Falken sponsors ‘old school’ rally

Falken Tyre Europe is sponsoring a ‘rally with a difference’ this month. Yesterday, cars competing in the Black Sea Circle rally headed off from Berlin, and Falken says this – Europe’s most eastern rally – is “about driving the way it used to be.” The rally route takes competitors around the Black Sea as far as Odessa, a total distance of 7,000 kilometres (4,350 miles).

The rally, organised by the Superlative Adventure Club, is open to mopeds (125cc and under), classic bikes and cars 20 years and older, compact cars with a maximum engine size of 1.2 litres and commercial vehicles. Sat navs and motorways are taboo, so competitors can look forward to maps spread out on the passenger’s knee, miles of involuntary detours in foreign countries and breakdowns on what may be some of the world’s most challenging roads.

“This rally is truly unique,” enthuses Nadine Cerone-Schatz from Falken’s PR department. “An incredible adventure awaits the competitors, where top sporting performance takes a back seat in favour of solidarity, teamwork and the courage to head into the unknown. That’s what impressed us at Falken so much. And of course our product portfolio includes Wildpeak, a tyre that can cope with even the roughest Eastern European roads. All in all, the Baltic Sea Circle is the perfect communication platform for us.”

The competitors in the rally will spend plenty of time studying – not only maps, but also the roads themselves, which may feature car-size potholes, scree or crossing animals; inattentive drivers may find themselves run off the road by donkey carts, camels, stray dogs or Ladas.