One of the overseas crews set to take part in this year’s Monte Carlo Historique Rally has suffered a cruel setback, with their cherished car stranded at sea just days before the event begins in John O’Groats.
Ko Nagai and Masataka Usami, travelling from Japan, had planned to compete for a second time in a 1968 Datsun Bluebird that has been in Ko’s family since new, bought by his father with his first salary and kept ever since.
Severe weather delays have left the car stuck aboard a ship in mid ocean, meaning it has not reached the UK in time for the Scottish start on Thursday morning.
Despite the disappointment, the pair have not abandoned the rally altogether and are now hoping to borrow a replacement car and join the event from Reims in France.
“It is extremely disappointing that I won’t be able to run with my own car,” said Ko, a member of the Scottish based Ecosse Rallye Drivers Club.
“However, I haven’t given up on the rally itself, if I can get a replacement car in time.”
The Datsun Bluebird carries deep personal and motoring history, having already completed an extraordinary journey when the pair brought it to the UK in 2012, drove it to the south of France, then spent six months travelling home to Japan through Italy, Turkey, Iran and Thailand.
Ko and Masataka are inaugural members of an overseas historic rally project at the University of Tokyo, which has taken part in the Monte Carlo Historique several times since 2011, including when the rally previously started from Glasgow.
They are not the only competitors travelling vast distances for the centenary edition of the event.
Jim Pohl and Joyce Mordenti are making the journey from California to compete in a 1952 Sunbeam Talbot 90, the very car in which Stirling Moss finished sixth in the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally.
For the 2026 event, the car will carry its original Monte rally number plate, Number 318.
It will be the third time Jim and Joyce have entered the rally, but their first outing in the historic Sunbeam.
They will also be joined by another Sunbeam Talbot, a 1955 Mk111, crewed by Jim Dean and Hugh Crabtree, who are making their Monte debut.
The rally begins at the iconic John O’Groats signpost on Thursday morning, marking one hundred years since the original group of adventurers set off from the far north of Scotland on a 1500 mile drive to Monte Carlo.
A century later, their modern counterparts will attempt the same journey in a remarkable range of historic cars, some dating back to the earliest years of the event.
After several Scottish starts in recent years, the centenary edition marks a welcome return to the traditional John O’Groats beginning.
One of the key early stops on the marathon journey will be Stirling Castle on Thursday evening, where a ‘Monte Fest’ will give the public the chance to meet competitors and see the cars up close.
From there, crews will travel on to North Queensferry for an overnight stop before heading south to Hull and the overnight ferry to Rotterdam, beginning the long continental run to the south of France.
