Rally Retro has roared to life in Melbourne as a celebration of the sport’s past featuring obscure models and vastly successful marques.
Headlined by multiple Australian Rally Championship winner Neal Bates and his collection of Toyotas, Rally Retro features a vast display of machinery spanning rallying’s golden period in the 1970s to more modern examples from the 1990s.
Held at the METEC Motorcycle Training Complex in Melbourne’s north east, some of rallying’s finest are displayed, while others are thrashed on a course mixing tarmac with the dirt and giving the spectators a thrill, especially those lucky enough to be in VIP.
World Rally Championship models such as the Ford Escort, Subaru Impreza WRX STI, Toyota Celica and Corolla were among the models to have taken to the course.
Repco had representation courtesy of the Holden Dealer Team entered Commodore of Barry Ferguson, Wayne Bell and Dave Boddy, while a latter representation from the 1995 Mobil Trial driven by Peter Brock gave a clear display of the advances of motoring and the sport in 16 years.
Of course, the popular beasts were the older specification rear-wheel-drive models of what is termed Australia’s Golden Period during the 1970s such as the Ford Escort BDA, Datsun Stanza, Fiat 124, Triumph TR6, Mitsubishi Galant, Lancia Stratos, Mini Cooper and even a couple of Renaults.
The much revered Group B era was represented by the Peugeot 205 T16 and Ford RS200, a model contributing to key events leading to the end of the class in 1986.
Aussie muscle was on show through Holden’s Monaro and Torana GTR XU-1 as well as a wild SL/R 5000.
Make sure you keep the calendar free in February for the next Rally Retro in Victoria, it is one of the great motoring events to attend.