Audi Quattro E2 In Flight
Every sport has a Golden Age. For rallying fans it was the mid 80s. The combination of intense competition, superhuman drivers and epic events pushed the sport’s profile to new heights. But for most people it was the rally cars themselves that proved most memorable – the Group B Cars.
Rallying began as a gentlemanly series of time trials and endurance runs over open roads in standard road cars. During the 60s and 70s it evolved into a sport running over closed roads with purpose-built competition cars run by professional teams. By the end of the 70s the hottest vehicles were pushing out around 270bhp.
Rally technology began to rapidly accelerate with the introduction of the Audi Quattro in 1980 – the 1st 4 wheel-drive rally car – and went off the scale when the sport’s governing body introduced new classes for international motorsport in 1982.
Group A was intended to encourage competitors on a budget. A minimum number of 5000 base cars had to be built to qualify. They were obligated to be 4 seaters and limits were placed on power, technology and minimum weight to control costs.
Group B required no restriction on the amount of power, the materials used to build the car, and as long as 200 identical vehicles were built, the layout of the vehicles was left to the designers. An additional 20 cars could be built per year for further evolutions. The Group B rules meant one thing – a clean sheet. And that freedom was taken further and faster than anyone could have anticipated.
Some Of The Group B Contenders
Lancia was the first off the mark with the Lancia Rally, also known as the 037, introduced at the end of 1982. The car was a clear statement of intent with mid-engined layout, composite body panels and a spaceframe chassis. Though it was rear-wheel drive only and a supercharger limited the ultimate power output, the 037 took the 1983 manufacturer’s title.
Attracted by the relatively low costs of creating a car, more manufacturers joined the party. By 1985 rally stages were bristling with mid-engined, 4WD monsters. The top teams were spending tens of millions with helicopters shadowing the cars, several hundred staff per event and tons of spares and tyres spread across a fleet support vehicles.
The low weights and gargantuan power outputs produced massive performance. Even the top drivers began to question their ability to stay on top of their cars. Some claimed the power was so prodigious that they were disregarding any finesse and just fighting to get their cars lined up for the next gulp of acceleration. 0-60 in less than 2.5 seconds was possible and Walter Rohrl was clocked at 153mph on the forest tracks of the 1985 RAC Rally in his Audi.
Ever more extreme developments were introduced. Audi added water-cooled brakes that billowed clouds of steam. They developed one of the very first semi-auto gearboxes. Lancia’s Delta S4 was both supercharged and turbocharged to maximise the power curve. Power outputs rose to nearly 600 bhp, weights fell to the minimum of 890kg and materials became more exotic with kevlar and carbon fibre bodywork and components. Pepsi were rumoured to be developing a rally car capable of 1000bhp with Yamaha.
After reaching such heady heights, Group B’s success began to rapidly go wrong. The first Group B fatality took place in 1985 with Attilio Bettega being killed in an 037 on the unforgiving roads of Corsica. Finnish rally legend Ari Vatanen was nearly killed in 1985 after rolling his Peugeot 205 in Argentina.
Spectator control had become an increasing concern as the World Rally Championship’s popularity grew massively. Certain Southern European events began to resemble bullfights rather than rallies, with the crowds jumping out of the way of the cars at the very last moment. The Peugeot team reported fishing a severed finger from the grille of their car in Portugal.
Lancia 037 Runs The Gauntlet At Sintra, Portugal
On the 1986 Rally Portugal a Ford RS200 crested a rise to find the road blocked by spectators. In an attempt to avoid them, the driver lost control and barreled into the crowd. 31 people were injured and 3 were killed.
The final straw came two months later in Corsica. The Lancia Delta S4 crew of Henri Toivonen and Sergoi Cresto plunged off a mountain road and the resulting inferno left only the frame of the car and their bones. The combination of red hot turbo, flammable bodywork and a conventional fuel tank under the driver’s seat proved fatal. Group B was to be banned after the final event of the 1986 season.
After Group B was cancelled rallying turned to the lesser category of Group A. Several manufacturers were left without eligible machinery and withdrew. Rally fans bemoaned the 1987 generation of cars as deadly dull, but within 5 years Group A cars were setting faster times than their sexier siblings.
What were they like to drive? We were lucky enough to be taken for a few joyrides around Italian industrial estates and airfields in an ex works Lancia 037 and S4 many years ago.
The main impressions were of intense vibration, deafening noise (fire one up in an enclosed garage and the exhaust note causes genuine pain) and appalling heat soak from both cars – within a couple of miles we were dripping in sweat. In the case of the S4, the acceleration was so violent it brought on nausea. How anyone could handle it for 5 days and nearly 1000 miles of flat-out competition is beyond us.
Group B’s cancellation left manufacturers with yards full of unsaleable vehicles. Some, such as the Metro 6R4 and Manta 400, were permitted to continue rallying on a national level due to their steel construction. 6R4s still win rallies today in the UK.
Other machines went on to careers in rallycross and more exotic events such as the Paris – Dakar and Pikes Peak. Others just sat around forlornly waiting to be bought. It took Ford several years and alot of extra development to finally sell off their remaining RS200 road cars. If you want a Group B car of your own today be prepared to lay out several hundred grand for an example with competition history.
Compared to the current World Rally Championship, with events of 250 miles as opposed to the 1000 miles of the 80s and modern cars sounding more like a strangled fart than a banshee scream, the Group B legend can only continue to grow.
