The Maxi travelled well through Europe with a long drive through Europe on the 1^st two days: Munich for breakfast- Vienna for tea – Budapest for supper – and on to Sofia for breakfast again. Once in Titograd that 3rd night for supper, the rally started in earnest.

Stages in Yugoslavia – with 2 punctures in as many kilometres – then onto a night’s sleep in Milan. On across France through Pau to Northern Spain and into Portugal for the final test amongst the eucalyptus forests and vineyards before reaching Lisbon the next morning. Seven days round Europe in all and the little car reached Lisbon in 35^th place out of 103 starters.

After a stopover in Lisbon – football on the beach with Russian crews – visits to the various embassies – a chartered flight to Rio and more ‘R & R’ there, the cars arrived at the docks in Rio de Janeiro and the rally re-started on the evening of 8^th May.

Down through Brazil (with one prime cancelled due to floods), the rally finally reached Montevideo for a night’s sleep, before a ferry took the teams across the River Plate to Buenos Aires. Puff was now in 28^th place overall now.

However, after a poor service stop south of Buenos Aires, the rally ended for Puff when she got bogged down in Argentinian mud, due to the delay in servicing, the next main control was missed by some 20 minutes and, for Puff and crew, the rally came to a sudden and premature end.