Page 12 - Against All The Others

024 David Bull
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highways. In those Iron Curtain countries in those days, private automobiles were rare. Speed limit signs were really academic.
“One of our time control stations was in Gdansk, and we arrived three hours early,” Elford explained. “The control was in a modern sports and recreation center in the old city’s Gothic square. We went for a swim in their Olympic-size pool, had a sauna, and enjoyed a gourmet dinner before it was time to head out. We had a stop in Prague and again arrived early enough to shop for some of Czechoslovakia’s beautiful crystal. They packed it well, but believe me, we drove quite carefully until we could meet up later with our service crews and ask them to care for it.”
According to Monte Carlo rally historians Patrick Dasse and Maurice Louche, 153 of the original starters reached Chambéry within the prescribed time. But from there on to Monaco, as the pace increased and the difficulty of routes grew, the tenor of the rally changed. This section comprised 1497 km (930.19 mi) of nighttime mountain tests, including seven special stages on which tardiness
BELOW: For the 1965 Monte, teams were judged not
only on best time through stages but on their best performance through a demanding maneuverability test in Monaco on the final day. Rules required that
the co-driver participate,
and engineer Peter Falk, already a Porsche test and development driver, was fast and precise. [COURTESY PORSCHE CORPORATE ARCHIV]
OPPOSITE: Part of the preparation for the Monte or any international rally is to pre-drive the route. While “pace notes” are infinitely more detailed, the purpose
of Peter Falk’s map was to identify stages and transitions (cross-hatched) as well as Porsche’s service locations. [COURTESY PORSCHE CORPORATE ARCHIV]
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AGAINST ALL THE OTHERS
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