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MINI WORLD

After receiving an invitation from Lord March, through my good friend Chris Lucas, to attend a press day at Goodwood House together with 569 FMO in preparation for the Festival of Speed to be held on the 7th, 8th and 9th July 2006. I duly arrived in Portsmouth on the overnight ferry from Jersey with FMO, being met by Melvyn from CKL Developments with trailer, ready to take us to Goodwood.

The gathering consisted of several hundreds of people including press, owners, drivers, celebrities and mechanics. The main purpose being to introduce the press to this magnificent array of some of the most important historic cars in the world and for us to meet our drivers and co-drivers. In the usual Lord March tradition we were invited to partake in a buffet lunch and an opportunity to meet and talk to everyone.

Chris Lucas had mentioned that Rauno Aaltonen was due to appear and would like to drive FMO. So when I arrived the first thing I did was to look out for him. After half an hour with no success, I returned to the car to find the maestro in deep conversation with Melvyn going through the car in great detail. Mel introduced me to Rauno who was dressed in full race suite all ready to go. He was not entirely happy with the rake of the driving seat and Mel ended up placing a wooden wedge underneath the seat raising it and tipping it forward.

We were then asked to attend a welcome and short drivers briefing in Goodwood House by Lord March after which we adorned crash helmets and proceeded to the start of the Hill Climb. During a delay, at the start of about half an hour, I had an opportunity of getting to know the great man. He and his son Tino run a successful driving academy in Finland called the "Aaltonen Motor Sport" and this is ice racing at the highest level. It is easy to see where he gets his enthusiasm from for teaching people driving techniques and this was to become a feature of his popularity during the Festival of Speed.

The Forest Rally Stage is situated at the top of the Goodwood Hill and this is the second year it has been used and greatly improved thanks to the input of former World Champion Hannu Mikkola adding a separate return route to create a circuit of approx.1.9 miles. The chalk surface became quite slippery in the rain and started to suffer quite badly after three days constant use, especially from the Modern Rally Cars such as the Subaru Impreza driven by McRae and the Ford Focus driven by Gronholm to name but two.

The Rally Stage was divided up into three classes:

Class 51. Sideways with Spotlights - the Birth of Stage Rallying
Class 52. Rally Revolutionaries - the Legendary Group B Cars
Class 53. Kings off the Road - Giants of Modern Rallying.

569 FMO appearing in class 51. Each car was allowed a maximum of 18 runs over the three days. There were times when I became quite anxious as to how FMO would stand up to the punishment, especially when rocks started to appear on the final day. Rauno assured me that he would take great care of the old girl and am relieved to say that my fears were unfounded although several of the cars did come a cropper especially the Austin Healey 3000 driven by Michael Darcy and Paul Woolmer that suffered damage to the steering and had to be withdrawn, fortunately at the end of the last day.

As soon as the BBC Commentary Team realised that Rauno had been reunited with 569 FMO after forty two years, when he drove the car to 7th overall and 3rd in Class clinching the Manufacturer's Team Prize in arguably the most important Monte Carlo Rally of all time, it was like bees around a honey pot. Tony Jardine quickly arranged a TV interview with the great man seated next to the car under an array of spotlights and TV cameras. Suddenly people and press appeared from everywhere together with a long queue of hopeful, would be passengers and autograph hunters all armed with pen and paper.

I am delighted that Basil Wales was able to passenger Rauno on one of the runs and also my wife, who is not known for her love of speed and who appears to have been finally bitten by the speed bug and cured of accusing me of driving too fast. As for FMO the only damage she sustained was a broken spotlight. After forty two years she is still as plucky and tough as ever with a certain magnetism and charisma that out performs all other makes of cars. No wonder the Mini is the most loved and successful car of all time.

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