User:Falcadore/sandbox4

The 1974 London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally, known also under the commercial identity of 1974 UDT World Cup Rally, was the second and final World Cup Rallies to be held. The rally began in London, Great Britain and travelled to Munich, Germany, via northern Africa. It was won by the privateer Australian crew of Jim Reddiex, Ken Tubman and André Welinski, driving a Citroen DS.

The entry was much reduced in number compared to the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally as the 1973 oil crisis and the resultant drop in global car sales had its effect on motorsport budgets. Many of the manufacturer teams of the 1970 event did not take part four years later. An error in the navigation notes of the event, caused by the end of the road in Algeria being moved several miles in between the compilation of the notes and the rally taking place saw the majority of competitors becoming lost in the Algerian Sahara Desert. This, in combination with the most gruelling terrain ever traversed by an international rally to that point saw only eight cars travel the full distance south into Nigeria, with only five then completing the full competition distance to Germany. Time penalties quickly climbed into large figures in Africa with the majority of the field finishing with over a weeks worth of time penalties at the finish. The gap between the winning Citroën DS over the first of the factory supported Peugeots that finished second, third and fourth was over 28 hours. The 19th and last classified finish acquired over 450 minutes of time penalties, approximately 18 days behind the winners.

Route and scoring
The course covered approximately 18000 mi through Europe and northern Africa before returning to Europe. Some of the principal towns and cities visited were, in order:


 * London, England
 * Southampton, England
 * Le Havre, France
 * Rouen
 * Bordeaux
 * Bayonne
 * Bilbao, Spain
 * Burgos
 * Córdoba, Spain
 * Algeciras
 * Tangier, Morocco
 * Meknes
 * Missour
 * Béchar, Algeria
 * Adrar, Algeria
 * Reggane
 * In Salah
 * Tamanrasset
 * In Guezzam
 * Assamakka, Niger
 * Arlit
 * Agadez
 * Tahoua
 * Kano, Nigeria
 * Tahoua, Niger
 * Agadez
 * Arlit
 * Assamaka
 * In Guezzam, Algeria
 * Tamanrasset
 * In Aménas
 * Fort-Saint, Tunisa, near Ghadames, Libya
 * Gabès, Tunisia
 * Tunis
 * Trapani, Italy
 * Palermo
 * Messina
 * Izmir, Turkey
 * Istanbul
 * Thessaloniki, Greece
 * Skopje
 * Split, Yugoslavia
 * Hijeka
 * Munich, Germany

The course included many special stages, some over 500 mi long. Time penalties were given for exceeding set times on the special stages, as well as for other infractions of the rules, and the cars' positions determined by the penalties awarded rather than lowest cumulative times.

Classification
Only 19 cars finished the event, with only five cars completing the full rally distance.