One of the first things to state is that Slowly Sideways is all about rally cars. The group motto could easily be “The Car’s the Star”. And it is particularly concerned with the rally cars of the late 1970s and 1980s. That is not to say that older rally cars, or even a few younger ones, are not welcome in the group, but the reason that Reinhard Klein started Slowly Sideways in the first place was to find a way of using cars from that very special era that had no other opportunity to perform in public.

Indeed, the situation within the UK is such that Historic rally cars that can be used in competition may not possess either four-wheel drive or forced induction. And also many of the rally cars built to Group 2 and 4 regulations in the 1970s have features that were acceptable then but that are not now considered appropriate for competition use, for example light alloy roll cages. What should the discerning owner of a rally car do ? Should he strip out the “obsolete” bits and replace them with modern requirements thus rendering his authentic car far from authentic ? Or should he leave it in the garage ?

Fortunately for us, some ten years or more ago Reinhard Klein came up with a solution. A rally could invite rally cars owners from his group to attend their event, drive some – perhaps all – of the stages but only in a non-competitive demonstration. He even devised the copyrighted title of “Slowly Sideways” to describe what the group is all about.

What the creation of the group has done is stimulate interest in preserving and restoring old rally cars. It has done this by giving the owners of such cars an opportunity to drive them in a safe and controlled environment while at the same time allowing the general public to see, hear and appreciate the sounds and spectacle that these older rally cars can provide. Modern rally cars may be faster but not necessarily as exciting to watch – or drive !

The group naturally centres its attentions on Group B cars from the 1983 to 1986 period, those that were summarily banned from international competition from 1987 onward. The fascinating thing about that time is the sheer number of unique cars that were created utilising a variety of innovative engineering solutions. It was a period when the engineers were given their head and the Slowly Sideways cars preserve the memory of that special time when spectator numbers on rallies soared into the millions. However, the group also welcomes cars from before 1983 in the heyday of Groups 2 and 4 – and even further back, Group 3 – where the cars in question have a place in history and the owners do not want to use them in a full competition environment. It also extends a welcome to cars from Group A either from the actual Group B period or subsequently provided that they are genuinely works or semi-works cars that were rallied in the period.
So what does Slowly Sideways UK do ? Well, it is certainly not a formal club, commercial body or institution. It is a virtual meeting point for the owners of the kind of rally cars that we have just discussed. The tiny bit of organisation at its core seeks out rallies and other events that are prepared to accept members of the group and their cars in a non-competitive demonstration that is integrated into their event.

With Reinhard Klein’s German-based organisation thriving, and currently with two WRC events on its books, plus an active branch in Ireland, the idea is to have a substantial menu of events each year to which rally car owners registered with the Slowly Sideways group in one of those three areas can choose to go. For the longer events, Slowly Sideways does its best to organise hotels and even occasionally travel concessions.

By means of its events and websites, Slowly Sideways tries to nurture the enthusiasm that exists for old rally cars since, without that enthusiasm existing in so many owners and restorers, the cars that brought so much pleasure and excitement during the second half of the Twentieth Century would soon only exist in photo or film.