TALK about contrasts. While the top boys on the Mull Rally will be campaigning in state-of-the-art WRC-standard machines, spare a thought for the challenge facing rally driver Neil McCarthy and co-driver Alan Barnes – tackling the daunting stage event in a car with a puny 659cc-engine!

Despite being easily the smallest engine to be found in a competing car when the rally kicks off in Tobermory tomorrow, McCarthy’s Harry Hockly-built Daihatsu Cuore is the kind of motor that could spring a surprise or two.

McCarthy bought the unlikely looking pocket rocket for a bargain-basement £3,000 earlier this year and it represents just about the cheapest form of clubman stage rally sport imaginable.

Yet the car is deceptively powerful, putting out around 115 bhp thanks to its turbo-charged engine and having four-wheel drive, which could prove very useful if, as is often the case on Mull, it starts to rain.

McCarthy and Barnes have secured sponsorship from Leyland-based valeting products firm Carspünk, an official Civic Cup partner, Penwortham Glass, Bamber Bridge care company Clarriots, and Fibre Moulds UK, which makes glass fibre replacement car body panels and dashboards for motorsport use. They also have support from fabrication specialists RTO Fabs, of Bamber Bridge.

McCarthy, originally from Leyland, said: “People will laugh when they see the car. It looks like the sort of thing Dangermouse drives!

“But it has a revvy engine, plenty of traction and a couple of people inside it, in myself and Alan, who have rallied on Mull before and know what to expect.

“It will undoubtedly be tough.”

In fact, McCarthy has won his class on Mull once in a two-litre Mk 2 Escort and has had a second in class on the challenging rally in a Mk1 Golf GTI.

The pair will have Great Harwood-based friends Chris Grimes, 24, and Richard Steele, 22 on the spanners in service. The technicians have assisted Great Harwood rally ace Nigel Worswick on events this year.