Slowly Sideways largely caters for rally cars from prior to 1987, although more recently this has relaxed to allow cars from the Group A and WRC eras although they must be genuine ex-works cars, not replicas.

Slowly Sideways was the brainchild of Reinhard Klein (official photographer of the World Rally Championship) who felt that an ex-works rally car deserved better than to languish in a museum after being retired from active service. Therefore through his contacts he assembled a group of like-minded German individuals who got together for a number of events throughout the year to demonstrate what their cars were capable of.

The interested in these events grew resulting in a number of Slowly Sideways affiliated groups opening in the UK, Ireland, Belgium.