New event mirrors World Cup Rally

Part of the route of the 1974 World Cup Rally will be retraced by a new event running in January 2011, the London–Cape Town Rally.

The new event is the brainchild of prolific marathon rally organiser Philip Young and will start in London as Big Ben chimes midnight on December 31, 2010. Cars will line up in the House of Commons car park for the start of the 10,000-mile adventure, and the event will embrace classic cars as well as modern hatchbacks and 4x4s.

“Nothing like this has ever been done before,” said Young. The route will cross the central Sahara desert, Algeria, Nigeria and the jungles of the Congo and Angola.