The two Fiat cars were the special attraction. They were smart but not at all new, two months earlier both had finished the Safari Rally in Kenya. The cars not only had to be stripped of all the usual weighty Safari paraphernalia and have their smashed windows and bodywork restored, but Fiat engineers had urgently to devise ways to strengthen the rear suspension pick-up points which had given trouble in Africa. Their closest challengers were expected to be three Alfa Romeo 2300TI which were locally prepared, one of which was driven by Wilson Fittipaldi, brother of world F1 champion Emerson and himself a Formula 1 driver and constructor. The cross pollination of the auto market was emphasised when these cars were entered by the Fiat company in Brazil. Wilson was enthralled by the whole rally scene. "When they suddenly cancelled the Swedish F1 Grand Pix it gave me a chance to be here. Rallying is not the same as racing at all. Here you have surprises round every bend..." The hastily prepared Alfas were not in the same league as the Fiats and suffered a lot of problems. Invited Portuguese driver Mario Figueiredo retired with a blocked fuel line, Dede Gomez with rear suspension failure, one of the most serious difficulties suffered by these cars, but Fittipaldi struggled on to finish sixth, top South American driver.

A lot of the curiosity centred outside the race for the lead, much of this focussed on alcohol. Brazil in those days was a world leader in alternative fuels for cars, and alcohol was the staple diet for virtually all the cars on the roads in that country. At the time, FIA rules did not allow for non-petrol cars, so the rally ran a separate class on this event. The local Fiat concessionaire teams ran alcohol fuelled 147s, cars which were equivalent to the 127 cars marketed in Europe. As a promotional idea they invited three top lady drivers from Europe to drive them. The cars were painted pink, the colour of the sponsor Aseptogyl. Italian codriver Anna Cambiaghi brought her car to an unofficial fourth place in the overall standings.

The Rallye do Brasil however opened a lot of doors. The FIA (then called FISA) was wondering at that time how to develop the world championship into South America, and there were three viable candidates, here, Argentina and Mexico. Under the name of Codasur the international federation of the South American countries, the 1980 rally in Argentina was the first event to run with world status. Rohrl got revenge over his teammate, leading the Argentine event from start to finish, and seeing his Finnish friend retire with a broken sump. Brazil finally got their world status in 1981, but Fiat were not present on that occasion, while Mexico had to wait till 2004. Strains between the organisers and the national federation meant that the 1982 world championship rally was the last to be held, but later on a national rally championship was formed and the biggest of the eight round series is the Graciosa Rally, held in Curitiba, which brings us up to date. Markku goes this year again to Brazil, this time to give support to his rally driver son Anton, himself a works Fiat driver, and wonders whether life has changed there at all.

3mmm
photo 1: Alen - Fiat Abarth 131
photo 2: Fittipaldi - Alfa Romeo
photo 3: Cambiaghi - Fiat  147