An Iranian all-girl rally team set to take part in the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge in a locally-built Hillman Hunter have been denied visas by both China and Russia. At first sight it looks like poltiical troubles for the two girls, who have gone into a "game of pass the parcel" of officialdom passing the application from one desk to the other. But without these two visas they have not been able to start and the event sets out from the Great Wall on Friday.

Car 96 is a pink Hunter, entered by Iran's Motor Federation, who have been assisting the rally in driving through a route that goes from Turkmenistan in the east to Turkey in the west. The route will have crossed Mongolia with ten days of demanding roads before then.

The Peykan/Hillman Hunter, similiar to the car Andrew Cowan used when he swept to victory on the 1968 London to Sydney, has done well in longer historic rallies, winning the Around the World in 80 Days organised by the  Endutrance Rally Association in 2000. The car, driven by Freddie Giles, had  earlier taken part in the '97 Peking Paris winning the Ladies' Prize.

The Iranians were hoping to do something similar. Now they are left with only the chance of a 'nice drive' from Iran to Paris, but will not be appearing in the results. The driver and navigator are Marzieh and Razieh Jalilpourhaghighi. 'We are very disappointed,' said driver Marzieh. 'We have gone into this with six months of keep-fit training and we learned to strip a Hunter engine in our sleep.'

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