Original vintage 1960s Datsun ad, celebrating the company's Shell Centennial 4000 rally winnings.
 
Dimensions: 10 inches wide by 13.5 inches high
 
The Shell Centennial 4000 Rally was a historic and demanding car rally organized by Shell Canada to celebrate Canada's Centennial in 1967.  The rally spanned the country, covering 5,113 miles and featuring 13 special stages that tested both drivers and cars.  It was won by British driver Roger Clark and navigator Jim Peters in a Ford Cortina Lotus, and it was also a qualifying event for the World Rally Championship.
 
The 1967 rally attracted significant international talent, including the winners:
First Place Overall: Roger Clark and navigator Jim Peters from England, driving a factory-entered Lotus Cortina.
Second Place Overall: American former U.S. rally champion Scott Harvey and Toronto navigator Mike Kerry in a Plymouth Barracuda.
Third Place Overall: A Datsun team crewed by Karl Schulz and Paul Manson.
Coupe des Dames (Ladies' Cup) Winners: Irish dress designer Rosemary Smith and navigator Ann Coombe in a factory-entered Sunbeam Imp, who also placed 13th overall.
 
The Shell 4000 Rally ran annually from 1961 to 1968, with a final iteration in 1971. The 1967 Centennial event is particularly remembered for its historical significance and competitive nature.
 
It was called North America's toughest car rally, with “more entrants, more miles and more days to celebrate Canada's hundredth birthday.”  The Shell Centennial 4000 Rally was all that - but by an ironic twist, it was also the first in the rally's seven-year history in which Canadian crews failed to shut out the European opposition.
 
For the first time, too, rallyists and cars swam part of the way – it was hardly the first time, though, that gooey mud, blinding dust, pelting rain, clinging snow and indescribable roads combined to put crews through the wringer and over the rack.  The man who ended the Canadian domination, crack English rally driver Roger by Don Grey Clark, paired with Toronto navigator Jim Peters to bring a factory-entered Ford Cortina Lotus to the finish in Montreal's Expo '67 Autostade with the loss of just 44 points.  It was Clark's first victory in a major international rally, giving Ford its second consecutive win.
 
Appropriately enough in Canada's Centennial year, there were exactly 100 cars entered 1967’a rally - the largest total since the inaugural year in 1961 when the rally was sponsored but not organized by Shell.  Ninety-three actually left the starting ramp in Vancouver on May 3 and 50 of those were scattered across the country before the 43 survivors of the eight-day, 4,500-mile event staggered in to the finish in a rainstorm at Expo on May 10.
 
That year's route was two days and 500 miles longer than in 1966 and included overnight stops at Kelowna, B.C., Red Deer, Alta., Saskatoon, Sask., Brandon, Man., Fort William, Ont., North Bay, Ont., and Kingston, Ont.  The rally also visited the provincial capitals of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, as well as the nation's capital, Ottawa, where special Centennial ceremonies took place.