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ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival 2017 - Ford Twins, Rare Species & World Debuts

In 2016, Audi Tradition was responsible for a true world premiere at the ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival held in Daun and the surrounding Vulkaneifel region. Thirty years after it was built, Audi's Group S prototype was driven publicly for the very first time and at its wheel was none other than Walter Röhrl. It took part in the so-called "Festival Parade" that tackles only two of the total of eight stages of the demonstration event.

The organisers of the Eifel Rallye Festival, a unique demonstration event for historic rally cars that will be held between July 20th [&] 22nd, have announced the theme of their 2017 edition. It will celebrate ‘Six Decades of Rallying’ with cars and drivers representing all decades from the 1960s right up until today. This journey in time will begin with a Mercedes 300 SE fintail (Acropolis 1963), a Ford Falcon (Monte Carlo 1964) and a Wartburg 312 (Acropolis 1966) and, passing through the intervening decades, will end with a modern Hyundai i20 WRC driven by Thierry Neuville.

Over the past few years for one weekend in summer, the Vulkaneifel market town of Daun has become a site of pilgrimage for rally aficionados. Fans from all parts of Europe come to visit the spectacular ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival - a demonstration event for famous historic rally cars and their replications all running on special stages in proper rally conditions. Now for a change, this modest town located just 20 kms south of the Nürburgring has attracted one hundred and forty rally drivers during the winter. They drove to the snow-capped mountains for the annual Winter Meeting of the 'Slowly Sideways' group which provides most of the cars participating in the Eifel Rallye Festival.

The ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival held from July 21-23, 2016 was an event that not only celebrated the history of rallying, it also made history itself. With more than sixty Group B and Group S cars lining up in the Rally Mile in Daun, the demonstration event saw the biggest collection of those supercars ever collected in one place. And it was also home to a world premiere since, 30 years after it was built in 1986, Audi fired up the engine of its Group S prototype in front of the public for the very first time. Taking part in the “Festival Parade”, it tackled two stages successfully.

The organisers of the ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival have published the entry list of this year's event that will take place from July 21-23, 2016. The line-up of the three-day demonstration event is simply stunning and comprises participants from 17 countries, cars from 36 different manufacturers and more than 60 spectacular Group B and S cars. The field of 150 cars is once again headed by Walter Röhrl, double World Champion and patron of the event, with start number 1. Röhrl is followed by former World Champions Miki Biasion and Stig Blomqvist, European Champion Yves Loubet and the German Champions Harald Demuth and Matthias Kahle plus more than hundred gentlemen drivers who are keen on showing their cars to the audience.

The Return of Group B is the theme for this year's Eifel Rallye Festival (July 21-23, 2016) and it will almost certainly be the biggest collection of Group B cars in one place since this category was banned from international rallying in 1986. "Already we have fifty-five Group B and Group S cars confirmed that will attend the Eifel Rallye Festival - and there are a few very exotic cars still in the pipeline.