Video: Watch rally cars squeeze through a tiny gap

And when we mean very small, we don’t just mean the villages and towns themselves. We mean the stage. Because in one of the small towns it winds through, Strettoia, the cars head through a gap between two buildings that is barely wider than a road car, never mind a full rally-spec machine.

This is proven at about two minutes into this delightful video when a pretty-much road-spec Renault Clio has to crawl round one of the corners in order to get round. But the real delight, other than in the reactions of the gathered photographers and videographers, is when the rally cars come through at full pelt. Numerous R5 cars come through the gap, with differing approaches to the challenge. Some take it perfectly, managing to miss everything in the way, and others use the walls a little like the snow banks in Sweden, glancing the ancient stones to push the car back into place.

It is an incredible watch, becoming almost mesmerising as each car goes by, and there’s something in it for pretty much everyone. From the glancing blows to the pin point perfect runs, and even the sudden appearance of an apparently stock Peugeot 106. We’re lucky that mad stuff like this still exists.

Welcome to Goodwood Elevenses, a mid-morning helping of motoring-related amusement to help break up your day. Watch the last video: Creating the ultimate 993 Porsche 911