Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo Porsche 1952-1982

PATRICK DASSE & MAURICE LOUCHE, dingwort Verlag, €175, ISBN 978 3 87166 108 2

In the UK we are perhaps guilty of associating the Monte initially only with British wins – or foaming at the mouth over disqualifications – and thereafter fixating mainly on quirky French and Italian entrants and incongruous American behemoths tackling the cols. So much so that it might have escaped your attention that 2018 marked the 50th anniversary of Porsche’s first outright win. That’s when Vic Elford and David Stone’s 911T and Pauli Toivonen and Martti Tiukkanen’s 911S finished first and second, edging out the Cooper S of Rauno Aaltonen and Henry Liddon and thus ending the Mini’s dominance.

Porsche then enjoyed its own period of hegemony, with Björn Waldegård and Lars Helmer taking back-to-back victories in 1969 and 1970, before the A110s rose to the top and Alpine had its own brief moment in the sun until Lancia took over. In fact, Porsche only topped the podium one more time, in 1978, when Jean-Pierre Nicolas and Vincent Laverne took the spoils. In Porsche competition terms, not only was this level of success unhabitually low – governed by an arcane system of handicaps and coefficients that meant the best the marque could hope for was the battery of class wins that did amass – but also the glory was a very long time coming.

Interestingly, the first raft of Porsche entries was rejected in 1951 because the Automobile Club de Monaco ruled them out as powered by a third-party engine, which was against the rules. The German marque first appeared on (and swamped) the rally, therefore, in 1952, when nearly 40 356s signed up. This book covers every year from then until 1982, when a second run of class wins came to an end.

The format runs year by year and offers an engaging annual overview, with lists of entries and information on how the Porsches fared. But most impressive is the phenomenal photographic support. There are countless pictures of Porsches on the event and, even if the 356s are starting to look a bit samey by the end of the 1950s, it’s pleasing that the authors have managed to find colour from as early as 1953.

The book is presented in French, English and German over two hardback volumes totalling not far off 1000 pages, and is presented in the obligatory slipcase. The only criticism of this magnum opus is that the text can be quite dense – thanks, no doubt, to having to cram it all in three times.