A SPANISH SURPRISE
RALLY THE GLOBE was established in 2018 to do exactly that, but the club (it is run as a not-for-profit for the benefit of its members) has inevitably been forced to pump the brakes on a series of events intended to take crews right around the world.
All being well, far-flung motoring adventures will begin again in January 2023, when a small convoy of pre-1977 cars will travel a whopping 8500km through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam on the Road to Hanoi Marathon – but the club’s organisers have no intention of merely killing time until then, and recently sprung a most welcome surprise by announcing an addition to their existing slate of UK and European rallies: the Carrera España.
The new event will be held between 24 April and 5 May 2022, and will see participants follow a winding 3500km route that begins in Barcelona and tracks westward across Spain as far as Luintra (just north of Portugal), before heading back east to the seaside city of Santander. Twenty or so regularities will keep everybody on their toes, and there will be more than ten special tests, too, some of them held on racing circuits.
Like the Road to Hanoi Marathon, the Carrera España is open to pre-’77 cars, and there will be a separate competition class for pre-’46 classics to encourage a diverse field.
The route should help in that regard, too: while the distance set to be covered each day is not inconsiderable (the average leg is 350km and the longest 405km), those in charge of producing the roadbook promise the event will be run entirely on asphalt, meaning that vintage motoring enthusiasts can sign up without fear of being rattled to bits by midmorning. The schedule includes a rest day, too, in Salamanca, a city pretty enough to have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
‘Like the greatest grand touring cars,’ notes rally director Fred Gallagher, ‘our Carrera events are created for both competition and comfort, and the Carrera España will offer both pleasures in abundance.’
If it needs spelling out, crews can expect the hospitality to be the equal of the driving. Rally the Globe has picked out some superb hotels for the event – converted Benedictine monasteries, a secluded lodge in the dramatic Picos de Europa mountains, and even a medieval fortress. The Carrera España might not be the event Rally the Globe had originally planned to run in April of 2022, but it’s hard to imagine a better way to spend a fortnight.