MORE THAN 100 cars will start this weekend’s Promenade Stages - but all eyes will be on just one.

Blackburn businessman John Stone makes his debut in a Porsche 911 built by renowned specialists Tuthill Motorsport.

Saturday’s event will mark the fulfilment of a long-standing ambition for Stone, who is managing director of Legend Fires at Whitebirk.

“I’ve had several Porsches as road cars and loved them; I’ve always wanted to rally one, so when the opportunity came up, I jumped at the chance,” he said.

“I went for a test in it on Tuesday and it was a very interesting experience.

“I’ve been used to a WRC car, which basically does a lot of things for you. In the Porsche, it’s proper old-fashioned rally driving.

“It’s an R-GT, which is a new class of car that has been introduced, to allow road legal sports cars to compete in the World Rally Championship.

“The car has been developed by Tuthill Porsche and this year it has already competed on numerous European Rally Championship and World Rally Championship rounds including France and Germany.

“It has 370bhp and puts all its power out in one big dollop through the back wheels only, rather than all four, and that makes it a real handful - and might be why I spun it twice in the first 10 minutes of the test.

“I’ve won the Promenade stages twice, but I don’t think we’ll be troubling the leaders, as we are only hiring the car for the day and I think Tuthill’s would like it back in one piece.

“We’ll have some fun, the car looks and sounds fantastic so hopefully we’ll put on a spectacle for all the fans.”

A regular front-runner in the National Tarmac Championship in his Skoda Fabia WRC - which he has now sold - Stone has a new co-driver for the Wirral-based event this weekend.

Paula Swinscoe, from Withnell, is contesting this year’s Scottish rally Championship with Jock Armstrong, but has been enlisted to read the notes as a one-off.

“We’ve never done a rally together before, but I know Paula very well so I’m sure we’ll be fine,” he added.

Stone and Swinscoe have been seeded at car three, behind Paul Evans (Ford Escort) and Mark Holmes (MG Metro 6R4).

Crews will tackle 12 special stages, starting on Friday night, around the unique New Brighton closed road circuit at King’s Parade.