It was the end of the ‘90s, I was about 8 or 9 years old.
My father was a sponsor at Dakar.
We had two Range Rovers in the race.
Since then, I’ve become passionate about rallying.
Specifically, the World Rally Championship,
with the epic performances of Didier Auriol, Carlos Sainz, François Delecour
My name is Gabriel Valentin, and I drive a 1977 Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo S1.
I’ve always been passionate about old cars.
When I was younger, during the Monte-Carlo,
I had the Didier Auriol remote controlled Toyota Celica
and I always thought that one day, I would drive that car.
Recently, with a friend, we decided to try to build a replica.
With the help of Toyota, we built a replica of the Group A Toyota Celica.
Over the last fifteen years, I've made a career in marketing.
I changed jobs, and I landed in a company
that has, for me, a mythical sponsorship in rallying
with Martini Racing,
which, in 2018, celebrated fifty years.
By chance, someone comes into my office one day and says,
“Hey, since you’re passionate about antique cars,
next year will be 50 years of Martini Racing.”
I realized that there could be a super opportunity there.
I threw myself into searching for a car that could be entered in the Monte-Carlo Rally,
to create a project around the fifty-year anniversary.
We created a project internally to revive the Martini Racing colors in our own way
and enter in the Monte-Carlo Historique.
I looked for a car, hoping to find a Lancia.
There's a great love story between Martini Racing and Lancia,
with a lot of success.
I hoped to find a car from before 1980.
Only a few models would qualify as a Martini Racing car.
There’s the Lancia Stratos, too pricey, and the Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo.
I set off to find this car, and I found it on an auction site.
It was white, which suited me,
and above all, and it had performed in historic rallying in the past.
It had competed several times in the Portugal Historique.
The car was already properly equipped with a crash bar and navigation gear.
I thought, “OK, we’re ready."
We’ll convert the car for Maritni Racing with colors of the Lancia 037
but more up-to-date.
The Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo was the basis for the chassis of the 037.
So they are closely linked to one another.
I got a colleague involved in the project,
and as soon as we were approved by Martini’s international team,
we were on our way, and we registered in the Monte-Carlo Historique.
At that point, there is emotion and excitement
because this is it, we’re there, registered for Monte-Carlo
even if there are several months to go before “takeoff”.
There is also a bit of stress during the preparations,
training ourselves to live together, somewhat, pilot and co-pilot.
Preparing the car, too, and then, that’s it, we’re there.
I had already done some rallying, both as pilot and co-pilot, in the past.
Such as around Reims,
Plus, saying “Reims” means “Monte-Carlo”.
For me, at that time, this mythic race,
at least in France, was Reims.
So, it’s printed on the cars; it’s on my Toyota Celica.
Then, it will be on the Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo.
In fact, I've already made history in my region.
With some training and good communication,
time moved along and February 1, 2018 arrived.
We take off for Reims, from Paris, quite stressed I have to say
because we’re on our way to attempt the Monte-Carlo Rally
without really knowing what to expect from the technical inspections
and hoping the car won’t have any problems.
The fear is that the car will break down before the event even starts.
We got there on the Friday
before the start, which was at around 8 pm.
We’re in Reims, and we get the tags and some stickers for the car.
We’re waiting around, checking out what’s happening,
looking around, asking questions.
We were embarking on an authentic historic rally.
Five days of racing with more than 1,200 miles of driving.
The prime objective is to finish.
There are plenty of accidents, breakdowns, abandoned cars.
“OK, we’re going to finish the rally, and above all reach Monaco.”
That’s the ultimate goal, along with having a great experience.
An incredible rally, a thrilling environment, and a pleasurable atmosphere.
The car held up; we had no technical or mechanical problems.
We trailed behind because it was the first time I had driven on snow with studded tires.
That was something to take into account.
We learn new things, and at the same time, we want to try to achieve something
and at least perform at a respectable level.
The interesting thing about Monte-Carlo Historique is that,
from year to year, It’s never the same, and 2019 is much more complicated,
especially in terms of weather conditions
with a lot of snow and ice.
Even if the car performs well on the road and in rallying,
even having acquired confidence
by practicing on snow during the rally,
any little lack of attention, driving straight on, you end up in a tree.
That cost us headlights, a bumper,
but we managed to get quickly back on the track and finish the race,
showing that the car is solid.
That Lancia is tailored to rallying. It’s still relatively small scale,
weighing less that one ton, and it's very, very low to the ground,
so it’s well seated on the road, with a rear engine.
It’s a propulsion engine, the original Fiat Lampredi,
with a double Weber carburetor and double camshaft.
It’s a pleasure to drive and it's even comfortable.
In fact, its name, the Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo, reflects that it was a project
for Lancia to develop their future rally car,
which was the Lancia 037.
Remembering the rally, after two decisive rounds,
the choice was obvious: the Lancia Beta Monte-Carlo was going to be my car
in the Rallye Historique.
We’re starting to repairing it; we’re waiting for parts right now.
They’re very hard to find.
Once the car is back in shape,
we’re going to optimize it for years to come.