door Whitey » do jan 26, 2012 20:44
''Mouton hoefde in Ivoorkust alleen maar 2e te worden, maar vlak voor de start was haar vader overleden, en ze moest en zou per sé die rally winnen. Door technisch falen verloor ze een voorsprong van meer dan een uur op Röhrl (ze had nog 18 minuten over). In haar ijver aan de leiding te blijven ging ze fouten maken, ging 2 keer van de weg Uiteindelijk viel ze uit na crash nummer drie''
Was dit ook niet de rally waar ze op een verbindingsetappe in een bos van auto wisselde??
Hier het hele verhaal,
For each acquitted and convicted case there is at least one suspicion or downright accusation of cheating. The most peculiar case took place in Ivory Coast Rally in 1985 when Audi was suspected to have swopped an entire car.
Michelle Mouton's quattro had developed serious engine problems and was expected to retire at any moment. Instead, she started off to the next section with mechanic Franz Braun's similar chase car in tow. After losing a lot of time, Mouton emerged from the section with miraculously cured Audi but no sign of Braun's car. Official explanation was that problem had not been damaged cylinder head as first suspected but an oil pump, which had been replaced by one from Braun's car. Perfectly logical explanation and legal action.
Until rumors surfaced stating that Mouton's car was in fact that of Braun's, with body panels switched to make it look like the original. Rumors were so persistent that rally officials examined the matter despite no protest was ever made. They found no evidence of the swop. As Martin Holmes points out, the matter became more curious when Mouton finally withdrew from the rally, claiming that car was unsafe as it was falling to pieces. Her original car was especially strengthened for African rallies, Braun's chase car was not and would have suffered from exactly that sort of frailty.