On the road with the microcar rally

Diminutive classics tackle gruelling mountain route

Ask someone what a rally car looks like and they’ll probably picture a saloon or hatchback, trimmed with bigger wheel arches – maybe a wing – and lamps on the nose.

While they’d be right to think that most cross-country cars do fit that mould, though, there’s a merry band of micro machines keen on changing perceptions.

Welcome to the Liège-Brescia-Liège – a rally first run in 1958, revived in 2008 and home to possibly the most diminutive vehicles ever to tackle a mountain pass.

We joined the competitors taking in part in this year’s event to find out what it’s all about.

Not your average road trip

Nursing fragile, underpowered microcars for 2000 miles over numerous steep mountain passes is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a special challenge for driver and navigator alike.

Dinky machines

Not familiar with the microcar? It’s the smallest category of automobile, far smaller than your average hatchback or city car, and usually capable of carrying just two passengers – and a lunchbox, at a squeeze.

From miniatures to oddities

Many models of microcar were built across the 20th century – from the world’s smallest – the Peel P50 – to the surprisingly stylish BMW Isetta (pictured here), to the downright odd Bond Bug.

Plenty of derring-do

As you’d expect, it requires an indomitable spirit, great camaraderie and undying determination to tackle this unique historic rally in one of the mini-machines.

No GPS allowed

Driving such small-engined cars over such distances is a novel challenge: competitors drive with their foot to the floor yet never break speed limits – and navigation has to be spot on, with only good old-fashioned plotted paper maps permitted.

Fix on the fly

It’s a challenge for the machines, too. Mick Bell – winner of Spirit of the Rally honours in 2008 – had to drive the whole night to catch up in his BMW Isetta 300 after a main bearing broke in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana.

All for the small things

First run in 1958, the Liège-Brescia-Liège has always been about small, economical machines tackling mountains – though its original upper limit of 500cc has since been raised to 700cc.

Bijou, but nowhere to go

The whole event was originally conceived by the Royal Motor Union of Liège. Why? The Suez Crisis had seen manufacturers produce a host of economical bubble cars – only for the Suez bubble to burst and the market recover, leaving little interest in the miniature motors.

A true test for tiny cars

What to do with all of the microcars? Why, rally them, of course! How better to demonstrate the capabilities of these super-economical machines – and just how enduring they could be – than by driving them across some of the toughest roads in Europe?

Contribution over competition

Initially the event was competitive, run as a non-stop endurance test – just 13 cars finished the 1958 rally – but things are a little less intense and a little more inclusive today: involvement, encouragement and completion are seen as success in this most miniature of mountain rallies.

Belgium to Italy and back again

Its original route took the rally out of the Belgian city of Liège, south and east towards Ljubljana before heading to the Italian city of Brescia. In the process, it took in some of the highest and toughest mountain passes on the continent – including Vrsic in Slovenia, and the Stelvio and Gavia passes in the Italian Dolomites.

Finish at Francorchamps

After just eight hours of rest, the original event saw the field – or what was left of it – returning to Liège via Stelvio and Gavia, on through Austria and Germany and to the finish at Spa Francorchamps.

No more motorways

The revival rally follows the original route as closely as possible, except where it avoids the German autobahns – part of the 1958 event but deemed too dangerous today, given the vast speed difference between dinky 500cc microcars and cruising Mercedes saloons.

A class for the old...

Nowadays it’s essentially two rallies in one: the 2018 event was contested by 19 cars in the sub-500cc Authentic Category – basically vehicles that could’ve taken part in the original 1958 event. 

...and a class for the slightly less old

Another 19 entered in the Spirit Category, for cars built before 1968 and carrying engines smaller than 700cc – or 0.7 litres, in modern money.

A far-flung field

Predictably, the entry list was a catalogue of rare and tiny machines, brought from as far afield as the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria and the USA.

Models galore, part one

Autobianchi Bianchina Trasformabile and Panoramica, Berkeley SE328, SE492 and B95, BMW Isetta and 700, CAP Scoiattolo, Citroën 2CV, Fiat 500 and Gamine, FMR Tg500, Heinkel 200…

Models galore, part two

...NSU Prinz 3 and Sport Prinz, Steyr-Puch 500 and 650, Trabant P601, UMAP 2CV, Vespa 400 and Zundapp Janus: you won’t know all the names, but they’re all storied motors in their own right – and they were all on the Liège-Brescia-Liège this year.

Now, as then

Fittingly, there were many parallels between the 2018 running and the original rally 60 years before it: just as six Berkeley cars entered then, so six competed in this year’s event – including this SE492.

Victory at the first

In fact, it was a Berkeley SE492 that won the first test – on the brilliant Liedolsheim kart circuit in Germany – hitting the target time bang-on by pure luck and leading the rally into the Alps.

Tigers on the prowl

Alas, a pair of FMR Messerschmitt Tigers were just one second behind – and they'd soon take an unassailable lead, ticking off every checkpoint through the mountains.

Bang on time

They also showed amazing timekeeping prowess on the two remaining tests, which included a three-lap consistency challenge at the impressive Autodromo di Franciacorta near Brescia.

Still going strong

Rally legend Willy Cave wasn’t far behind, mind, happily navigating a Citroën 2CV, at the grand age of 91.

Rolling repairs

What about those troubled by mechanical woes? The rally was supported by an RAC rescue van – cheerily crewed by Simon Courtney and Mike Collins – which helped several of the entrants along the way, changing the clutch on a Berkeley and replacing the brake hose on an NSU Sport Prinz.

Do it yourself – or face the consequences

Of course, this being an endurance event, letting others work on your car meant taking a penalty. The result? The RAC frequently gave competitors the tools and let them fix their own machines. How very noble.

Family affair

Meanwhile, battling away at the back of the field was the father-and-son team of Xavier and David Kingsland, piloting a recently rebuilt Berkeley SE328 – so recently, in fact, that it hadn’t been tested.

Surprise reliability

The pair expected to drop out of the rally after day one – but, with constant tweaks, the car not only made it to the finish but improved as the rally went on.

One to rememeber

As Xavier reported, “The spirit in which all of the competitors undertook the event and the fabulous terrain that the route covered, not to mention the climbs and hairpin turns, will remain most wonderful memories for us both for years to come.” Quite right.

Time to prepare

Fancy having a crack at this most novel of rallies? The 2019 edition will be reserved for Triumph TR machines, but the Micro Marathon will hit the Pyrenees in 2020.