The Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 was staged 23-25 July in the Eifel Mountains of Western Germany. A strong field of more than 160 rally machines from more than 35 manufacturers represented five decades of rallying history. The 3-day rally was held over eight special stages in and around the town of Daun, turning the volcanic Eifel region into the center of historic rally racing.
The 2015 running of the Eifel Rallye Festival offered spectators the rare chance to see the cars that made the history of rallying. The entry list began with an Volvo Amazon P122 and an Austain-Healey 3000 from 1961 and stretched up to a Peugeot 206 WRC from 2003, the youngest car ever to take part in an Eifel Rallye Festival. All in all, there were twenty-four Group B cars plus rare prototypes such as the Citroen DS and SM Proto or the Skoda 160RS MTX of which three examples were ever built. And this year’s Festival saw a record of seven World Rally Cars coming under starter’s orders.
The Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 once again featured legendary rallying ace Walter Rohrl as patron of the event, in addition to honoring Swedish rally great Bjorn Waldegard, who died less than a year ago. Porsche Classic sent the Martini Porsche driven by Waldegard on the 1978 Safari Rally and alongside it David Cavanagh brought his similar car. Cavanagh and Waldegard drove this Martini-liveried 911 on the East African Safari Classic in 2005 to seventh overall and received the Henry Liddon Memorial Trophy for the spirit of the event.
The Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC rally car — star of the 1978 Vuelta a la America del Sud long-distance rally — also staged an appearance at the 5th annual ADAC Eifel Rally Festival. One of the original coupes with which Mercedes-Benz scored a one-two victory in 1978 was driven at the Rally Festival by Andrew Cowan (the 1978 winner) and Klaus Kaiser as well as by the team of Hannu Mikkola and Arne Hertz.
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Similar to 2012, 2013 and 2014, Senior Photographer Julien Mahiels also documented the Eifel Rallye Festival 2015, offering the following stunning picture gallery that shows the varied field of entrants tackling the volcanic Eifel region of Germany. We split up Julien’s pictures into two galleries. The first gallery starting below features our favorite images, all displayed in the full-width view of Sports Car Digest, while the second gallery can be found on the last page of the article and gives a comprehensive view of all the photographs. To see more from Julien, visit julienmahiels.net.
Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Two
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Three
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Four
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Five
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Six
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Seven
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Eight
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Nine
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Ten
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Eleven
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Twelve
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Thirteen
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Eifel Rallye Festival 2015 – Main Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
[nggallery id=820 images=15]
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[Source: Eifel Rallye Festival; photos: Julien Mahiels]
thanks so much for these wonderful photos…they ignite passion and longing
Fantastic, viewing these images felt like being in the cars hitting bumps, water and sliding across gravel. Exciting and artistic!
Lovely images as usual Julien!
Once again great photos. Please mix in a few non panned shots as after ten or so in a row I was getting a headache from trying to focus!! Small price to pay for looking at such spectacular images – great work and look forward to more. Thanks. Peter.
Julien, vos photos témoignent d’un intense plaisir d’être présent et de témoigner du plaisir que les collectionneurs ont a faire rouler leurs voitures dans les conditions très photogéniques. Merci de nous montrer ces photos.
Love seeing this beautiful cars and the accompanying comments! Thank you
Thank you a lot guys ! I must say that without your help these last few weeks this gallery wouldn’t exists. I am still looking for a lens to replace the one that has been stolen but thanks to you guys I was able to rent something in between 😉
As always, again wonderful pictures of these historical cars in action.
Thanks Julien for these brilliant photographs. Your pictures are of the same quality as the wonderful cars you photograph. It’s great to be able to experience these events from as far away as Australia.