4th-Mar-22, 04:44 PM
Scheduled for release this summer from Avant Slot are a trio of works Peugeot 207 S2000 cars from the 2011 Rallye Monte Carlo. These will be available individually...
#2 Petter Solberg / Chris Patterson - Peugeot France
#4 Bryan Bouffier / Xavier Panseri - Peugeot France
#8 Stéphane Sarrazin / Jacques-Julien Renucci - Peugeot France
Similar liveries, but you get to pick the crew you want driving your Avant Slot Peugeot 207 S2000 - a popular, fast, 4WD slot rally model.
Although not part of the WRC in 2011, the centenary of the Rallye Automobile de Monte Carlo was a memorable event. The WRC was on a mission to honour the 'World' part of its name, meaning classic European WRC events like Monte Carlo, the Tour de Corse and Sanremo lined up on a rather tasty second-tier International Rally Challenge schedule that also included trips to the Canaries, Cyprus, Scotland and Rally Ypres. Because it was the Monte - and especially because of the centenary - there was a very strong turn-out in terms of top drivers...
Probably the biggest name was 2003 WRC champion Petter Solberg, who was given a seat in a works Peugeot France 207 S2000 - but there were other WRC drivers: François Delecour (Peugeot), Freddy Loix (Škoda Fabia S2000), Stéphane Sarrazin (Peugeot), Toni Gardemeister (Peugeot), Henning Solberg (Ford Fiesta S2000), Per-Gunnar Andersson (Proton Satria Neo S2000) and Chris Atkinson (Proton). Sébastian Loeb wasn't there - although his co-driver was... Daniel Elena driving a Citroën DS3 R3. Despite all this experience, the young talent in the 2011 IRC was pretty impressive - and it was 2010 IRC champion Juho Hänninen in the works Škoda Fabia S2000 that made all the early running...
After the opening stage was won by veritable all-rounder Stéphane Sarrazin - driving the #8 Peugeot France 207 - Hänninen reeled off a flurry of stage wins to hold a 51 second lead over Petter Solberg going into the seventh stage on Thursday evening. No-one could get close to the Škoda... And then it snowed.
This was typical Monte Carlo drama. It wasn't snowing in the service park at Valence and there wasn't any snow on the stage - but the forecast from Météo-France was snow in around two hours, which would probably hit the final stage of the day, but not stage 7... or maybe it would. The teams and the crews had some gambling to do. And - as often happens at the Monte - these tyre choices would have a massive impact on the outcome of the rally... Bryan Bouffier and co-driver Xavier Panseri had started stage 7 over a minute and a half behind Hänninen, back in seventh place. The Peugeot team-leader chose snow tyres all round, having made a last minute decision not to go with studs (which Sarrazin had fitted) - although they threw two studded pairs in the trunk. Leaving service, it didn't look like snow at all - those who'd gone with the snow tyres thought they'd made a mistake. Bouffier said "we are on the road section not far from the stages and really in my mind I was thinking ‘oh s***, it’s not going to snow’.”
Hänninen - with everything to loose - went with the conservative option of four intermediate tyres and a pair of snow tyres in the boot. That was exactly what Solberg chose too. It looked okay for Hänninen - "we started to climb up the stage and for sure the start it was really good with those intermediates, but then after a few kilometers when you saw it started to be snowing, then you knew that you were still really, really low on the stage and then realized ‘oh, this won’t be easy!'” The road conditions developed from wet tarmac through to slush - and then fresh snow and treacherous ice at the top of the stage. The drama was broadcast live on Eurosport - and it was compelling viewing as the changing weather turned the rally on its head. Solberg and Hänninen finished the stage in thirteenth and fourteenth places - a minute-forty-nine and 1:54.2 seconds behind winner Bouffier. That put the Frenchman in the lead of the rally by 3 seconds over Sarrazin and 16.6 ahead of Hänninen in fourth. Solberg had dropped to seventh. Yet there was still another stage to complete on these tyres - and the whole route was now covered in snow. Both Hänninen and Solberg lost a further 3 minutes to the guys on the better tyres for the conditions.
The hero of Stage 8 was François Delecour. He'd gone full studs on his Peugeot after making a phone call from service in Valence. Delecour knew the owner of a restaurant at the end of the final stage and he had the local knowledge - it was going to snow... and snow hard. The veteran's margin of victory was 17.4 seconds over Bouffier - putting them 1-2 in the overall standings, the younger Frenchman ahead by half a minute. However, Bouffier has been lucky - running two tyres with studs and two without, the Peugeot's handling was a challenge. He spun into a wall - miraculously escaping without serious damage that could have ended his rally there and then. Here's some of that action as part of a fabulous Michelin-sponsored film of the event...
Although the final day had none of the high drama of Thursday evening, it was a tense run to the finish in the snow, ice and darkness of Friday night. Škoda's Freddy Loix moved up to second and would take half a minute out of Bouffier over those five stages. However, the Frenchman held firm for his first IRC rally win...
Sarrazin banged in three stage wins on that final day to finish fourth overall. Solberg retired from seventh place with an alternator failure on the very last stage. The 2011 Monte would be his only appearance in an S2000 rally car... Okay, so which of the three Avant Slot cars to choose? It's a tough one, but Sarrazin - for his remarkable exploits in sports prototypes and rally cars - will be my Peugeot driver of choice. I'm sure others will want the winner of the centenary edition of the Monte - and plenty will be go for legend Petter Solberg. Some might take all three - the 2011 Rallye Monte Carlo was certainly a historic event and also an excellent race.
I'll post more news about these three cars when I get it.
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