Historic motorsport was very different 35 years ago. In fact, on the rallying side it was very much in its infancy, with the recently-formed Historic Rally Car Register (HRCR) starting to organise dedicated events to showcase the ex-works rally cars owned by its members. With the launch of the first-ever international rally for classic cars — the Pirelli Classic Marathon — in 1988 though, historic rallying got a huge dose of publicity. Designed to relive the golden age of rallying, the Classic Marathon devised by the HRCR’s Philip Young was a six-day blast from London to Cortina in Italy and back — taking in some of the classic rally stages of the ’50s and ’60s along the way. The rally caught the imagination of the media in a big way, and crucially was filmed by the BBC for a Top Gear special called The Great Chase. The one-hour programme was apparently seen by 6 million people at the time, many surprised to see an Anglia 105E taking part with ’60s rallying stars, Anne Hall and Val Morley inside.