Glasgow has been chosen as a starting venue for the Monte Carlo Classic Rally next year, but the city's links to one of sport's most glamorous events go back a long way

FOR many, the Monte Carlo rally is synonymous with the golden age of motor racing, when competitors were enthusiastic amateurs more in love with the challenge and romance of the race than either the money or the winning.

Perhaps less well-known is Glasgow's association with the 99-year-old rally, but as of 27 January next year – after a break of 38 years – the city's long-standing link with the gruelling 2,500 mile event will be re-established when 70 pre-1974 vintage cars depart from Blythswood Square in the Monte Carlo Classic Rally, an event that attempts to recapture the spirit of the event's earlier days.

Between 1949 and 1973, the 'Monte' was a treasured part of Glasgow's cultural life, acting as one of five starting points for the rally.

Thousands would crowd into the square, where competitors would set off from outside the Royal Scottish Automobile Club building, now the Blythswood Square Hotel, travelling through Paisley on a long, snaking route down the west coast of Scotland on their way to Dover before crossing Europe to Monte Carlo through the dangerous winter conditions of the French Alps.

Among those who competed in the rally during what many consider its heyday in the 1960s was Jimmy McInnes, a former Scottish champion rally driver who made the Monte Carlo run three times, twice from Glasgow.

"There have been many other and perhaps better rallies but they just didn't have the glamour of being in Monte Carlo in January," he said.

Mr McInnes, now 75 and chairman of the Veterans of Scottish Motorsport Association, tackled the route in a 1950s model Ford Anglia accompanied by his wife, Arlene, and her father, Andrew McCracken, another well-known name in rallying, travelling for five days non-stop. Other runs were done in a tuned-up Vauxhall VX4/90, which the racer flipped when it skidded on ice while going downhill.

"Drivers didn't have things like service crews," he said. "You had to do things like replace fan belts with stockings. With the snow and the mountains it could pretty hairy. It certainly wasn't easy. It was much more amateur. We did it for fun, though we took what we did seriously."

Open to allcomers – one regular was a Scots farmer taken with the idea of being able to gamble in a Monte Carlo casino – competitors could, if they wished, race in the same car they went to work in. It epitomised motor sport before the big money came in. But while the snow and mountainous roads of Europe may have done for some competitors, simply getting out of Glasgow and across the border was a challenge.

"One driver, a doctor from Tranent, hit a tram on West George Street, which ended his attempt that year," Mr McInnes recalled. "The second time he competed, he got as far Giffnock when his car gave out. Down at Ballantrae, police used to set up a speed trap, which caught a lot of people too."

The race itself was created in 1911 by Prince Albert I of Monaco in a bid to attract business to the Principality's Casino. Despite its royal pedigree, just 23 cars started from six European cities, with only 16 completing the race, which was won by Henri Rougier. However, it was the beginning of an event that would attract worldwide interest, with amateurs driving 2,500 miles in all weathers to take the chequered flag.

Douglas Anderson, of Caledonian Classic and Historic Motorsport Club (CC and HMSC), the man behind the 'Monte' returning to Glasgow, believes that they can recapture the spirit of the rally's golden days. "This is something I've always wanted to do," he said. "To bring the glamour of the Monte back to Glasgow has been a long-held dream.

"It goes back to my childhood, when I used to watch it at the cinema on Pathe News. It was glamorous and exciting to see them go shooting through snow and the mountains down to the sea. So I'm hoping we can bring a bit of that, a bit of Monte Carlo, to Glasgow in January."

Alastair Findlay, the last Scot to start the rally from Glasgow, back in 1973, is delighted the city will again be linked with the 'Monte'. "It is a great event, one of the best in the world, and I only wish I could do it again," he said.

Anyone considering giving the classic rally a shot will need deep pockets. Admission alone costs 3,000 euros, but organisers say you should expect to spend twice that in terms of repairs and general costs on your way to the chequered flag.

But, according to George Donaldson, one of the event organisers and who was involved and managed rallying teams that competed in Monte Carlo during the 1980s and 1990s, the price tag is worth it. "It's unbelievably tough. You have to be clever and resourceful, there are going to be circumstances where you're stranded with a puncture, or have find your own re-route – you really need to make your own luck.

It's one of the few races where the decision or behaviour of one individual can make a huge difference to how you finish. But there is still something incredibly romantic about finishing in Monte Carlo."