Christmas 2020 was not what we had all hoped for. Last minute lockdowns dashing our hopes of families gathering at Christmas as we grappled yet again with the Coronavirus. So, if you had told me then that later in 2021 I’d be going on the most epic road trip of my life so far, I’d have scarcely believed you. And yet here we were packing up Aaron McKay’s MGF ready for a trip to Italy over the Alps. The two-seat roadster proved it could hold a lot more luggage than we expected once the spare wheel up front had been removed and we were able discard the luggage rack for extra fuel economy. Bar some truly awful weather on the way to Dover, we made it to the ferry port in good time (with all our extra forms) to meet up with two other drivers before we made it to France.

But what were we doing? Well as the title suggests, the 12in12 Rally. A single day rally that involves attempting to drive twenty-one alpine passes in twelve hours, crisscrossing the border between Italy and France (it was originally twelve, but the name has stuck). All organised by Tony Calo, a British expat who now enjoys the sunnier life in North Italy. Of course, we first have to get there, and that leg was called the Hannibal Rally, the three-day journey to north Italy itself, though sadly without elephants. It was a long first day from home to our overnight stop in Troyes and whilst we had tried to take a fairly direct route, we didn’t want to get too badly stung by France’s infamous péage toll roads which were a lot more expensive that I originally realised.

Still, what excited me the most at this point was that Chris Rees, the editor of Auto Italia magazine, had turned up in his very own Alfa Romeo SZ. A car I’d long been fond of but never had a chance to see in the metal (or in this case resin). Though Bainzy’s Morgan was also a cracker of a car, there’s just something wonderful about a car covered in leather straps. Meeting up with the rest of the crew we had a good mix of people from the UK, Belgium & Norway with almost all British and Italian cars. The Triumph 2500PI with Belgian plates definitely caught my eye but the classic Alfa Spider & TWR Caterham were also quite special.

Day two was the first proper day of the Hannibal Rally and we were given a set of checkpoints to pass through, with the task of having to come away with the name of the place written or printed on a piece of paper. Driving the autoroutes was naturally banned. It seemed simple at first, surely buying something from the local supermarket or getting a parking ticket which see us though. However, as it turned out Tony hadn’t been to a lot of these places before, and many were little more than tiny villages with scarcely a non-residential building to be found. Aaron and I did actually manage the task in the end through taking church leaflets and raiding people’s bins but at the end of the day we were all really there to drive the roads and experience a small slice of rural French life. Not half bad.

With our extra time spent taking pictures and recording video we ended up dead last arriving at the next hotel, but we certainly weren’t the worst off. John Ganderton had arrived in a Mercedes SL500 the only non-British or Italian vehicle and he had quickly remedied this by having an almost head-on collision with a local on a tricky forest bend. Don’t worry though, it was only an R230 SL (and John was also fine). The Triumph went back to pick him up and he then went to hire a car for the rest of the duration of the trip, Sadly for John the only thing other than a van available was a large Peugeot diesel SUV. Not exactly rally material but probably better than a bicycle.

Day three was the biggest day yet, travelling from the French-Swiss border across the Alps and into Italy. Now I’d never been to either before so whatever happened next was going to be special, but it was made even more so by spending the day in the Alfa SZ to get some different photos of the MGF as well as photos for Chris for Auto Italia. Going to Italy for the first time in a limited-edition Italian sports car? It certainly beats Ryanair. To make this work we drove in convoy together the whole day which left Aaron to navigate up front as we followed behind. What a car the SZ is with its Busso V6, and this car had a special custom exhaust which made it sound even better. Being Italian it is awkward in places in terms of design, the gorilla driving position is there and I’d need to break my hand in at least three places to fit it through the grip in the door, but when it gets going it really gets going. It had no trouble at all filling the mountain tunnels with sound.

As we wound through the mountain passes, with the only hiccup being a temporary roadblock caused by French road maintenance, we found we were not the only group out on a rally. If there was one car related thing I had wanted to see on this trip it was classic Alpine sport cars, and we hit the jackpot when we stumbled upon a whole car park full of them. Being car enthusiasts, we had to stop to take a look to get a closer at look at some very rare and desirable pieces of French metal. It should come as little surprise; this was mid-September, and the alpine passes could easily be shut in mid-October due to snow. Everyone had to make the most of it while the roads were clear.

At this point we had passed Col de Télégraphe (which I was told is one of the most popular with the French) and continued onto Col de Galibier where we decided to stop for photos. I’ve been to Scotland several times and have some experience of the seeming endless stretches of mountains in the Highlands, but that does not prepare you at all for the Alps. It’s just on a different order of magnitude. The scale and the vastness are just breathtaking, quite literally at 2,642m above sea level, the first time I’d ever been anywhere near this high and experienced breathing such thin air. With its winding roads on a backdrop of stunning vistas it was the perfect place to take a photo that symbolised driving in the Alps.

Shortly after we were joined by Geir in his Caterham and then came the large procession of Alpines, thundering up the mountain and desperate to pass us to continue unhindered. This combination of factors of location and cars really did make it feel like we were on some high budget shoot for Evo or Octane magazine. This was also the first time I really got to appreciate where we were and breath it all in, difficult up until this point when the aim was to speed on through as fast as possible.

With the photos in hand and the weather deteriorating we carried on through to Col Agnel (or Colle dell’Agnello in Italian), which is the highest pass between two countries and the third highest paved road in the Alps at 2,744m. It’s another amazing drive up from the French side, winding up to the border demarcation at the top. What really astounded me was witnessing a cyclist complete the climb from the bottom, cheered on by his friends before being helped into the minibus, barely able to walk. He wasn’t a young chap either. Standing there though you could look out across both nations, amazing to think that once upon a time Hannibal himself could have travelled through here riding his elephant.

I had been forewarned that the quality of the roads would deteriorate from now on. On the French side they were single lane and well paved whereas I could expect little more than rough single track in Italy. It proved not to be the case coming down from Agnello but I would experience that in the days to follow. Aaron raced off ahead to enjoy the roads and a driving duel with a German motorcyclist, but we were not far from our end destination, and it wasn’t long until we arrived at the rally hotel: Castello Rosso in Costigliole Saluzzo. For someone who’s usually camping in a field, to stay in an old Italian castle eating four course meals with unlimited wine made for a pleasant change of pace.

Day four was a rest day where we headed into the town of Bra for its international cheese festival less than an hours’ drive away. It gave us a chance to experience urban Italian life whilst we sampled some of the local produce. As a local himself, Tony knows the mayor and so had arranged for our cars to be driven into the town square for display before we handed him our own rather dubious samples of cheese. We were supposed to have brought something from the UK, but Aaron and I ended up buying a small piece of French cheese as part of our day two challenge. Having gone a long time without refrigeration we strongly advised the recipients not to actually eat it.

And there we were, the Hannibal Rally was over, and the main event was to begin the next day. A few more people joined us at the hotel the night before as not everyone could make the preliminary stage and Tony sat us down to brief us on what would be happening come dawn. To find out what happened next, you’ll need to read next week’s blog.

With special thanks to Tony Calo for organising. You can find out more about the 12in12 Rally by visiting https://12in12en.mystrikingly.com/ or by e-mailing him at 50passesin5@gmail.com. Also don’t forget to check out the latest issues of MG Enthusiast and Auto Italia to get both Aaron and Chris’ perspective on the event, which you can find at https://shop.kelsey.co.uk/issue/MGE and https://auto-italia.co.uk/latestissue.asp respectively.

If you enjoyed this blog then please consider leaving a tip below.