and Sospel. It was on this same stretch of road that Dr O discovered, and then demolished, my emergency hipflask of rum before shouting vague, and increasingly aggressive, directions to pick up Hopkirk’s route. \r\n\r\nHopkirk’s Mini Cooper and our MINI Cooper share an undeniable design ethos. With modest power from an uncomplicated 4 cylinder normally-aspirated engine, the cars both depend on grip, balance and agility to make swift progress. Hopkirk’s main rivals included the Ford Falcon piloted by Swede Bosse Ljungberg, a 5.7 litre V8 engined monster with three times the power of the little Mini.\r\nFellow Swede Erik ‘on the roof’ Karlsson drove a free-wheeling Saab 96. He earned his sobriquet with a penchant for exiting Rallies upside down. Tom ‘Horseman of the Apocalypse’ Trana was another Scandinavian, piloting a hunchback Volvo 544. All three Citroen DS19 works cars retired with various mechanical failures; while our modern MINI hadn’t missed a beat, my main challenge now seemed to be the declining sobriety of my co-driver. \r\nIn ’64 Hopkirk had filled his washer bottle with Gin to prevent it from freezing, and I had brought along a bottle of Tanqueray in the spirit of the original event. Unfortunately, Dr Octane had succumbed to a terrible thirst, and whilst I was preoccupied with yet another slippery 180 degree 1 in 4 hairpin he had downed my duty-free before I could put it to use.