The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. From its inception in 1911 by Prince Albert I, the rally was intended to demonstrate improvements and innovations in automobiles, and promote Monaco as a tourist resort on the Mediterranean shore. Before the format changed in 1997, the event was a “concentration rally” in which competitors would set off from various starting points around Europe and drive to Monaco, where the rally would continue to a set of special stages. The rally now takes place along the hills of the French Riviera and southeast France ; the recentmost edition to have a special stage within the borders of Monaco as of January 2025 was the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.
The Rootes Group was a British automobile manufacturer and, separately, a major motor distributors and dealers business. From headquarters in the West End of London, the manufacturer was based in the Midlands and the distribution and dealers business in the south of England. In the decade beginning 1928 the Rootes brothers, William and Reginald, made prosperous by their very successful distribution and servicing business, were keen to enter manufacturing for closer control of the products they were selling.
Patricia Ann Moss-Carlsson was one of the most successful female auto rally drivers of all time, achieving three outright wins and seven podium finishes in international rallies. She was crowned European Ladies' Rally Champion five times. Her older brother Stirling Moss was a Formula One Grand Prix star during the 1950s. From 1963 until her death in 2008, Swedish rally driver Erik Carlsson was both her driving-partner and her husband.
Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited was a British automobile manufacturer in operation between 1905 and 1934. Its works were at Moorfields in Blakenhall, a suburb of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, now West Midlands. The Sunbeam name had originally been registered by John Marston in 1888 for his bicycle manufacturing business. Sunbeam motor car manufacture began in 1901. The motor business was sold to a newly incorporated Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited in 1905 to separate it from Marston's pedal bicycle business; Sunbeam motorcycles were not made until 1912.
The Sunbeam Alpine is a two-seater sports roadster/drophead coupé that was produced by the Rootes Group from 1953 to 1955, and then 1959 to 1968. The name was then used on a two-door fastback coupé from 1969 to 1975. The original Alpine was launched in 1953 as the first vehicle from Sunbeam-Talbot to bear the Sunbeam name alone since Rootes Group bought Clément-Talbot, and later the moribund Sunbeam from its receiver in 1935.
Leslie George Johnson was a British racing driver who competed in rallies, hill climbs, sports car races and Grand Prix races.
Patrick Barron Hopkirk was a rally driver from Northern Ireland, he was considered to be one of the finest rally drivers that the United Kingdom ever produced. Following his retirement from competing he became well known for his charity work and for running his successful automotive accessories business and driving school.
William Bernard Unett was a British racing driver and development engineer, three times winner of the British Saloon Car Championship in 1974, 1976 and 1977.
Vivian Van Damm was a prominent British theatre impresario from 1932 until 1960, managing the Windmill Theatre in London's Great Windmill Street. The theatre was famed for its pioneering tableaux vivants of motionless female nudity, and for its reputation of having 'never closed' during the Blitz.
Sunbeam-Talbot Limited was a British motor manufacturing business. It built upmarket sports-saloon versions under the parenthood of Rootes Group cars from 1938 to 1954. Its predecessor Clément-Talbot Limited had made Talbot automobiles from 1902 to 1935.
The Sunbeam-Talbot 90 is an automobile which was produced and built by Sunbeam-Talbot from 1948 to 1954 and continued as the Sunbeam Mk III from 1954 to 1957.
Peter Roderick Procter was a British cycling champion, rally driver and racing driver.
Rosemary Smith was an Irish rally driver from Dublin. She initially trained as a dress designer.
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.
Margaret Mabel Gladys Jennings was a Scottish motor racing driver. As Margaret Allan she was one of the leading British female racing and rally drivers in the inter-war years, and one of only four women ever to earn a 120 mph badge at the Brooklands circuit. During the war, Jennings worked as an ambulance driver and then at Bletchley Park's intelligence de-coding centre. After the war, she became a journalist and was Vogue magazine's motoring correspondent from 1948 to 1957.
Keith Norman R. Ballisat was a British racing driver, who drove in endurance races, rallies and Non-Championship Formula One races.
Ursula Wirth was a Swedish automobile rally racer. She and Ewy Rosqvist-von Korff won the Gran Premio Argentina in 1962, when they were also the first two-woman team to enter the race.
Yvonne Marie Louise Simon was a French racing driver who participated in rallying, circuit races and endurance racing.
Lucy O'Reilly Schell was an American racing driver, team owner, and businesswoman. Her racing endeavours focused mainly on Grand Prix and rallying. She was the first American woman to compete in an international Grand Prix race and the first woman to establish her own Grand Prix team.
Germaine Rouault was a French racing driver.
