ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival 2019 - original or true to original

• The historic rally scene gathers in Daun
• Erwin Weber: Reunion with the Ibiza Kit-Car
• Rally around the World: That's how the idea came about!

This year rally celebrities will again gather at the ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival (July 18th/20th,2019). Already in its ninth year, the largest rolling rally museum attracts not only a large number of historic rally cars to the Vulkaneifel, but also their former drivers. As a result, many people from the surrounding area - and from much further afield - meet in Daun for this fascinating event.
Speaking just now about the 2019 Festival, Reinhard Klein is visibly proud of the remarkable field of participants: "In order to promote and preserve the history of rallying, we only allow originals, faithfully restored or replicated vehicles. In the meantime, word has spread around that we are the only organiser to offer such high quality vehicles as part of our show. The spectator should not be able to notice any difference between the cars he sees now and the famous rally cars of the past,". Klein is the head of 'Slowly Sideways', the Europe-wide association of owners of historic rally cars and he went on to say: "This year we have many new cars that have not been seen before in public, or very rarely. The absence of any timing on our stages makes it possible for us to include vehicles that would not be allowed to compete in an event of a competitive nature". But the concept of the Eifel Rallye Festival also attracts the makers of similar Histo Rallyes to the Vulkaneifel. "So far, organisers from Portugal, Spain, France and Austria have announced their intention to take a closer look at our concept," explains the Event Director, Otmar Anschütz who as Chairman of the MSC Daun holds the organisational threads of this major event in his hands.

Renowned drivers on special vehicles
The squad of renowned drivers committed to the 2019 Festival continues to fill up. The field is led by Timo Salonen from Finland. The World Champion of 1985 will drive a Peugeot 205 T16 E2 with which he captured the World Championship title. The Swedish driver, Stig Blomqvist, is already part of the Festival inventory. The 1984 World Champion will be at the wheel of a Ford RS200 Pikes Peak prototype with around 1,000 horsepower. Isolde 'Isi' Holderied brings two World Championship titles in the women's category to the Eifel. She pilots her Toyota Corolla WRC, with which she won the Coupe des Dames at the Monte-Carlo Rally in 1999. Niki Schelle, the former Suzuki factory driver and current TV presenter will drive a Group B Lancia Delta S4 that Miki Biasion drove in the 1986 WRC. With the Brit Nicky Grist and the Spaniard Luis Moya, we have two legendary and extremely successful WRC co-drivers coming to the Eifel. Jochi Kleint, the 1979 European Champion, will drive the VW Golf GTI 16V with which he competed in the German Rally Championship of 1987. The two-time German Rally Champion Harald Demuth has never missed a single edition of the Eifel Rallye Festival. His co-driver Wolf-Dieter Ihle is bringing the original Audi 80 GLE to Daun, with which Demuth scored the first WRC points for Audi in Portugal 1979. The Briton Jimmy McRae in the Vauxhall Chevette HSR, the Swede Kalle Grundel, who by appearing in both a Peugeot 309 GTI and a Ford RS200 will be driving two original cars from his career, and Matthias Kahle, multiple German rally champion and permanent festival starter in the Skoda 130 RS, are further well-known drivers with very special vehicles.

Seat Germany with Erwin Weber and Seat's Spanish winners
Seat have two real treats in their luggage for their visit to the Eifel. The Spaniard Josep Maria Servià will drive the Seat Ibiza Bi-Turbo, which last year had made the Eifel fans' eyes shine. The prototype has one engine at the front and one at the rear and can be driven alternatively with front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. In both 1986 and 1987 it finished second overall in the Spanish gravel championship. After he had made himself somewhat scarce in the rally scene over recent years, there is now a reunion with Erwin Weber for the fans to witness. The two-time German Rally Champion and European Champion of 1992 also has a World Championship title in his luggage, albeit an unofficial one. In 1996, when he started in the Seat Ibiza Kit-Car, he scored important points towards the 2-litre World Rally Championship title for the Spaniards. "I'm really looking forward to driving the Ibiza Kit-Car from Monte 1996 again," says Weber who is keen to be at the festival weekend. "It wasn't so easy at the time to tame this powerful front-wheel drive car, but here, without competitive pressure, it will be much more relaxed now". But above all, he is eager to meet "old colleagues and friends. I always wanted to come to Daun for that, now it finally works". But the graduate engineer for vehicle technology also intends to keep a close eye on the vehicles on the starting list, "I will be taking a good look at these old rally treasures".

