WRC team boss swaps roles.

Paul Howarth, team manager for the 555 Subaru World Rally Team, will be hanging up his world-famous blue and yellow shirt when he swaps roles and joins French businessman Frederic Dor on the 2003 East African Safari Rally.

Howarth will navigate regular rally and race campaigner Dor in a Francis Tuthill-prepared 1971 Porsche 911 on what will undoubtedly be the adventure of a lifetime.

Based on the original idea of the 1953 Coronation Safari, the East African Safari Rally returns in 2003 as the greatest classic car rally in the world. The event, scheduled to run from 10-19 December, covers a mammoth 5,000 kilometres and will take the crews through some of the remotest and most rugged landscapes in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

The 2003 East African Safari Rally marks the 50th anniversary of the original Coronation Safari, a unique event run by enthusiasts to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth in 1953. In 1960 the event was renamed the East African Safari Rally, running annually until 1972, and, in keeping with the sense of history, only cars produced before 31 December 1971 are eligible to compete in the 2003 event.

Howarth, whose role in the Subaru World Rally Team sees him work alongside four-time World Rally Champion Tommi Makinen and Norwegian star Petter Solberg, returns to the navigator's seat after an absence from competition of more than seven years. The 40-year-old competed in the National BTRDA and Autosport Championships in the mid-80s, and his last outing was in 1996 with Murray Grierson.

Howarth and Dor have however worked together for 14 years, Frederic regularly campaigning Prodrive-prepared machinery in the World Rally Championship and various international GT series'. The Frenchman achieved acclaim in 1999 when he won the French Gravel Rally Championship and finished seventh overall in the Safari Rally driving a Championship-winning Subaru Impreza, while his ability behind the wheel of a Ferrari 550 Maranello saw him and J-D Deletraz win the Spanish GT Championship round in Barcelona last year.

"The East African Safari Rally is purely for fun and a great opportunity to experience something you wouldn't necessarily get another chance to do," commented Howarth. "I would say that it's purely a one-off though; you won't see me jumping in and out of rally cars in the future! This event is the one of the last great adventures, a classic among classics. It'll be fantastic to do an old format rally, especially one that is using historic stages and goes through such superb countries. I have lots of experience in East Africa from when the Safari Rally was a round of the World Championship, and I know how the roads are, having been in the spotter helicopter for Petter during last year's Safari Rally. Hopefully my mechanical skills will keep us going, but whatever happens it will be the rally of a lifetime."

The East African Safari Rally is awash with legendary names, 1979 World Rally Champion and four-time winner of the Safari Rally Bjorn Waldegard topping the entry list in another Tuthill-prepared Porsche 911. And Michele Mouton, who triggered an earthquake in rallying in the mid-70's by becoming the first woman to win a round of the World Rally Championship, returns to the driving seat of a Ford Escort.

The event, which has been scheduled outside the international rally calendar and during one of the most beautiful months in Africa, promises to be one of the greatest classic car rallies of the modern era.

The event is sponsored by Minilite Wheels and WEC Lines, who will be shipping all the vehicles.