Classic Cars Rally Through The Mountains

The “Arlberg Classic Car Rally 2017” will see 125 rare automobiles traverse dream alpine landscapes.

From 29 June to 1 July 2017 vintage cars ranging from a Steyr-Puch with 643 cc to a century-old American La France from 1917 with a huge 14.5 litre engine with drive all the way up to the Arlberg Pass in Austria at an altitude of 1,894 m.

“Even connoisseurs of vintage cars can experience something new in the Lech am Arlberg region: a fascinating starting field includes legends of the Golden Twenties like a Mercedes-Benz 630 “Erdmann & Rossi”, a Rolls Royce Phantom I, a Bentley Le Mans Tourer, an Invicta 4.5 L, a Marmon Roosevelt Racer and a Packard 626 SS Roadster,” said one of the rally organisers.

Fans of style icons and racy sports cars from the 1930s to the 1970s can feast their eyes on beauties such as a BMW 507, a Chevrolet Corvette C1, a Ferrari Daytona and a very rare Fiat 8V “Otto Vu”, a Maserati 3500 GT, a Ford GT 40 and also a Honda 800 convertible and an Opel Rallye Kadett.

This extraordinary line-up of participants will be on the region’s roads for three days, when the vehicles will wind their way via the 1,894 m Hahntennjoch to the Inn Valley and then to the Zugspitze.

Further route highlights of the “Arlberg Classic” include the “Schlösser & Seentour” (Tour of Castles and Lakes) on the last day, which passes Neuschwanstein Castle before heading over the winding Riedberg Pass into the Bregenzer Forest and back to the Arlberg.

Rally Chief Armin Schwarz and his team have integrated 20 demanding tests into the 662 kilometre route, for which only mechanical clocks may be used for time measurement. This creates quite a challenge, as penalties are applied for every 1/100th of a second deviation from the target time.

The detailed route and expected times, as well as a listing of the entire starting field and much more information besides is available on the rally’s website.