Less than four hours have passed and the sense of time has already fallen by the wayside. I sit at the wheel as if in a trance, my eyes fixed firmly on the street. My hands clasp the steering wheel, my knuckles protrude white. With five straps, I am lashed into a bucket seat, surrounded by a cage made of steel pipes and crammed into a car that is barely larger than a cookie jar. So I fight my way north for miles.
The wheels, hardly bigger than a shopping trolley, whimper in the tight curves when I overtake like in slalom. One car after the other disappears into the rear-view mirror and I feel like rally driver Rauno Aaltonen, who won the legendary Monte Carlo rally in pretty much a mini just over 50 years ago. Welcome to the Brenner south ramp, welcome to the Coppa Delle Alpi!
Almost 100 years after a handful of racing cars broke through the Dolomites for the first time in the race of the same name, around 50 cars, which are now called classics, are now rolling back and forth across the Alps. For four days and over 1000 kilometers, the gems from 1920 to 1970 hunt up and down in many thousands of turns over more than a dozen passes in South Tyrol, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
In the convertible through the snowy landscape
The field of participants is thrown together wildly. In front of me, Sigfried Gronkowski shoots down the Sella saddle in his open Lagonda from 1935 with well over 80 things. Usually, in his function as team manager, the motor sports enthusiast is more driven to the desert, to the Dakar Rally. The trip to the Alps is a new adventure for the collector from near Mainz, who owns several dozen vintage cars.
I have at least one roof over my head in the Mini, but it still pulls icy through several cracks. Race tuner Hans-Åke Söderqvist, who prepared the Mini for the rally, did not want to know anything about heating or even air conditioning. Just not wasting unnecessary energy was the motto with which the Swede managed to elicit a proud 110 hp from the 1.3 liter four-cylinder engine. That doesn't exactly sound lavish, but because the racing roll weighs just 620 kilos, it brings despair to much more potent sports cars at these winter games. Of course, these are significantly faster on the straight than the Mini, which even with a lot of start-up does not exceed 145 km / h. But where in the Alps has there been such a long straight?
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Winter rally Coppa delle Alpi: a mini in the snowHowever, there is no serious fight for positions anyway. The participants are united in the spirit that they still drive their cars even when other classic car owners fearfully lock their treasures in the air-conditioned garages and protect them from any weather influences. This applies to the many Italians in the field as well as to guests from Switzerland, Germany and the Benelux, and it even attracts drivers from distant countries.
Poison for the garage gold
This unique flair has drawn two teams from Japan and one from China. They storm the peaks with cars from European friends or landlords. "We have a lot of classic events at home. But a mountain race in winter was reason enough for us to fly halfway around the world," says Yukinobu Sato from Tokyo before getting back into his Fiat 1100 and heading for the stage St. Moritz rattles.
Despite the road salt alarm, there are even Ferrari 250 GT or Lancia Aurelia, beautiful Jaguar and Aston Martin at the start. The team with the starting number 50 apparently only restored its 1973 Ford Rallye Escort a few days before the Coppa: the car shines down to the underbody, at least when the rally starts in Brescia. Four days and 1200 kilometers later at the foot of the Passo Tonale just behind Ponte di Legno, where the originals Coppa once came, this shine is preserved under a crust of dust, salt, snow and dirt, which will probably only be a steam blaster ,
"Such events are of course, on the one hand, poison for the garage gold," says classic car specialist Sepp Rothe, who takes care of the Mini from the BMW Museum fleet over the long weekend. "On the other hand, it is good for the cars if they drive and do not develop any damage to the stand. And with appropriate preservation before and thorough washing afterwards, problems can be avoided," says the expert.
At least the engine doesn't get that hot
It is only the sheet metal that is more at risk than at other comparable events - the road salt on the streets attacks metal and makes it susceptible to rust. Otherwise, the rides in icy cold have more advantages, Rothe has learned: "The engines do not run hot so quickly." In any case, we leave out the additional fan in our Mini most of the time.
Measured against the almost inflationary classic trips in summer, such winter rallies are a rather rare pleasure. And the few events, apart from perhaps the "Histo Monte", which mainly focuses on used racing cars, all have a relatively regional character. The organizers have big plans for the Coppa delle Alpi. It should firmly establish itself in the calendar - with glamor and glamor, international participation and global reputation.
It doesn't seem out of the question - after all, there are no amateurs behind the event, but the organizers of the Mille Miglia. "With the Mille, we run the most famous classic car race in the world," said Alberto Piantoni, the organizer's boss. "We want to develop the rally more and more into a brand and offer many other experiences in this spirit." This autumn, Piantoni initiated a rally with modern electric and hybrid vehicles for more progressive car enthusiasts.
The first time Piantoni's plan for the winter variant did not work out: the participants were almost without exception enthusiastic and made an appointment for the next edition of the winter rally on the last evening. But while the Mille Miglia was hopelessly overcrowded in May and not everyone who was interested in getting a starting place, the organizers had to repeatedly extend the registration period for the Alpine rally. Perhaps it was due to the participation fees of well over 5000 euros or simply due to the appointment shortly before Christmas, but in the end the participation remained far below the maximum possible 100 participants.
Thomas Geiger is a freelance author and was supported by BMW in his research. Reporting is independent of this.
