Classic Rally Revival 2018: Liège-Brescia-Liège (1)
– A report by Silke Wedekind and Ted Prenzel
The idea
One fine day, we happened to come across a rally – we probably found the information on Facebook. Another long distance rally would be great! The last one we had taken part in was the Baltic Sea Circle in 2016 where we had covered just over 9,000 kilometres around the Baltic Sea. The Liège-Brescia-Liège rally (short: LBL) would start in Liège, cross many Alpine passes down to Ljubljana, take the drivers to Brescia and then end back in Liège.
The rally was started for the first time in 1958 to prove the power and reliability of small vehicles – even back then initiated by enthusiasts from England. Already in 2008, Malcolm McKay had the idea to organise a revival of the LBL rally for its 50th anniversary. And what would have been more appropriate than celebrating its 60th anniversary in the same way? A special feature of the rally was to limit the cylinder capacity of the participating vehicles to 500cc in the “Authentic” category and to 700cc in the “Spirit” category. For us, this meant that we precisely hit the target group with our “little one” – our Giardiniera.
The preparations
Our “little one”, built in 1975, is quite potent with her laid-back 27hp. During the course of the rally, we baptised her “Giardi.” She runs on 13” wheels equipped with disc brakes at the front. Could there be any better prerequisites for a hunt across the Alps? After a recent inspection where all fluids were changed, we took a spare V-belt (once bitten twice shy – we had bad experiences with another car in earlier days) and a spare alternator along with us.
The rally
Arrival day came, Day 1 according to the official count. We had decided to spare our little one the ride of about 320 kilometres from Frankfurt to Liège and back and, without further ado, put her on a trailer. She then covered the last kilometres to the hotel at the start location on her own wheels. And there they stood: a great many Brits, a few Austrians, Germans and French, even some Americans – with their small and micro cars. Berkeley, Isetta, Zündapp Janus, 2 CV, Prinz, Messerschmitt (See video)... Next to these very delicate creatures in the underground car park, our Giardiniera appeared like a SUV to us.
On Day 2, the first actual driving day, the whole thing started very early in the morning – just like on all following days. We got up around 6:30 am, then had breakfast and mostly took to the road between 8:00 and 8:30 am. Equipped with a lunch box, we had no time to waste if we wanted to check in at the finish in time – this was usually between 6:00 and 6:30 pm. Then, we used to have dinner, and between 9:00 and 10:00 pm, we set out to prepare the following day by marking the new route on the provided maps. You wouldn’t call this a recreational holiday, would you? ;-)
The route took us along small roads through varying landscapes to complete the first special stage on the karting track at Liedolsheim (See video). The first 400 kilometres lay behind us. We only checked the oil level, while other rally colleagues had a much busier time.
For many participants, Day 3 started with tinkering and repairing again. The view of a stripped bubble car caused a female British participant to burst out: “Aww, I never saw a naked Tiger before!” We didn’t have too much to do, so we were among the first teams that were on the road again at 8 am. The first stopover was the “Boxenstopp” museum in Tübingen.On our way there, our exhaust got noisier and noisier. A a look into the engine bay confirmed what we had feared: cracked exhaust manifold on a Friday, 13th.
But since we were on our way to Munich, help was only a call to Axel Gerstl away. They even directed us to a repair shop where we could still arrive after 7:00 pm! This allowed us to complete the day on schedule to our stage goal, which was the BMW museum in Munich, with an increasingly noisy Giardi without taking penalty points.
We did without dinner and immediately proceeded to the Young Classics, Vondrovsky Fahrzeug-Service repair shop where we were expected by a very kind and skilled team (See video 1 and video 2). Of course, we opted for the sport exhaust system which was fitted in no time. We could even help another participant by bringing along an alternator for him. Now, we felt well prepared for the next day.
Day 4 – After quite a short night, we were on the road again by 8:15 am. We rolled along the Lake Starnberg to Seeshaupt, feeling splendid, until Silke, just after Penzberg, suddenly had Giardi’s gear stick in her hand as she shifted from 2nd to 3rd. We were lucky again: less than a kilometre away, there was an open repair shop that we reached – pushing our Giardi – just before closing time (it was Saturday!). The repair shop, Auto Eberl, located at the Seeshaupt train station, found a handy solution by welding a metal bar onto the remaining gear stick stub. Not a standard solution – but we were back in the game! After only 20 more kilometres, we were blocked again. This time, we were able to sort it out ourselves – the power supply for the electric fuel pump was cut. We then reached Misurina, the destination of the day, in time and without further breakdowns.
Day 5 took us across many small and unknown passes with many bends on a really spectacular route to Ljubljana. All participants presented their vehicles on the Prešeren square, which is the central city square of Ljubljana. There, we also watched the football world cup final.
After more than 1,600 kilometres, we ere looking forward to a day off. Our series of breakdowns seemed to be over, little Giardi ran like a clockwork and didn’t even consume any oil; only when running stationary, she sprays a little...
To be continued... here!
