ADAC Eifel Rally Festival: The doorway for entries closed early

• The ERF received over 200 entries within a week
• Swedish winner Mats Jonsson is coming to the Eifel
• Also: the Slowly Sideways winter meeting at Toyota Racing in Cologne

The rush to enter was simply enormous, which is why the entry list for the Eifel Rallye Festival (July 23rd to 25th, 2026) had to be closed after just one week. “It only took twenty-two hours, and we had already one hundred entries. By the end of the first week, there were over two hundred,” reports Reinhard Klein, who, as head of Slowly Sideways, is responsible for putting together the starting field. “We are simply delighted by the huge response, and it also confirms our work as Festival organisers.” However, as the Cologne native admits, „The most difficult part of my job is having to turn down some of the cars and crews. It is just a matter of available space which prevents us accepting more than around one hundred and sixty teams. The Rally Mile in Daun cannot be extended indefinitely – we’re already using every possible nook and cranny.“

Swedish double winner Mats Jonsson comes to Daun

Mats Jonsson and his co-driver, Lars Bäckmann, stood at the top of the podium twice at the Swedish World Rally Championship event. In 1992, they won for Toyota Team Sweden in a Toyota Celica GT-4 (ST165), repeating their victory in 1993 again for Toyota Castrol Team, but this time in the ST185 version of the Celica. „I’ve heard a lot about the Eifel Rallye Festival, it must be a great event. I’m really looking forward to being there myself this year,“ says Jonsson, excited about his rallying debut in the Vulkaneifel. He will be driving his own Toyota Celica ST 165, a faithful replica of his 1992 winning car.

Slowly Sideways visits Toyota Racing in Cologne

Slowly Sideways, the Europe-wide association of owners of historic rally cars, makes up the majority of the starting field at the Eifel Rallye Festival every year. This time, the annual winter meeting of the Slowly family attracted ninety-five participants to Cologne. It wasn’t just the carnival going on the city that was the deciding factor, but a very special location for their get-together inside Toyota Racing. This was formerly the home of Toyota Team Europe and is now the base for Toyota’s endurance racing team as well as being the birthplace of the GR Yaris Rally1 engine, current leader of the 2026 WRC.

The first highlight of the visit was on the agenda for Friday. Attendees were given a glimpse into the otherwise strictly off-limits areas of the Toyota motorsport operation. They were extremely impressed by the engine workshop, the chassis workshop, the CNC milling shop, the engine test bench, the simulator and the wind tunnel. The ninety-five Slowlies next spent Saturday morning looking round the Toyota Collection. With “boss” Reinhard Klein, Ernst Kopp and Wolfgang Inhester, other Slowlies recounted anecdotes to the audience from their respective Toyota careers, moderated by Isolde Holderied. Toyota also opened its private motorsport museum to the Slowlies, showcasing all the highlights from circuit racing, Formula 1 and, of course, its rallying past.

The premiere of the 1980 Himalayan Rally was the subject of a one-hour ZDF report. Three participants gave impressive, entertaining and authentic accounts of the problems they had at the time with that rally of more that forty years ago, including the attacks on their vehicles and the end of the rally under military escort. Wolfgang Inhester, who had just won the German Rally Championship with Achim Warmbold, had to retire the Toyota Celica 2000GT before half-way while in the lead. Oda Dencker-Anderssen, together with Frenchwoman Marianne Fourton, drove another Celica to second place. Peter Lippmann only found out about his participation two days before the start and arrived in India just in time. Together with Albert Pfuhl, he drove a Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC to sixth place overall. The reports of the three contemporary witnesses complemented the film report to create a unique experience.

Two evenings of lively petrolhead discussions rounded off the Slowlies meeting in Cologne. And, of course, a visit to the carnival celebrations was not overlooked ….