Scrutineering is a hard, demanding, thankless, challenging, uphill task and depends on the resolve, skill, knowledge, character and resilience of the scrutineer alone. There is no-one to hold a scrutineers hand, no-one to wipe the tears of frustration, often no-one to make a cup of tea, to tell a joke, to shout when the rallye team jumps out of the dark alley

This is why only the best will do for Rallye Sud. We have hinted at the technical knowledge they must posess but we cannot reveal their identities for their own safety.

What we can do is explain how they are selected.

Here you can see a Master Scrutineer (who is completely unrecognisable due to high tech disguise features) using a discreet head mounted mirror to observe a candidate without drawing attention to himself.

Sometimes disguise is just a springboard - our scrutineers have to be able to pass themselves off as electricians, engineers even women.

Resilience and flexibility are vital qualities and, above all, a heartfelt warm smile when you have had to deliver bad news .

True professionalism is where scrutineering starts. A steady hand, a keen eye and strong trousers.

The knowledge ingrained so deep that the authenticity of a flake of paint on a wing can be judged with 100% accuracy, blindfold, from adistance of 100 yards.

I hope this has helped to explain scruitineering to your satisfaction.

It will now continue in complete secrecy until Monday 7th October when the first major results will be published for this historic event. The winner of 'scrutiny' will be awarded the Brown Jumper.

2-6 October Press Office will be closed from so that the staff can celebrate Welsh New Year, visit Paris Motor Show & attend Spa 24hr 2V race (see event reports).

7 October (Peter #09) "How does it work with 3 vehicles on the same grid start. Will the 2cv's be inside my van, on top or underneath. If underneath would I be penalised for having 12 wheels and 3115 cc. " - (Official Reply) During qualifying it is possible for competitors to have equal scores and thus have tied positions and therefore share 'equal' grid slots. Of course this is impossible in reality and if there are any 'equals' at the end of qualifying the driver who entered the competition will be given the first slot to the set of equalled competitors and so on.

Primary Scrutineering & Qualifying concluded. (teams that missed this date suffer one time penalty)

8 October Ist reports of Spa 24 hour Race on the wires - http://www.2CVTV.com/20021005spa24hourrace.htm

9 October Barry Annels (The Annels of History) makes a new programme with Jeremy Clarkson . A deeper, more penetrating programme than the last one Barry starred in, Driven - it deals with sociological and cultural aspects as well as giving a detailed review of the gearbox.

10 October (Peter #09) Scrutineering....
I see no penalty on car No. 19 (Louise) which has three wheels on one side and presumably three on the other - I'm only guessing, there may be no wheels on the other side. Surely this has to be an unfair advantage in sand, mangrove swamps and Tesco's car park.

Peter (No 9)

(Official Reply) Dear Mr Duck

The car you mentioned is the spider model which, like the creature of the same name, was known to have difficulty coping with slippery surfaces. There are no rules about the number of wheels in Rallye Sud - manufacturers usually keep the number down to keep costs low but sometimes try more or less than the norm.

The one wheeled economy car, the Uni-Que, was even harder to steer than spiders and had the disadvantage common to all vehicles that hang by gimbals inside the tyre of throwing the occupants' small change onto the road if breaking was more than gentle as they span inside the stationary wheel until it tipped over onto its side. It was heads or tails if the door opened to the sky or was held in place by the tarmac. I believe there is an example in the Brooklands museum - there are certainly pictures of one in the Brooklands 'Specials' book.

There were Alpha Spider (see Mrs Robinson), the Renault Spider and of course the best of all the Citroen Spider (Longues Jambes de Papa - Sportif Superbe). For some reason just like the souris prompte, it was never popular with women. Vehicles with even more wheels, the Citroen Centipede, the Michelin Millie for instance never really became that popular.

Yuputtcha Leftlegghin & Serge Stvorwort (International Scrutineering)

defence de fumer