Eiffel Rally Festival 2017

[Ricardos]

Three friends and I went to this rally festival back in 2013, a few months ago we decided to head out again last weekend from Thursday to Sunday. They take over a town called Daun in the Eiffel region in Germany which is about 20 miles away from the Nurburgring for 3 days. They use the town centre as a service base for all the rally cars, then set up special stages in areas around Daun for spectators to watch them do their thing. Friday has a night stage which is pretty cool as you see the glowing discs, flames popping from the exhausts along with the noise.

You name it, it's pretty much there. RS 200s, 205 T16s, 6R4s, Audi S1s, Renault 5 turbos, Lancias, WRC cars along with many other formula celebrating 60 years of rallying.

So Thursday it's the 270 mile drive from Calais to Daun, check in and have a beer at the complex where we've hired a chalet. Then drive into Daun town centre to see the cars. In the evening we headed to the Pistenklause restaurant for the infamous steak on a stone with chips.... And beer.

 

[Ricardos]

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Nice pics. This is definitely on my bucket list.

I went to Pistenklause for the first time this year. It's a cool place, but the food didn't rock my world. Love the stuff all over the walls though!

 

[Ricardos]

Friday late morning we head to a special stage on gravel, we park up and take a quarter mile stroll to a woodland section. The event is well organised, they cater on some parts of the stage with Bitburger stalls. The section we stood to watch was in the woods but they still managed to set up a mini bar with a double fridge stacked up with Bitburger.... Sorted.

Once that stage was over we headed back to chalet for a freshen up then headed back out to the late evening/night stage in another village, this went on till about 11pm. Again, well catered for Bitburgers so we were all happy chaps.

Hotel apartments and restaurant terrace

 

[Ricardos]

Friday evening stage

 

[Ricardos]

Saturday morning, a quick browse at the special stage map and we head out to our last stage. This was quite a good one in a way we had the chance to see them give it some beans off the start line a few hundred yards away then head towards us at speed. I've put some videos on YouTube but don't know how to embed them on this thread. After 3 hours on that stage we head back to Daun to see the teams start packing away for the end of the festival. This was our third day and after all the walking and standing about watching various stages we decided to stay at the hotel complex and have a meal at the restaurant with a few beers back at the chalet.

 

[Ricardos]

 

[Ricardos]

 

[Ricardos]

 

[Ricardos]

 

[Ricardos]

 

[Ricardos]

This was crazy, literally arriving in Daun on the Thursday and this Peugeot 205 T16 pulls out in front of us on a roundabout!

 

[Ricardos]

So that's it! My 4 days away watching rally cars, its an amazing experience to be up close, to hear them. It's not often you get the chance to see these rare cars

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Epic.

The Europeans are so much better at rallying than us. I wish we could hold closed-road events like this. We spend far too much time listening to whinging locals who don't want the noise.

 

[Clio_fool]

That looks like a heavenly weekend!

 

[Ricardos]

Epic.

The Europeans are so much better at rallying than us. I wish we could hold closed-road events like this. We spend far too much time listening to whinging locals who don't want the noise.

The organisation gone into this event is second to none, it's down to the punters to choose where they want to view. Everyone is so friendly, food and drink is always on tap with the option to bring your own. We went to the local supermarket and bought in crates of Bitburger for the evenings etc. To be fair at 2 euros a stubby in the event you didn't have to bring your own. Again if this was in the UK they'd sting us a fiver a bottle. Bratwurst was 2 and a half euros, the UK would mark it up at double. Like going to Brands where they sting you for £8 a burger, seriously price it keen then you'll have more attendees. The Eiffel event was 20 euros for the 3 days which gave you access to all the special stages, walking around the service area in Daun was free.

Didn't the government pass legislation to open up road events? The sad thing is the local councils would have so much red tape it would be a joke.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

The organisation gone into this event is second to none, it's down to the punters to choose where they want to view. Everyone is so friendly, food and drink is always on tap with the option to bring your own. We went to the local supermarket and bought in crates of Bitburger for the evenings etc. To be fair at 2 euros a stubby in the event you didn't have to bring your own. Again if this was in the UK they'd sting us a fiver a bottle. Bratwurst was 2 and a half euros, the UK would mark it up at double. Like going to Brands where they sting you for £8 a burger, seriously price it keen then you'll have more attendees. The Eiffel event was 20 euros for the 3 days which gave you access to all the special stages, walking around the service area in Daun was free.

Didn't the government pass legislation to open up road events? The sad thing is the local councils would have so much red tape it would be a joke.

Yeah that's it. It's the European attitude through and through; make it cheap and people will come. In the UK, we price it high and hope people will come.

They have passed legislation in the UK to make closing roads easier. There are potential events in the pipeline but the NIMBY's are screaming from the roof tops already. From what I've spoken to people about European events, the local authorities just tell the locals to lump it. The economic benefits outweigh the moaning of a minority of locals. If only we had that attitude!

 

[Ricardos]

If only the bods would go to the Eiffel event just to see how well it does, a no brainer it generates money to the local areas in all ways. Just embrace what it has to offer, on the night stage we stood in the neighbours front garden watching the rally cars. The Bitburger beer stand was in another, everybody had a few beers but behaved impeccably. The local village it was held in was shut down with the local farmers field used as a car park.

 

[McGherkin]

Epic thread. Reminds me of Rallye De Llanes, just so much better than we're allowed to put on here.

The motor club that runs it have their own pub, which also serves as their HQ. Epic idea.