After his very impressive result in the last edition of Spring rally, finishing 6th on a Mitsubishi EVO 6, we met with Mansour Zacca to tell us more about the rally and his future plans.
How was the last Spring Rally especially that you were competing in a relatively old car?
I had full confidence in myself, and we were expecting a good result although the car is old. We prepared the car in a very good way with Tony Germany and extracted the best out of it. We know that our car is not on the same level as the EVO 7, 8, and 9 but it was alright. The stages were new and I never saw them before. I only did 6 runs in a normal car on them, but as I have noticed the competitors knew the roads much better and did some better times. In general the stages were nice and fast, and relied heavily on top speed, which was not a problem from our side.
I have a comment about the rally which is that the average top speed is very high, reaching 125 km although the chicanes were added, and I have big question marks on.
After 1 year and a half without participating in motor sport events, are you satisfied with the result?
Everyone witnessed our performance and we were able to challenge people with better cars. As you know I was away from rallying due to work and travelling, but now we are back and ready.
I have to say though that apart from Roger Feghali, the general level was not high although most of the guys are investing a lot on their cars and they are participating in many events. I am glad I was able to compete with them. Their cars had big brakes, dog box and better suspension, and as everybody knows the EVO 6 has some limitations in these areas.
How is your relationship with Ramy Menhem your Co-Driver?
Ramy’s first co-driving experience was with me, and he has developed a lot especially because of his relationship with Nasser Al Attiyah. We are always in total cooperation and we are friends and relatives apart from rallying, which also makes it much easier and more fun to drive alongside each other. The rally was perfect with Ramy, no problems and no mistakes.
Can you please explain to us the little problem that rose after the Spring rally regarding your wheel rims?
I have installed 18” rims on my EVO 6. This usually is illegal but last year there was a gentlemen agreement between Roger Feghali, Tony Germany and Rafi Khederarian regarding using 18” rims where they agreed that this is allowed on an EVO 6. This agreement has worked last year on Joseph Hindy’s EVO 6 prepared by MotorTune. However, after this year’s Spring Rally, MotorTune threatened to file a complaint to ATCL because I installed 18” rims on my EVO, though the agreement is still running. Everything went well at the end since ATCL were cooperative and they respected their part of the agreement.
The strange thing is that such an irregularity in the car does not give you a big performance edge, so why all the fuss about the rims.
Tell us more about your upcoming participations?
We should be ready for the Cedars Rally on an EVO 9 prepared by TG rally skills. Our sponsor is ready and we will be much better prepared.
What was your favorite rally and favorite rally car?
My favorite rally car is the EVO 6 anyway I didn’t get the opportunity to drive another.
By best rally would be “Jabal” rally 2005 and Cedars rally 2008 where in the latter we challenged Nick Georgiou who was driving an EVO 9 and Fadi Hayek on an EVO 8.
Any last message?
I hope all the teams contesting would participate with good sportsmanship away from hatred so we can develop the sport. I also hope that everybody would remain under the law so we can all be enjoying the sport and moving forward.
I would like to thank my sponsors “Straight Line”, “Oh Taxi”, “Zac Construction”, “Cambiesta – Georges” and “TG Rally Skills”
