Monte magic

Sir,

I enjoyed the Porsche 904 Monte story and the Mini versus Supercar comparison in the March issue.

However, Timo Makinen was fastest on stage one, not Erik Carlsson, who had broken down with snow in his carbs thrown up by cars he had passed. This cost him second place. His stage time was 100min 40sec and he was within 3min of exclusion at the Uriage control. Erik then produced an amazing performance to remain in the rally through an appalling night of blizzards that caused 200 cars to retire.

On the final night, Makinen’s lead was so large that he chose to drop two minutes at two controls, taking the precaution of having new tyres and service at every opportunity. Paul Easter, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire