In the mid sixties, when the event went almost non-stop through successive nights, it wasn’t just the crews who got tired. Marshals and timekeepers did as well.The organisers tried out the idea of inviting privateers and celebrity entries to run ahead of the regular championship competitors, not so much for publicity, but more to wake the marshals up! Exactly 50 years ago there was another upheaval. New regulations for the European Championship, then the premier series for which the RAC Rally qualified, limited entries to cars complying with the prevailing Groups 1, 2 and 3. Lancia wanted to enter their new, but still unhomologated 1.6 Fulvia cars. To cater for these and other non compliant cars, the RAC Rally ran a parallel event, the European Club Rally. And ran these cars in front of the ERC cars! The image above shows a privateer’s 1.5-litre Ford Anglia, which was seeded between the Lancias and the works Porsches, Fords and Saabs.
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