This January the Automobile Club de Monaco will be celebrating the 10th Historic Monte-Carlo Rally. The fist Rally was held in January 1988 - the number of participants was capped at 60. The race quickly became a hit and is now considered by drivers as the number one winter historic road race. It attracts increasing numbers of amateurs and former Monte-Carlo Rally drivers, keen to experience the legendary circuit for themselves.

It seemed like a good idea at the time....

Ranjan Thilagarajah has had the Austin A40 Somerset since he was 14 years old. He and his brother, Mike, spend many months and years "back garden tinkering" with the car and had it up and running in that time. Ranjan used the car on a daily basis as a medical student and then as a junior doctor for many years until in 1995, "one repair project" became bigger than expected and the car was taken off the road for years.

The pressures of work stopped any repairs to the car especially when Ranjan became a Consultant Urological Surgeon at Broomfield Hospital in October 2003. The idea of the Monte Carlo Rally arose in conversation with Dr Ronan Fenton, Consultant Anaesthetist, who had completed a similar Rally some years previously.

Ranjan approached Ian and Dianne Goodchild, who run Auto Body Care in Braintree, a Mini restoration specialist, to consider taking on the job of completely rebuilding the Austin for the Rally. They agreed and probably wished they hadn't! After 18 months of painstaking work the car was completed in November 2006 and was accepted for the Monte Carlo Rally for January 2007.

Peter Best of Peter Best Insurance Ltd., based in Kelvedon, has been very pleased to reinsure the Somerset, after initially convering the car when it was bought in 1979. On return from the Rally, the Somerset will have pride of place at the Classic Car Show in Alexandra Palace next February.

This is the first time that an Ausin A40 Somerset has taken part in this rally. There are 321 entries this year and the Somerset is one of the oldest British cards this year. We aim to start from Broomfield Hospital and travel to Reims (France) for the srist stage of the rally. Wish us luck!