How can things turn out like this in your life? Your father gives you a car. Not just a car from a dealer's showroom, but a real rally car, a Renault Alpine A110. He had seen a talent in his daughter.
Michèle Mouton ‘love affair’ with cars (it is difficult to describe her relationship in any other way) began when she was 14. It was then that she first felt the urge to drive, secretly borrowing her father’s car and taking it for a run along private, gravel roads. “It was only the pleasure to drive — to live with the car. I never, never, never, never thought about competition.”
But then, a friend, Jean Taibi, invited her to be his co-driver in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1973 with a Peugeot 304 S (photo). Later that year she was again his navigator in the Tour de Corse. But dad Mouton thought she would be better in the left chair behind the wheel.
Critérium Jean Behra, named after the French autopilot who died in 1959, was a rally organized by the Automobile Club de Nice. That would be the first rally for Michèle Mouton. Seeing this event as a first exercise, she took the wheel of a borrowed Renault R12 (photo). As navigator she chooses Marinette Furia, a friend from Grasse. During the rally they made some mistakes out of ignorance, but it was a good start. In November, the Renault Alpine 1600, the gift from her father, was used for the first time in the Critérium Automobile 73, a rally near Draguignan(photo3). A total of 76 cars appeared at the start; most of the participants were unknowns to the general public. The rally consists of completing five times a grand tour via the col de Valferriéres in Montferrat, to climb via Mons, Callian and Broves, the col de Belhomme and the col Bargemon. A total of 580 km, of which 340 km driving against the time. Due to the phenomenon of the blood moon, ice formed on the road surface at night and it was 6 degrees below zero in Broves. As a result, there were many accidents. The rally was won by Georges Rouvier ahead of Dominique de Meyer, both with an Alpine. Michele Mouton finished in a fantastic seventh place overall and was first in the 'women pilots' category.
At the beginning of December there was still time to participate in the rally "Ile de Beauté" in Corsica (photo4). Since Michèle had already had a taste of the big Tour de Corse earlier that year, it seemed a logical step. An eighth place and third in her class was another good result.
The first real rally championship experience
The aim for 1974 was to participate in the rallies counting for the French championship (some rallies for the European championship). In April the kick-off for Michèle Mouton was a local rally, the Critérium National du Rouergue, which was organized for the first time. Michèle immediately came into the spotlight with her Alpine 1600. She was a fierce competitor against even the most experienced men and took second place overall and a win in Group 3.
The real work for the championship began at the Ronde de la Giraglia around Bastia in Corsica. After the first opening stages, Mouton was in the lead in group 3 for the rest of the first day. The next morning she arrived at the start of the special stage. She asked the timekeeper to delay her start for a minute, as some tools in the car had come loose under the pedals. The Corsican nodded and Michèle began to arrange everything. However, the malicious timer started counting down the seconds to the start anyway. She only could put on her helmet, could not fasten the seat belts. She was quite excited about this incident that after a few kilometres she parked the Alpine against a wall. Rally over!
For her father, there were two important rallies in 1974. The Paris-Saint Raphael to show herself and the Tour de France for the more difficult work. So in May, Michèle participated in the first rally. This rally, consisting of special performance items, pure navigation sections and a driving test, was exclusively for female drivers. The all-female rally was first organized in 1929 thanks to Count Edme de Rohan-Chabot. With the Count's death in 1972, the interest in the rally was declining. Where in 1972 and 1973 the victory was for the French Marianne Hoepfner and her Alpine Berlinette, in 1974 the Belgian Christine Beckers at the wheel of a Lancia Stratos won this last rally. Mouton had a great time during the rally, winning a bottle of champagne in the slalom test, finishing fifth in the overall standings and taking first place again in group 3.
At the end of May she started in the Ronde Internationale du Mont-Blanc-Thônes in the Hautes Savoi. It did not run completely smoothly so she could only finish 11th. After this rally, she also has to look for another navigator, because Marinette Furia was going to get married. She engaged Annie Arii, member of ASA Antibes, the organization behind the Rally d'Antibes.
In September 1974 she started the Tour de France (photo 5,6). Just like for the cyclists, the tour started with a prologue to determine the starting order. The final start was in Tarbes and six stages followed through Deauville, Troyes, Dijon, Vichy and Rodez to Nice. In between, 14 special stages had to be completed, seven of which were held on the well-known French circuits. At the front there was a duel between the Lancia Stratos of Italian Rally hero Sandro Munari and the two Ligier JS2. The winners were ultimately Gerard Larousse, Jean Pierre Nicolas and the journalist Johnny Rives in the Ligier. Michèle did very well in this great event and finished 18th overall and another first place in group 3. The first woman Marianne Hoepfner also in an Alpine.
After that, Michèle Mouton started in two more local rallies. At the end of September she finished tenth in the Critérium Pétrole-Provence and seventh in the Rally Jean Behra. For these two races, the right seat was occupied by a new navigator, Françoise Conconi. She was already familiar with the circus of rallying, having been part for four years of the "Team Aseptogyl", founded by the Frenchman Bob Neyret. He was a well-known rally man with successes at the wheel of a Citroen DS and a Peugeot. He had started promoting and managing a female rally team. He was manager of the Aseptogyl toothpaste company, so sponsorship came from that corner. All their rally Alpines were coloured pink and Conconi was Christine Dacremont's permanent navigator. During one of the rallies she came in contact with Michèle and it gelled immediately.
Before the Tour de Corse (at that time only French championship), there was the Rally du Var. A ninth place overall and a second place in group 3 was good for many points.
The Corsica rally (photo 7) started on November 30 in Bastia with six timed sections with a finish in Ajaccio. The next day back to Bastia with eight time trials. Things went wrong for a number of favourites on the first special stage and it was finally Jean-Pierre Nicolas who was the fastest with his Alpine A110. At the third time zone over the Vergio mountain pass, the first five kilometres turned out to be covered with snow. The Alpines were also the fastest here. Unfortunately, a number of factory teams miscalculated their choice of tyres. However, making up time in the following stages was too much so that at the end of the day, despite a two-hour break to recover the cars, of the 101 teams that were at the start, only 43 remained in the fight. At two o'clock in the morning of the next day, the race resumed, in the rain, towards the central part of the island. The slippery road surface and the fog suited Jean Claude Andruet and his Lancia Stratos perfectly. He would eventually win the rally for the third time and with that Lancia also became French champion. The rally was tough. But, in twelfth place ended Michèle Mouton, more than 1 hour and 40 minutes behind the winner, but again first in group 3. Her personal reward from this achievement was the signing of a contract with the oil company Esso, guaranteeing Mouton significant financial support for the following year.
For Michèle the season ended with the Critérium des Cévennes (photo 8,9). She wanted to defend her second place in the group 3 standings. Guy Chasseuil was already certain of his first place in the championship before the race. He preferred a trip to Rally Bandama in Ivory Coast. Rally driver Gédéhem, however, wanted to attack Mouton's second place with a powerful 2.7 litres Porsche Carrera. He had to win in order to take that second place, if Michèle was not able to finish in the top ten. At the start, some top drivers appeared, including Bernard Darniche and Maurizio Verini with factory Fiats X 1/9 and Jacques Henry with Alpine 1800. They all had to retire. Gédéhem did win the rally, but Michele took fifth place and got hold of this valuable second place in the overall standings of the French championship in her class.
“My dad didn't have to say anything at the end of that year,” she says, “because I was on the pace quite quickly, which helped attract some sponsorship, so it was logical to carry on”.
