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Peer back over history, list your personal toppermost cars and I guarantee the Mini Cooper will be the daddy. Let's see: Impreza, Delta, 205 T16, Quattro, Stratos, Escort, Fiat 124 Abarth (sorry, that's just me)... and Mini. In the mid-Sixties, the words ‘Mini Cooper' and ‘Monte Carlo Rally' were magnetised together. Well, now they can be again. And if the return of Mini to top-line rallying isn't enough, this is also the return of Prodrive, the team that made the Impreza into The Impreza. The World Rally Championship, under new rules for 2011, turns from a Citroen-Ford headlock into a more interesting three-way contest by bringing in Mini. Count us excited.

Words: Paul Horrell

This article was originally published in the December issue of Top Gear magazine