The cars, and their star drivers, took centre stage as Rally Ireland burst into life last night in the grounds of the Stormont estate in east Belfast, the floodlit Parliament Building creating a spectacular backdrop.

It was a gala occasion, attended by Princess Anne, the Northern Ireland First Minister Ian Paisley and Max Mosley, president of the FIA, motorsport's governing body.

But it was the superstars of rallying, like Sebastien Loeb, Marcus Gronholm and Petter Solberg the capacity 10,000 crowd had come to see. The stars - and their cars, of course.

The blood-red Citroen C4s of World champion Loeb and his young Spanish team-mate Dani Sordo, the garish BP Ultimate Ford Focuses of Gronholm and the Subaru Imprezas, in their traditional blue and yellow, of Solberg, Aussie Chris Atkinson and Spaniard Xavier Pons.

They streamed past the ceremonial start area, to be flagged away by Princess Anne, but only as far as the service area where final checks were carried out before they were dispatched to the tyre-warming area out of sight of the spectators. They could hear the cars, of course, their engines roaring as they weaved, swerved and accelerated to build up the tyre temperatures before gliding, in pairs, down to the timing line.

No stop watches or hand-held clocks here, timing beams triggered by GPS tracking devices on each car, feeding the information back to rally HQ in Sligo and out to a worldwide audience via the internet.

It was Kris Meeke and Gareth MacHale, one driver from the north, one from the south, who set the ball rolling, emphasising the cross-border governmental co-operation which turned the dream of a World Championship rally in Ireland into reality.

But that didn't prevent a partisan crowd roaring Meeke, from Dungannon, over the finish line in first place in his head-to-head with southern rival MacHale.

But this was a night when the superstars came to town and Loeb and his World title arch-rival Gronholm didn't disappoint, flinging their mighty machines over the greasy avenues of the Stormont estate, up and over the Creagh Bridge, in flamboyant fashion.

And although the little French ace was beaten by Gronholm in their run-off, the crowds still rose to salute the World champion. After his appearances in Donegal and Cork this year he has his own Irish army now.

The Super Special may mean little in the overall scheme of things but that didn't mean they would take it easy. They were there to put on a show. And it emerged that the Super Special will be the deciding factor if the rally ends in a tie situation on Sunday.

The build-up had begun with the first cars taking to the stage in the early afternoon in preliminary scouting expeditions for the 'non priority' drivers, mostly local crews, before Loeb and Co had their first look as darkness fell. The universal feeling was, " excellent – better than any stadium super special but still with the atmosphere of an arena".

Then came the Group B supercars from the '80s era with former World champion Ari Vatanen leading the way in a Peugeot 205 T16 and, of course, the crowd's favourite, ex-Ferrari Formula One star Eddie Irvine in one of the mighty Red Bull VW Toureag's from the Dakar Rally.

It was all building towards the ceremonial start in a superb setting ablaze with arc lights. Music, dancers, flag-wavers, Princess Anne, Ian Paisley, Seamus Brennan, the Republic's Minister for Art, Sport and Tourism all on the Stormont terrace.

Even RTE were the host broadcasters of the global television coverage – from Stormont!

The place has seen many rallies in its past but none quite like this!