FIM Rally

Krems 1974

The major annual FIM summer touring meeting of 1974 took place in Krems an der Donau, more often simply referred to as Krems, a town in Lower Austria with a rich history, nestled on the banks of the Danube, in the Wachau Valley wine-growing region, about 70 km west of Vienna.

The FIM authorities responsible for the touring section could not have found a better setting that year to host rallyists from various European countries and their respective delegations for three days, on 3-5 July 1974.

The Wachau Valley is magical; so much so that, more recently in history, it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to the great beauty of its landscapes and its cultural significance.

Aerial view of the rally host city

Gothic style, white wine, and apricot brandy

Certainly, among the rallyists taking part in the FIM Krems Rally that year, a large majority must have appreciated the city's tourist gems, its monuments such as the Piaristenkirche, a 17th-century church built in the flamboyant Gothic style, a sort of counterpart to St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna; the Gozzo Burg, dating from the early 13th century, housing some of the earliest known civic frescoes in Central Europe; or the Veitskirche, the first example of Baroque architecture in Austria.

At the checkpoint at the entrance to the Skoda-Camping in Doksy, two participants in the 1974 FIM Rally and their Eastern European machine

But one can imagine that the less well-behaved and more gourmand among the rallyists present appreciated even more the opportunity to taste the local beverages that are so good for the soul, provided they are not overindulged.

Fortunately for the participants, vines have been cultivated in the region since Roman times; the valley's most famous wines are the well-known Riesling and Grüner Veltliner.

Chatting and conversation among enthusiasts on the grounds of Skoda-Camping in Doksy

As a result, the town of Krems and its surroundings are full of wineries and tasting rooms. And to make things even more enjoyable, particularly for the taste buds and palate of the connoisseur motorcyclist, the region produces, in addition to wine, an exquisite apricot brandy called 'marille or marillenschnaps'. It goes without saying that those who imbibed excessively both local white wine and apricot brandy weren't exactly in the best shape when they got up in the morning.

While dragsters are generally powered by nitromethane for propulsion, this is exactly what another fuel, this time Austrian and apricot-based, was like, experimented with by the most daring participants in the 1974 FIM Rally

To illustrate today's brief report, I unfortunately only have two photos in my archives taken during the 1974 FIM Rally at the Skoda-Camping in Doksy (seen above); and they were of poor quality, too.

Let's hope, by some miracle, but without believing it at all, that a reader will contribute some much better ones to this page with a comment.

- Jean-Francois Helias