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1970s Tour de Corse rally numbers?


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#1 Doug Nye

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 08:31

Here's a pained plea for help from anyone who might know infinitely more about rallying than I do (which wouldn't be difficult).

 

I am trying to ID a photo of a harbourside parc fermé or perhaps just an assembly area, packed with early '70s rally cars. Particularly distinctive, to me, are the blue Alpine-Renault A110s.  The image in question comes from a storage packet headed 1973 Tour de Corse - the Tour of Corsica.  Alongside the quay is moored the ferry 'Napoleon' - which fits into a greater interest of mine than rallying - to be brutally honest.  The ship is the 1959-launched version bearing that name, which was replaced by a more modern-design vessel introduced in 1976 on the Marseilles/Toulon-Corsica service.  So its presence would certainly fit with the image being from 1973.

 

Still with me?

 

OK - so what's my problem?  Well, most of the rally cars visible bear three-digit competition numbers.  Yet in that inaugural season of the Rally World Championship it appears the qualifying rounds conferred at most two-digit numbers upon participants (well, the first 99 of them).

 

Contemporary magazine reports of that December '73 Tour de Corse (riven by snow, incidentally) include photos of cars with only single or at most double-digit comp numbers...  I have wondered if the cars might be carrying the numbers from a preceding event, just about to be changed - but that doesn't seem to fit either.

 

So - what the hell am I looking at then in this shot of three-digit numbered rally cars, on a harbourside, with a Corsica ferry in the background, and preserved for decades in a '1973 Tour de Corse' storage packet?  Was there another Corsican event which would have merited apparent works Alpine entries during 1973?  

 

Or might this conceivably be Sardinia perhaps, not Corsica at all - so the harbour might be Cagliari rather than Ajaccio, or whatever?  Or might the image be from some other year from, say 1971-75?  As far as I can see those years' Tours ran only double-digit comp numbers too...  Every alternative I have tried thus far has proved to be a blind alley.

 

Any advice - up to and including "retire right now, you're past it" - gratefully received.

 

Foiled of Farnham


Edited by Doug Nye, 31 March 2023 - 08:33.


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#2 Rupertlt1

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 08:42

Rallye Ile de Beauté, le petit Tour de Corse.

 

1973:

https://www.ewrc-res...de-beaute-1973/

 

RGDS RLT


Edited by Rupertlt1, 31 March 2023 - 08:50.


#3 Myhinpaa

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 08:48

1973: https://www.ewrc-res...de-beaute-1973/



#4 Doug Nye

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 09:05

11 minutes - 17 minutes - and all is explained.  I have been tied in knots over this for as many days!

 

Thanks to wonderfully knowledgeable inhabitants this place is a wonder.  Thank you so much gentlemen.

 

DCN (free again!)     :wave:



#5 Myhinpaa

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 09:41

Lots of photos and newspaper articles on this (very) Corsican football(!) website.

 

https://www.corsefoo.../tour-de-corse/

 

Scroll down the page, much of it covers the international '73 Tour de Corse

 

image.jpg



#6 Doug Nye

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 12:20

So was the concurrent island rally a national-level event, non-championship or what?  I seMichèle Mouton there in only the second year of her developing career...

 

DCN


Edited by Doug Nye, 01 April 2023 - 19:57.


#7 Vitesse2

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 14:10

So was the concurrent island rally a national-level event, non-championship or what?  I see Michéle Mouton there in only the second year of her developing career...

 

DCN

From a post on Autodiva:

 

 

Nous sommes lors du Tour de Corse mais les filles participent au Rallye Ile de Beauté 1973 qui se dispute pendant le Tour de Corse, il s'agit du classement pour les "nationaux"... oui, à l'époque c'est un peu compliqué le rallye, vous avez les "Inter" qui disputent le Tour de Corse et les "nationaux" qui disputent l'Ile de Beauté...Ce système de deux rallyes en un disparaitra en 1974... Concernant la perf' des filles, ce fut plutôt bien puisqu'elles gagnent le classement féminin et elles terminent 8e du classement général du rallye Ile de Beauté...

 

Yes, national level, run concurrently. Mouton finished 8th overall and won (presumably) a Coupe des Dames.



#8 Myhinpaa

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 14:35

Google Translated:

“We are during the Tour de Corse but the girls take part in the Rallye Ile de Beauté 1973 which is disputed during the Tour de Corse, it is about the classification for the "nationals"... yes, at the time it is a the rally is not very complicated, you have the "Inter" which compete in the Tour de Corse and the "nationals" which compete in the Island of Beauty... This system of two rallies in one will disappear in 1974... Concerning the performance of the girls, it was rather good since they won the women's classification and they finished 8th in the general classification of the Ile de Beauté rally..."

#9 70JesperOH

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 14:51

Noted that Michele Mouton finished 8th over all - 6th among the Alpine,

 

Jesper



#10 Myhinpaa

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 15:32



Noted that Michele Mouton finished 8th over all - 6th among the Alpine,

 

Jesper

 

With co-driver Marinette Furia

 

Michele-Mouton-Corsica-1973.png



#11 d j fox

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Posted 31 March 2023 - 17:30

A number of the major French events in the 70s such as the Rallye in this thread and also the famed “ Tour Auto “ ran a separate “Nationale “ event too