Rallye around the World: That's how the idea came about!
It is often coincidences that create the greatest and most beautiful stories in life. The events around the famous ‚Pikes Peak' hill climb in America were the successful theme of the Eifel Rallye Festival in 2018. It all came about because Wolf-Dieter Ihle had the Audi Quattro that John Buffum had driven up the ‚holy mountain' and in 2017 acquired the Bi-Motor VW-Golf that had also been driven at Pikes Peak. The copy of the Peugeot 205T16 Pikes Peak by Erich Müller was also close to completion and could at least be exhibited if not actually driven. Audi were quick to respond and got the ultimate Pikes Peak conqueror from their museum. This was the original
Pikes Peak S1/E2 that had been driven by Walter Röhrl to victory - and new record - in 1987. Just to be able to watch this car live would have been enough justification for the Festival theme of 2018 because this car will not often be seen driving in the future.
In 2018, the New Zealander, Ross Clarke, came to the Eifel as a spectator and showed us photos of his recently finished replica of a Toyota Celica Twin Cam Turbo from the Group B era. He was so excited that he promised to put the Celica in a container and bring it to Daun for the 2019 Festival. In addition to that there was an Australian, Darryn Snooks, whose Datsun 710 SSS from 1977 also dreamt of a trip to Europe. Thus it was that two representatives from the continent of Oceania had already been fixed for 2019.

Rally cars that make regular festival participants are some originals from Kenya and since the Lancia Integrale of Franco Lupis and the Mercedes 280 SE of Andreas Beyer have both been driven in Argentina, the idea for the 2019 theme was quickly born. With the Turbo Celica of Gerd Dicks, which was formerly used in the USA, and the very rare Toyota 222D of Ernst Kopp that, except for a small test in Scotland, completed the majority of its test kilometres in Japan, all regions had at least one representative. It was clear from this that rally cars from five continents were about to gather for the Festival in the Vulkaneifel. The basis was there and with it the theme "Rally around the World" was born for 2019. And when the entry list is finally revealed at the end of June, it will be found that further representatives of the individual continents will have been added to this foundation.
However, a glance at Wikipedia or other information exchange will quickly make it clear that the definition of the World's continents is perhaps not so simple. The experts argue whether there are four, five, six or even seven. But no matter what particular opinion you align with, apart from the exclusion of Antarctica where there really have been no rallies, you can be clear that representatives from all continents will be finding their way to the Eifel Rallye Festival 2019. In short: it will be a 'Rallye around the World' in Daun

From now on: order all documents in advance
As usual, all the important information about the Eifel Rally Festival 2019 will be contained in the comprehensive programme. This collector's piece contains detailed descriptions of the individual special stages, the designated spectator points, all the location maps and, of course, the participant lists plus all the details of the cars presented in both words and pictures.

During the Festival, spectators are welcome to visit the Rally Mile in Daun free of charge. However for attendance at the special stages, there are a range of tickets available to spectators. They go from a single ticket for the shakedown on Thursday to a weekend ticket covering all stages for all three Festival days.

Starting on June 30, 2019, programmes and spectator tickets can be ordered from the rally shop at http://www.eifel-rallye-festival.de/Rallye-Shop.html. Shipping to countries other than Germany but within the EU is also possible. From July 8, 2019, the documents will set out on their journey to customers which will give everyone sufficient time to prepare fully for their visit to the Festival.

Eifel Rallye Festival - Time Table

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Contact for international media
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Email: john.davenport@eifel-rallye-festival.de