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ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival: Finally, it's time

• On Thursday, the Daun Town Day will attract fans to the Rally Mile
• Premiere: Audi's Dakar winner with electric drive
• Special tour for Festival fans at the Toyota Motorsport Museum

Participants and fans alike are eagerly awaiting the thirteenth edition of the ADAC Eifel Rallye Festival, which will take place from July 24th/26th, 2025. The world's largest rolling rally museum will again transform Daun and the surrounding Vulkaneifel region for a weekend into an international meeting place for the historic rally world. Thursday is “Daun Town Day”, offering fans the chance to experience the vehicles and teams up close in the Daun Rally Mile. Highlights include the public scrutineering of the cars followed by the presentation of all vehicles and teams on the starting ramp, the autograph session and the Welcome evening with open-air cinema.
On Friday and Saturday, more than one hundred and sixty original or faithfully reproduced rally cars will provide a visual and acoustic treat as they drive the demonstration stages in the Vulkaneifel. In between, it is always worthwhile for fans to visit the Daun Rally Mile to look at the vehicles and teams up close. Patron Thierry Neuville, his World Champion colleagues Stig Blomqvist and Nicky Grist, Dakar winner Jutta Kleinschmidt and German champions Reinhard Hainbach, Harald Demuth, Kalle Grundel, Ruben Zeltner, Georg Berlandy and Mark Wallenwein will also be travelling to this international class reunion of the rally scene. The VIP lounge will be graced by John Buffum (four-time US rally champion), Kim Boisen (Danish Histo champion), Bruno Ianiello (five-time Swiss hill climb champion), Philippe Camandona (Swiss champion), Jorge Ortigao (Portuguese vice-champion) and Ryan Champion (British vice-champion). They will be joined by Beetle legend Herbert Grünsteidl, Safari legend Mike Kirkland and, last but not least, Niki Schelle, two-time DRM 2WD champion and TV star.

Premiere: Audi's Dakar winner with electric drive
Fans of the Dakar, arguably the toughest desert rally, would normally only have been able to see this vehicle in a museum. In Daun, the Audi RS Q e-tron, the winning car from 2024, will not only be on display in the Rally Mile, but Dakar queen Jutta Kleinschmidt and her long-time co-driver Fabrizia Pons will also drive the huge “ship of the desert” over the rally stages of the Vulkaneifel. Fans can look forward to a visual and acoustic treat. During the drive, the high-voltage battery that powers the two axles will be charged by a 2.0 TFSI racing engine with its very distinctive sound. Timo Witt, head of Audi's historic vehicle collection, promises fans: “Compared to the rally cars, the RS Q e-tron is more like a cruise ship. This is a premiere that shouldn’t be missed.” Audi Tradition is also bringing an original Sport Quattro S1 from its treasure trove to Daun, which will be driven on the stages by Harald Demuth.

Toyota’s first World Championship victory 50 years ago – museum tour for ERF fans
After a successful start to the 2025 WRC season, Toyota is rapidly approaching the milestone of one hundred WRC victories. But the Japanese manufacturer has even more to celebrate as this is the fiftieth anniversary of Toyota's first WRC victory as a works team. Before the start of the 1975 1000 Lakes Rally, everyone expected Ford or Saab to win. No wonder, since these two marques had shared the victory between them for the previous seven years. But after forty-two special stages, it was not an Escort or Saab 96 V4 that crossed the finish line first, but the little Toyota Corolla Levin with its 135 hp 1.6-litre engine. Hannu Mikkola was behind the wheel of the rear-wheel drive car, but the man behind Toyota's first factory success on the World Championship stage was Ove Andersson. What had begun in a barn in his Swedish hometown of Uppsala then developed over the decades into a motorsport empire.
The TGR-E Motorsport Museum in Cologne showcases the past, present and future of motorsport thanks to a unique collection of their rally, Formula One and endurance cars. For fans of the Eifel Rallye Festival, two special tours will be offered on July 23rd, 2025 at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. for thirty euros each. Here is the link to the tickets: Tickets for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Europe MUSEUMSTOUR | TGR-Experience.

Another first for the Eifel – the RSCC Distomo
Around forty years after Group S was nipped in the bud by the ban on Group B, there is now a replica suitable for motorsport. With the help of John Wheeler, who developed the Ford RS200 Group S prototype at the time, RSCC designed a completely new vehicle based on the prototype. The RSCC Distomo, named after the legendary special stage of the Acropolis Rally, will celebrate its world premiere at the Eifel Rallye Festival. It will be presented to the public for the first time in the service park.

Photo competition with attractive prizes plus a photo workshop by Tamron
With fifty-two entrants from six countries and two hundred and fifty-eight photos submitted, the 2024 photo competition was a great success. Reason enough then for the organisers of the Eifel Rallye Festival to continue this competition for their thirteenth edition. The conditions of participation and the registration form are now available at https://www.eifel-rallye-festival.de/de/Fotowettbewerb.html.
In addition to the prizes, which will be provided as usual by RallyWebShop (www.rallywebshop.com), the winner will receive a special treat. Lens manufacturer TAMRON is offering a shopping voucher worth €500 for the best photo.

The Eifel Rallye Festival – schedul

More info can be found at: www.eifel-rallye-festival.de

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Contact for international media
John Davenport (UK)
Email: john.davenport@eifel-rallye-festival.de

Contact for international media
Jürgen Hahn (Germany)
Email: presse@eifel-rallye-festival.de