PastImperfect:Vic Elford - The Greatest All-rounder
The victory of French World Champion Sebastien Loeb in last week's Monte Carlo Rally once again highlighted the brilliance of this young man who has also competed on the race track at Le Mans. It set me thinking about who was motorsport's greatest all-rounder.
Many great drivers have crossed over between the two disciplines, but the driver who made careers in both rallying and then in racing with equally great success in both was the Briton Vic Elford.
Hardly a household name, Vic Elford probably rates as one of the greatest of all drivers. He began his career driving rally cars, and progressed to becoming a factory driver for BMC and Ford. But it was a meeting with Huschke von Hanstein, Porsche's racing director, which really set him on the road to success. Fed up with the unreliability of his Ford, which had cost him a number of rally wins, Elford requested a meeting with Von Hanstein. Elford put it to him that Porsche's newly introduced
Porsche 911 had the potential to be the car to beat in rallies. At this time, the 911 was very new and only a handful of drivers were using it.
Von Hanstein listened but said: "Porsche does not have any plans for the 911 in rallies, and in any case, we do not even have a rally department for the preparation of cars."
After some persuasion, Von Hanstein agreed to lend Elford a 911 for the Tour de Corse provided he paid all the expenses himself. Elford and his co-driver spent 10 days doing pace notes in a hired Simca before the 911 rally car finally arrived on the quay at Bastia with Von Hanstein accompanied by just two mechanics - and no spares.
Elford was aghast but Von Hanstein insisted: "There are no spares. Porsches don't break."
As a result of Elford's third place finish in the event, a low-key rally programme was initiated by Porsche starting with the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally. There the 911 proved the revelation of the event and finished third overall only losing victory on the last stage through having the wrong tyres fitted.
1968 started with victory on the Monte Carlo and Elford's rally career was now in full flight, but by then he had also started to race for Porsche and this was where some of his greatest successes were to take place.
One week after taking the historic Monte Carlo Rally victory, Elford was demonstrating his versatility at the wheel of a Porsche 907 in the Daytona 24 Hour race, leading the Porsche team to its first outright win in this long-distance race and beginning a golden era of Porsche success on the race tracks of the world.
Vic Elford was central to Porsche's success in these events going on to become acknowledged as one of the greatest drivers of his era. Today, he lives in America where he runs the very successful Porsche Driver training school.