Rally is a form of motorsport that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars. It is distinguished by not running on a circuit, but instead in a point-to-point format in which participants and their co-drivers drive between set control points, leaving at regular intervals from one or more start points. Rallies may be won by pure speed within the stages or alternatively by driving to a predetermined ideal journey time within the stages.
The valleys of the Alps have been inhabited since prehistoric times. The Alpine culture, which developed there, centers on transhumance.
The Société des Automobiles Alpine SAS, commonly known as Alpine, is a French manufacturer of racing and sports cars established in 1955. The Alpine car marque was created in 1954. Jean Rédélé, the founder of Alpine, was originally a Dieppe garage proprietor who began to achieve success in motorsport with one of the few French cars that were produced just after the Second World War, the Renault 4CV. The company has been closely related to Renault through its history, and was bought by it in 1973. Production of Alpine models ceased in 1995.
The Challenge 1929 was the first FAI International Tourist Plane Contest, that took place between August 4 and August 16, 1929 in Paris, France. Four Challenges, from 1929 to 1934, were major aviation events in pre-war Europe.
Col Agnel is a mountain pass in the Cottian Alps, west of Monte Viso between France and Italy which links the Queyras valley (Hautes-Alpes) with Pontechianale in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont.
Erika Hess is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the best female racers of the 1980s, Hess had 31 World Cup wins, four slalom titles, and two overall titles. She also won six World Championship gold medals between 1982 and 1987, and took bronze in the slalom at the 1980 Winter Olympics at age 17. Hess missed another medal in 1985, when she led after the first run of the slalom at the "Stelvio" course at Bormio, but failed to finish the second leg.
Timo Mäkinen was one of the original "Flying Finns" of motor rallying. He is most famous for his hat-tricks of wins in the RAC Rally and the 1000 Lakes Rally.
Sheila Van Damm was a British woman competitor in motor rallying in the 1950s, and also the former owner of the Windmill Theatre in London. She began her competitive driving career in 1950, and won the Coupe des Dames, the highest award for women, in the 1953 Alpine Rally. The following year she won the Women's European Touring Championship and, in 1955, the Coupe des Dames at the Monte Carlo Rally.
The Österreichische Alpenfahrt was a rally that was part of the inaugural World Rally Championship in 1973.
The FIA International Championship for Manufacturers (IMC) was a rally series culminating in a champion manufacturer. The championship was run from 1970 to 1972 and it was replaced by the FIA World Rally Championship in 1973. All the nine rallies of the 1972 IMC season were part of the 1973 World Rally Championship season.
Liège-Brescia-Liège is a rallying event organised once in 1958 and recreated as a historic rally in 2008 and subsequently.
The International Society for Alpine History promotes research on the history of the European Alps and publishes an annual Journal. The Laboratorio de Storia delle Alpi at the Università della Svizzera italiana is the secretariat of the Society and develops its own scholarly agenda.
The Alpine Rally, also known by its official name Coupe des Alpes, was a rally competition based in Marseille and held from 1932 to 1971. In the 1950s and the 1960s, it was among the most prestigious rallies in the world and featured an international route, consisting of famous mountain passes in Europe.
Ernest Ian Appleyard was a British rally driver, alpine skier and ornithologist. Driving a Jaguar XK120, he won the RAC Rally in 1951 and 1953, the Tulip Rally in 1951 and a Coupe d'Or at the Alpine Rally in 1952. In alpine skiing, he competed for Great Britain in the 1948 Winter Olympic Games. After retiring from sports, he became a leading author on the ring ouzel.
Jean Vinatier is a French former rally and racing driver. He won the Tour de Corse with a Renault 8 Gordini in 1964 and the Alpine Rally with an Alpine-Renault A110 in 1968 and 1969. In the last-ever Alpine Rally in 1971, he finished second to Bernard Darniche and recorded his third consecutive penalty-free run, becoming the third driver after Ian Appleyard and Stirling Moss to achieve the much-coveted Coupe d'Or.
The Stella Alpina Rally is an annual vintage motorsport race, held annually since 1984 in the Italian Alps. It is a historical reconstruction of the earlier Stella Alpina Rally competition, originally held from 1947 to 1955. It takes place in Italy, in the second weekend of July, and lasts for three days. The competition is organised by staff of the Scuderia Trentina Storica di Trento, headed by Enzo Siligardi, a member of the National Council of the Historical Italian Automobile Club. The main race is reserved for cars validated by A.S.I. and built before 31 December 1955. Cars built between 1956 and 1984 are eligible to compete in the special Stella Alpina Touring rally, which also takes place for three days in the traditional race format.
Keith Norman R. Ballisat was a British racing driver, who drove in endurance races, rallies and Non-Championship Formula One races.
Patricia C. Quinn, best known by her former married name Pat Appleyard, is a British former rally driver and co-driver. She is the daughter of Jaguar Cars founder Sir William Lyons. Co-driving with her then-husband, Ian Appleyard, she won the Alpine Rally's Coupe des Alpes each year from 1950 to 1953, in one of her father's company's Jaguar XK120 cars. On the third of these triumphs, in 1952, the Appleyards were the first crew ever to be awarded the event's Coupe d'Or, for having won three consecutive Coupes des Alpes. During their competitive career the couple's major event victories also included the 1951 and 1953 RAC Rallies and the 1951 Tulip Rally, and they were runners-up in the 1953 European Rally Championship. Her own driving career was less successful than her husband's, a fact that she herself partly put down to being unable to find suitably qualified female co-drivers, but nevertheless she won a number of ladies' trophies in British events.
The 2019 Monte Carlo Rally was a motor racing event for rally cars that was held over four days between 25 and 28 January 2019. It marked the eighty-seventh running of the Monte Carlo Rally, and was the first round of the 2019 World Rally Championship. It was also the first round of the World Rally Championship-2 and the newly-created WRC-2 Pro class. The 2019 event was based in the town of Gap in the Hautes-Alpes department of France and consists of sixteen special stages. The rally covered a total competitive distance of 322.81 km (200.58 mi).
The Rallye Paris – Saint-Raphaël Féminin was a car rally in France exclusively for female participants. It was held over a 45 year period beginning in 1929 with a hiatus during World War II. The race was typically scheduled for the end of February to the beginning of March for 4 or 5 days, with the drivers covering a total distance of between 1,100 and 2,500 km, depending on the year.
