We are proud to sponsor Bill Richards & Alistair Vines in the Rallye Monte Carlo Historique 2011, with this the 100th Year of the Monte Carlo Rally - it promises to be something special.

by Alistair Vines

We are competing in this fantastic rally in a 1293cc Austin Mini Cooper S - CRX 89B which has an extensive competition history going all the way back to the 1960s.

It was built in September 1964 at the Austin car assembly plant in Longbridge, Birmingham, England and dispatched to the MG Works at Cowley near Oxford for conversion into an International rally car for the BMC Competitions Dept. It's first event was the 1964 RAC rally with Rauno Aaltonen where it subsequently retired with transmission failure. In the hands of Paddy Hopkirk, Rauno Aaltonen and Tony Fall, CRX did spectacularly well during the 1965 season helping Rauno to become European Rally Champion in that year, with wins for him on the Polish and 3 Cities rallies. Paddy was also in luck with wins on the Circuit of Ireland and the International slalom autotest event in Luxembourg. Following the RAC, in which Tony Fall brought it home in 15th place, it was used as a recce car for the 1966 BMC Team on the infamous Monte-Carlo rally, where the entire BMC team were disqualified for a lighting infringement after finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Read more of Al Vines in his Blog.

Bill Richards

Mad Dog Rallying will once again be using their 1965 Morris Cooper S which has been meticulously rebuilt into full works specification and is now an authentic replica of a 1960’s BMC competition Mini. The standard of the build is such that the car has been registered with the “Ex-works and special tuning”