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Andrzej Lubiak, one of the most successful of all the Polski works drivers, met us at the 126 Group 2 factory and told us some tales. I'll never meet a more brilliant raconteur. Andrzej showed us one of his old stage results sheets - and there was his 126, running eighth overall, among Renault Alpines and Porsche 911s.

Tremendous. On one event, he lost a right front wheel - so his navigator climbed onto the left rear corner of the car to keep the nose in the air, then Andrzej finished the stage flat-out. One year he competed in Russia and had to deal with a centimetre of ice inside the windscreen.

The demister cleared only a tiny, heart-shaped area in the centre, yet, with his legs wrapped in newspaper, feet clad in ski boots, head bent low to peer through the heart, he carried on at full speed with the temperatures outside at -40°C.

Our first stop would be one of Andrzej's old hunting grounds, the Walim-Rościszów road to the north-west, near the Czech border. Though it was hard to leave the factory, I couldn't wait to try Poland's most famous rally stage in the 126.

Firing up the engine gives you a shock - it is unbelievably loud. Mounted in the rear, of course, there isn't much between it and the cockpit. It's a two-cylinder, 650cc unit, balanced and blueprinted, with works pistons and cams and a very serious exhaust system.

The engine is rated at between 48 and 54bhp depending on spec - that doesn't sound like much, but the car only weighs 550kg, remember, and 54bhp from 600cc is an exceptional power output. We donned ear defenders and hit the road.

It's a crazy machine to drive. Nothing much happens under 4,000rpm, but keep it above that and the 126 zips along briskly - Group 2 engineer Michal Kumiega told us to keep it below 5,500, but the tiny twin revs so keenly, it was hard not to let it creep toward the 7,000rpm peak-power point.

Neither Charlie nor I are small people, but we fit inside the 126 without drama. The racing bucket seats in this car are too narrow for my frame, with the side bolsters causing discomfort if I didn't slide forward, but that's easily fixed - more importantly, the driving stance is surprisingly natural given the car's diminutive proportions, with a classic long-arm, short-leg Italian driving position, and the co-pilot sat lower and behind the driver. There's plenty of headroom, too.