Since the beginning Rally 1966, tension has been felt the British Motor Corporation's team included 3 Mini Cooper S. Officials changed the rules suddenly, scrutineering an extremely rigorous and thorough examination, especially for the Mini. Word got out that officials do not want the Mini Rally rallied to win 3 times in a row aka Hattrick.
When race walking, and the Mini won first position in his class, and team officials rally scrutineering immediately dismantle the Mini-winning and examine closely all the components. All engine components are considered to deviate from the standard engine rule is questionable and can be proven by a team of BMC that their cars comply with the homologation (down rally car must berspesifikasi production car with a minimum production of 5,000 units in the previous year). In the end, the Mini was disqualified with an error that the fog lamp filament on the Mini is not in accordance with French traffic regulations. This applies to all UK car production, so in addition to the Mini, cars like the Austin-Healey, MG etc. also participated in disqualification.
Rally winner eventually become a Citroen, the French production car. Automotive world was an uproar with this decision. Citroen racer, the Pauli Toivonen to the extent that was embarrassed by the incident and did not want to race with Citroen team again. French auto magazine even to compare the rally car Mini Cooper S Mini Cooper S with the car brand new from the showroom and test the condition of the rally. As a result, the Mini Cooper S from the showroom actually recorded times better than Rally car. This proves that no engine modifications that violates the rules, and disqualification Mini is a mere political reasons.
The following year, 1967, Mini and BMC team won revenge with 1, 2 and 3 in the Rallye Monte Carlo! All of these publications into a kind of free publicity for the BMC and Mini sales also increased after the incident.
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