has created a monumental work celebrating Porsches at thsi granddaddy of all rallies.  The first volume is gem of a 356 photo collection, with careful attention to captions and a lengthy explanation of each year’s contest: routes, ruel changes, interesting anecdotes, and insights into both motivations and frustrations of the entrants.  The second volume -- this one 480 pages -- begins in 1968, covering races through 1982, during with homologated FIA Group cars competed and the rally became Round 1 in the World Rally Championship.  The English text is well-written and authoritative.  Dasse spent much time pouring over original entry and result sheets, along with magazine articles from the period.  Author and historian Maurice Louche vetted the French translation and supplied most images in the book from his archive of over a million images.  The end result is a volume that should be the centerpiece of your Porsche book collection.