…It must be remembered, however, that UFOs are nothing new. The great airship flap at the end of the 19 th century included sightings as far apart as San Francisco in North America and Skipton in Great Britain . Also, a large number of drivers in the 1925 Monte Carlo Rally reported seeing strange lights, ghostly aircraft and fireballs in the sky throughout the 6 day event…
- Extract from “The UFO Blow-up”, by Charles Cross.
…The tales of the excesses of the winners of the Monte Carlo rally are usually a far cry from reality. One often quoted example is the unlikely legend that after a night of one too many G and T's, Eddie Braithwaite and Richard Baxter (winners of the 1925 Monte Carlo Rally) performed a victory lap around a private racetrack with a dozen rats in cages strapped to the bonnet of their rally winning car, “Emily”…
- Extract from “ Monte Carlo , The Fact and Fiction”, By Felicity T. Chambers.
FIRST FOR BRITAIN AT MONTE CARLO RALLY
Eddie Braithwaite and Sgt Richard Baxter made racing history today as the first British competitors to win the Monte Carlo Rally. The Shell sponsored team, with an entirely self built car and engine, roared across the finish line in Monte Carlo , a good four minutes and thirty-five seconds clear of the Renault Team's François Repusseau.
A huge cheer ran through both crowd and drivers as the final times were posted and Braithwaite and Baxter proved to be clear winners. “I can't believe it,” commented a somewhat tired looking Braithwaite, “I knew we'd made good time by the calibre of drivers we'd passed on the final leg, but to actually win …we didn't expect that.”.
Sgt Baxter, co-driver and engineer behind the rally winning car, was asked how it had stood up to the grueling conditions of the 6 day race. “Well it was built right, wasn't it?” was all he would say.
There was even more drama for Braithwaite and Baxter's support team. In a revolutionary move the Braithwaite - Baxter Team had secured the use of a transport aircraft to act as a mobile garage at each stage of the rally. However, part way through the final leg, the plane was reported to suffer a bird strike and was forced into a crash landing. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt.
Pilot of the support aircraft, Miss Hunter-Fitz Simmons of the “Hunter-Fitz Simmons Flying School for Young Ladies” was also on hand at the Braithwaite - Baxter win at Brooklands two years ago, and this has led to rumours of a romantic involvment with a member of the race team.
Unusually, the remaining members of the support team consisted of Professor Edward Jacobs of Cambridge University and an unidentified Scottish gentleman, who declined to be interviewed.
- Report from the “London Sporting Post” March, 1925.
 …Some may find it difficult to reconcile the dry, purely scientific entries of certain parts of this collection with the other, almost Munchausen-like fantasies that seem to fill the rest of it. It has been suggested that Jacobs' association with the science fiction and horror author Edmund Leighton may well have influenced him to try his hand at a similar writing style, mixing it with his scientfic notes. Others have suggested that this in fact signifies the early stages of a mental breakdown that ultimately led to Jacobs' leaving his Professorial position at Cambridge in March, 1925. Jacobs' description of his involvment with the 1925 Monte Carlo Rally is an ideal example of this fanciful style. His tale of poisonings, kidnappings, “ghost” aircraft, government conspiracies, reanimated animal corpses, time travelling cars and death defying flights is peppered with intriguing snippets of true scientific insight into current electromagnetic and quantum field theory…
- Extract from forward to “On Velvet Wings – The Collected Journals of Professor Edward Jacobs”
After showing such promise with The Mummy, it seems a shame that Stephen Sommers appears to be on a decline with his directorial projects. His latest movie, “Carlo 25”, is another film supposedly based on a true story and a remake, no less, this time dealing with the1925 Monte Carlo Rally. However, rather than a realistic period drama dealing with the struggles of completeing the imposing 6-day rally, we are treated to another unlikely Sci-Fi CGI-fest. Struggling through all of this are the unfortunate cast. Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan play the unlikely duo of Eddie Braithwaite and Chun-Ki Baxter the real-life winners of the Monte Carlo Rally. They at least prove amiable leads, joking and fighting their way through a painfully predictable slapstick script. Chan's Yorkshire accent is only matched in awfulness by Jim Carrey in his usual face pulling portrayal of angry, demon possessed Scotsman Jack Flynn.
In support roles we have Michael Caine as Professor Jacos (a character who's only purpose seems to be to justify plot holes with techno babble) and Britney Spears as Miss Hunter-Fitz Simmons (dashing pilot, romantic foil for Coogan and teenage crowd pleaser). The only thing that saves this movie from becoming as appallingly bad as “Lost in Space” or “Menenkrath III – They saved Petrie's Brain!” is the show stealing performance by Jack Black doubling up as both Malcolm Campbell and Erich Von Stroheim.
 My recommendation: Give this one a miss and see the far superior re-telling of the same story in “Monte Carlo or Bust: The Time Barrier”, made way back in 1969, with Pete and Dud far superior in the lead roles.
- Online Review of “Carlo ‘25”, 2004
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Monty Carlo or Busted - assorted press clippings from the 1925 rally 