The most famous rally of all and the oldest in the championship calendar, this is the event everyone wants to win. Valance will again host the majority of the event however this year sees yet another change as Sunday's stages move back to the traditional Alpes Maritimes surrounding Monaco, which includes two passes over the famous Col de Turini stage. Unpredictable weather can make this a very specialised event with experience a crucial factor. Drivers must expect snow, ice and dry asphalt - often encountering all three on the same stage. Shrewd tyre selection providing the best compromise for frequently changing conditions is the key to success.

The Swedish Rally returns again this year, as the only true winter event of the championship. Most stages lie north of the service park, which this year has been moved to Karlstad, to improve spectator numbers during services. For a classic Swedish Rally, snowy roads and solid snow banks lining the tracks are vital. Such conditions require a different approach as drivers 'lean' cars on the banks to guide them round corners at maximum speed. An event where Nordic drivers will shine.

Expected to be one of the most compact rallies in the championship with the route never moving further than a 50 kilometre radius from Leon and 38 percent of the total distance being competitive. It also tops the championship's altitude table, the highest stage climbing through cacti-filled mountains to more than 2737m. The ceremonial start is in Guanajuato, 53 kilometres from Leon, considered to be the most beautiful city in the Americas and a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site. A third of the stages are slow and twisty, half are fast and the remainder very fast with virtually all the competitive distance on smooth gravel.

Last year organisers had an adventurous plan to hold the super special stage in Buenos Aires on Thursday evening, 700 kilometres from the rally base. Unfortunately the forces of Mother Nature saw several crews stranded in the county's capital as three of the four charted plans were grounded overnight. This year the decision has been made to move the super special to Cordoba city central. The strategy this year is to avoid deeper water crossings but keep the traditional cloverleaf format visiting the three valleys of Cordoba: Punilla, Santa Rosa de Calamuchita and Traslasierra. This will be the first time in history Rally Argentina is run in March. Huge crowds, incredible enthusiasm from the passionate fans and welcoming locals make it another favourite with the teams.

2008 will represent an historic year for Motorsport when Jordan becomes the first Arab country to take its place among the elite as a round of the FIA World Rally Championship. With the backdrop of the Dead Sea - the earth's lowest land point - stages will run on a brand new desert gravel through twisty roads and many historical and biblical sites. The entire rally will be located in western and northern Jordan with all stages, barring one, either fully or partially below sea level. It should be a pleasant one for crews as temperatures average around the 20C mark.

Gravel tracks on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia replaced asphalt roads in the mountains high above the quaint Riviera town of Sanremo as Italy's WRC counter in 2004. Based in the Costa Smeralda region of the island, the event features a ceremonial start in Porto Cervo, one of Europe's most exclusive holiday resorts. A compact route located in the far north of the island is based around a central service park in the heart of Olbia. The special stages are a mix of rough and smooth roads, but are likely to be faster this year as wider tests replace some of the narrow ones and spectacular mountain scenery will delight the photographers and television cameramen.

Another rough event and also one of the slowest of the year as rock strewn roads and strings of hairpin bends keep the pace low. Likely to be the hottest event of the season, slow speeds and intense heat make engine cooling a problem and high cockpit temperatures ensure regular fluid intake is essential for crews. However, speeds are higher than places such as Cyprus so boulders inflict even greater punishment on the cars. Majority of competitive mileage is based in the beautiful mountains further north of Athens.

Rally of Turkey was last held in 2006 as the 13th round of the FIA World Rally Championship. It was held from October 13 to October 15 around Kemer - Kumluca - Antalya in southwestern Turkey on rough, gravel roads up into occasionally snowy mountain roads. Rally headquarters and the service park were located in Kemer.

Formerly known as the 1000 Lakes Rally and more affectionately termed the Jyväskylän Grand Prix by locals. Lightning fast, smooth gravel roads and huge 'yumps' which launch cars high into the air make this one of the year's classic events - a rally for the brave. Blind entries into corners emphasise the accuracy of pacenotes and car positioning and local knowledge gives the Finns a huge advantage. A sprint event in the truest sense of the word and one that the top Finns drive much of by memory alone. Innovative town centre Service Park in Jyväskylä, regarded by many as the spiritual home of rallying, draws huge crowds and the rally is often voted the best in the championship. Many highlights but the classic Ouninpohja test, full of fast sweeping corners and roller-coaster jumps, is rated the best stage in the world by many drivers.

Newcomer to the championship in 2002, an asphalt event with marked variations in the character of the stages between the narrow vineyards of the Mosel region, the undulating but fast Saarland roads and the daunting military tracks in the Baumholder ranges. Traditionally it is not one of the drivers' favourites although its location in central Europe proves a magnet for travelling fans. A ceremonial start in Trier will begin the rally, with an action packed super special through the town itself.

The longest trip of the year for the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team. The fast, flowing and smooth cambered gravel roads are regarded by drivers as the best rally stages in the world, weaving through a green and verdant countryside - a result of the often wet weather. The rally moves to late winter and the wet conditions seen in 2006/07 may appear again. The event moved south two years ago from Auckland to Hamilton and will again take in the classic stages in the Raglan area and the ultra-scenic tests on the Whaanga Coast, perhaps the most picturesque test in the entire championship.

A good route and excellent organisation have made Spain's championship counter popular with teams and fans. The fast abrasive asphalt roads are characterised by the many cuts on the corners and gravel dragged out onto the road. It is again being run as a double-header with the Tour de Corse, just one weekend after, in a similar format to 2007. Headquarters for the event remains at Port Aventura, a massive and extremely popular theme park in Salou.

Held on the island of Corsica which can be gloriously sunny or unbelievably wet, often both within the space of a few hours, makes tyre choice incredibly difficult and crucial. Based in Ajaccio, the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, it is very compact, with a greater ratio of stage to road kilometres than any other rally. Renowned for its twisty ribbons of asphalt with cliff faces on one side and sheer drops into the sea or valley on the other, although many of the more dangerous sections have been dropped in recent years. A seemingly never-ending stream of corners earned it the nickname 'The Rally of 10,000 Corners' and while the roads are less bumpy than a few years ago, it is still the ultimate asphalt test.

An all-gravel event based on Hokkaido a remote, and the northernmost, island of Japan - almost 800kilometres from Tokyo. It is the most popular sight-seeing island in Japan. Roads are smooth, narrow and mainly tree-lined, with deep ditches ready to trap the unwary. Rain is a distinct possibility in October and a typhoon hit the area shortly before the start in 2004. This year event headquarters has been moved from its birthplace in Obihiro and over to the biggest city on the north island, Sapporo, which boasts a population of just under two million. Moved even later in the year for 2008 this will be a cold one for crews with a distinct possibility of snow.

Again at its traditional end-of-season date for 2008, we can expect the usual difficult conditions with fog, wind, rain and very slippery roads. Like the season's opener, a rally everyone wants to win and a favourite with many drivers. Based in the mountain forests of south Wales and containing some of the longest speed tests in the championship, there is usually quite a high retirement rate. The rally will again run the super special stage inside Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.