Being the shoulder season in September it wasn’t necessary to be up and out at 4am like the previous rally in June, but we were still all up to start leaving at 7am. The cars were staggered in stages depending on the car’s power and the madman behind the wheel, with the aim to have everyone arrive at the end destination at roughly the same time. Despite going out in the middle of the pack there was no chance of a lie in as Tony wanted me to take photos of the first cars leaving before I jumped back in the car with Aaron. The difficulty here was that I as the navigator had no chance to actually look at the map before we started. However, the route wasn’t difficult to find with the map we were given, and the paper maps Aaron had bought for this trip. Like the Hannibal Rally we had checkpoints we had to pass through but at least this time we only needed a photo to prove it. No more rummaging through bins.

The first part was pretty straight forward as we drove through a short mountain pass and onto a series of mountain towns. It was at the former we encountered perhaps the feistiest competitor of the day: an Italian ex-rally driver armed with a Fiat Ritmo Abarth. He’d been told to look after it as he wasn’t actually the owner, but the smell of his brakes said otherwise. However, it was during this first stint that things were already starting to go wrong. Despite Aaron replacing his alternator and then having it be rebuilt, that wasn’t enough to appease the car gods as he could see his battery warning light flicking on at high revs. The car was otherwise driving fine, and the battery did seem to be charging below 4000rpm, but it added an unnecessary layer of stress early in the day.

It quickly became apparent that we weren’t the only ones with alternator issues. As we drove up Colle Valcovera, we encountered the Porsche 914 who was blocking the road, having come to a complete standstill and unable to restart his engine. Using a bit of muscle power, we managed to push to up the mountain to the next clearing before we could carry on driving the narrow Italian passes as they pondered what to do next. Tony had given a warning of a particular section of road that was especially nasty on the descent and, despite Aaron’s mostly careful driving this next section, yielded yet more problems. With a loud crash we hit a rock on the underside and almost immediately I could smell something. Killing the engine, we stopped the car in the road and saw a coolant pipe had been knocked out and had proceeded to leak profusely. Thankfully it wasn’t damaged, and whilst Aaron put in back in place and refilled the coolant from the 5L bottle of water in the boot, I ran up the road to forewarn the Alfa Romeo SZ and the now-running-again Porsche 914 to take it extra slow over this section.

The car back in running order, we continued to the next town where we could stop to inspect the car again to be on the safe side, as well as refill our bottle of water in case of any other mishaps. That led us on to the next set of passes before we approached Colle dell’Agnello from the opposite direction from day three, to head back into France and make our way to the lunch stop. The wider, better paved roads do make all the difference so we didn’t need to worry about damaging the underneath of the car, but unfortunately for Aaron he had to take the driving a bit easier than he would have liked due to the ongoing issues with the alternator. There was still plenty of fun to be had however and we made sure to stop periodically to check the car as well as take photos for the magazine.

We arrived for lunch in good time, but it was clear that many people weren’t. The Porsche 914 had broken down again and many of the other Italian drivers had decided to quit the rally out of solidarity, staying with him instead of carrying on. That Ritmo with an ex-rally driver behind the wheel? Well, he’d taken a wrong turning somewhere and just kept going off on his own route. Finally, the Trident Ventura had made it close to the Italian/French border, but a serious set of issues saw it spend the rest of the day on a flatbed truck back to the hotel. It really did feel like a proper endurance race at this point, and I won’t lie it was thrilling despite the prospect that we could join them before the day was done. Still, the MGF was holding up well and Aaron had a chance to give a more thorough once over once we’d tucked into our lasagna and tiramisu. Lunch was an enforced one-hour break, with anyone leaving early suffering a time penalty. During the lull I got a chance to explore a bit of the local landscape, before watching a huge procession of classic trucks go by in large numbers one-by-one on the main road. I’m not sure why they were there but there must have been another event going on.

Time to carry on and our next photo stop was to be Cime De La Bonette. This was the highest point on the rally with the road sitting at 2,802m above sea level and the summit at 2,862m. Sensing an opportunity I grabbed my camera gear and dashed up the stony path to the top in order to get a photo of the car with a mountainous backdrop as well as experience the view at the top. What a view it was; It’s easily the most stunning vista I have ever seen. Slightly staggered and out of breath, I was in awe of the 360° views of the Alps that surrounded me. To top it off I had the massive wings of Griffon vultures soaring the thermals above me. I can scarcely even imagine the views they must have had. If you make it to this part of the Alps, you must visit here. You won’t regret it.

My summit dash had cost us some time, so we jumped back into the car and zipped through to the final major pass that would take us back over into Italy – Colle della Lombarda. The best had been saved to last. The road was incredible, with its mixture of bends, switchbacks, and just stunning views of the surrounding mountains. My jaw almost hit the floor when we turned a corner and saw the road snaking through the open valley ahead of us. There was no question about stopping for a photograph, we weren’t going to get a better setting all trip. Aaron rates this as the best road he’s ever driven and even being unable to have the MGF at full chat, it was a riot.

The end was near; all we had left to do was to visit the Madonna del Colletto church which we had skipped on the out leg before we could head onto the finish point. It was perfect timing really with us arriving there as the sun was starting to set. We’d done it, despite issues with the car we’d managed eighteen out of twenty-one passes on our very first attempt. Tired but satisfied we headed back to Costigliole Saluzzo, where we arrived after dark, and could then breathe a tired sigh of relief. The car had been getting worse as the day wore on and by the end the battery warning light was coming on at anything over 2000rpm, but at least the drive back to the hotel was now less than a mile away. We’d even managed the entire day without a single fill up, quite the achievement in comparison to everyone else.

I’ll be honest I was too tired to really eat anything, but everyone was in good spirits and at least we didn’t have the never-ending belt issues the Lancia Beta HPE Volumex had suffered. It would have been a real pain to have to stop every twenty or so miles to put that back on. We laughed, drank, and ate the evening away, with Tony having organised Italian car designer Enrico Fumia to be the guest of honour and hand out the awards for both the Hannibal rally & the 12in12. In addition, every participant was given a signed copy of his design for part of the original Lancia Ypilson. I’ll take that over any medal.

We headed back to our hotel room exhausted, and amazingly for us this was only the mid-point for our trip. We still had plenty of driving ahead of us but before all that the MGFs alternator needed to be addressed, we weren’t going to be getting home as it was. What happened next? Well, you will have to read the third and final blog next week.

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 Rees’ 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.

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