1982 saw the launch of what would turn out to be the most spectacular and exciting period in the history of rallying, a new formula was introduced called Group B, car designers were given an almost free hand, a minimum run of 200 cars had to be made, this allowed the use of spaceframe technology and expensive materials.
Arguably the first proper Group B car was the Lancia 037, or to call it by its correct name, the Lancia Rally (037 was its development code number). The car used a mix of glassfibre and Kevlar body panels, titanium rollcage and spaceframe steel chassis. The RWD machine weighed in at 980kg and used a mid-mounted four cylinder supercharged engine, initially producing 260bhp, which was rapidly developed to ultimately produce 325bhp.
The car was homologated in time for the only all tarmac round of the 1982 WRC - The Tour de Corse. One of the most impressive line ups ever seen on a WRC event turned out for the start, Renault had a trio of 5 Turbos for Ragnotti, Therier and Saby, Pozzi - the French Ferrari importer entered two 308 GTB models, including one for Frenchman Jean Claude Andruet, there were also four Porsche 911SC, a BMW M1, three works Quattros, Ascona 400's for Rohrl and Kleint. Lancia brought two cars, one for Markku Alen and another for the Italian driver Attilio Bettega.
Bettega made a good start, initially holding second place behind Andruet's Ferrari.
Ragnotti quickly got to grips with his Renault, taking the lead of the rally by stage 6, this pushed Bettega's Lancia down to third. However, what happened on stage 11 highlighted how potentially dangerous these spaceframe cars could be, Bettega hit a wall, the pedals ended up underneath his seat, breaking his legs badly, it took over half an hour to cut Bettega free from the 037.
Markku Alen finished a somewhat lowly ninth overall in Corsica, retirements followed for Alen in Greece, Finland and Italy, it was not until the RAC Rally in November that he gave the car its first reasonable finish, fourth place. But 1982 was never meant to be anything but a development year for the 037.
Alen on the 1982 Sanremo
Alen finished a respectable fourth on the RAC Rally, he had actually led the rally at one point but dropped back with minor problems. This was the one and only time that Lancia would bring the 037 to the RAC.
For 1983 Lancia signed German ace Walter Rohrl, it was a dream start to the '83 season, Rohrl and Alen taking a 1-2 victory on the Monte Carlo Rally.
Walter Rohrl - Monte Carlo winner 1983
Next Lancia outing was Portugal, Rohrl and Alen finishing 3-4, beaten by the Quattro pairing of Mikkola and Mouton, Lancia and Audi shared the manufacturers lead with 32 points each.
Lancia opted to stay 'out of Africa' and made major preparations for the all tarmac Tour de Corse instead.
When the Italians went rallying back in the 1980's, they did it in force, four Martini cars, from the front No.1 Andruet, No.5 Rohrl, No.14 Bettega (returning to competition exactly one year after that horrific crash) and No. 9 Alen
This was to be the last ever works outing for the legendary pairing of Jean-Claude Andruet and his female co driver "Biche", they had won the first ever WRC event, the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally.
Andruet was out on the second day, water from the cooling system had leaked into the cylinder bores at service, causing the engine to seize.
Drivers share a meal, back then rallies went day and night, so no time to get out of your fireproof suit and enjoy a meal, this would have been a short rest halt and then back to driving flat out.
Lancia took the top four places at the end of the rally, Alen taking a win over Rohrl.
Incredibly Lancia finished 1-2 on the next round in Greece, thanks to various problems which hit the Audi team, this was a big boost to Lancia's manufacturers title hopes.
New Zealand was next, surely here Audi would show Lancia how to go rallying on loose surfaces. But no, the Audi armada all hit trouble. Rohrl took a convincing win.
Rohrl opted out of competing in the next two rounds in Argentina and Finland, Alen took fifth and third respectively in those rallies, each time behind an Audi trail.
Even now, heading into the Sanremo Rally, Lancia had a twelve point lead over Audi. Yet again, the reliability of the Lancia rally cars won the day, the 037 took the top three places in Italy. Lancia were the 1983 Manufacturers Champions. They didn't even bother sending any cars to the final round, the RAC Rally.
Team Lancia during the 1983 Sanremo. This was the end of an era, the last time a 2WD car took the manufacturers title
Jean-Claude Andruet and Sergio Cresto - 1984 Monte Carlo
Attilio Bettega - Monte Carlo 1984
Miki Biasion Portugal '84
Bettega '84 Tour de Corse
Alen taking another win in Corsica 1984
Henri Toivonen 1984 Finland
Biasion - Monte Carlo 1985
Alen - Safari 1985
Attilio Bettega and Jean Ragnotti share a moment prior to the Tour de Corse 1985
One of the last ever photos of Attilio Bettega during the '85 event
It turned out to be a tragic event for Lancia, Bettega had an accident on stage 4, not unlike in 1982, unfortunately this time it cost Bettega his life, this was the first time a top line rally driver had been killed on a WRC event, a very dark day for the sport.
Although it had a fairly short career, the Lancia Rally was a brilliant rally car, the only thing it lacked was four-wheel drive!
Next up, the Audi Quattro. This is quite a long story, I will cover the 1981 & 1982 Quattro seasons in another thread (as these were Group 4 cars, not Group B) so we'll start here with the A1 & A2 Quattro which were used by the Audi team in 1983 and most of 1984.
The A1 made its debut on the 1983 Monte Carlo Rally, because it still used the 2144cc turbo engine, it was classified as an above 3 litre car (The FIA calculation for turbo cars being to multiply engine capacity by 1.4), this meant it had a minimum 1100kg weight, not a massive issue at the time, as the Quattro was a heavy car anyway.
Bolmqvist and Mikkola finished 3-4 on the Monte, behind the Lancia pair of Rohrl and Alen.
Mikkola 1983 Monte Carlo Rally
For the second year running, it all went wrong for Mouton :-(
Next up was the Swedish Rally, this was drivers championship only, so Lancia opted out, leaving Audi to take the top 4 places.
Mouton Sweden 1983
Portugal, Audi finished 1-2 with Mikkola ahead of Mouton
Mikkola
Safari came next, and Mikkola took second place behind the Opel Ascona 400 of Vatanen, by now Mikkola had a very healthy 28 point lead over Mouton in the drivers championship
Audi load up for the '83 Safari
Next up it was the least well suited event for the Quattro, the all tarmac Tour de Corse. This was to be the debut event for the A2 Quattro, it now had a slightly smaller 2109cc turbo engine, which brought the car into the below 3 litre class, this meant that it now fell into the 960kg minimum weight class, with the use of Kevlar panels and doors, the Quattro now weighed in at 1000kg.
To his credit, Mikkola did manage two fastest stage times in Corsica but retired with accident damage. The Quattro was still using a very basic 4WD transmission (Not like the trick set ups that WRC cars enjoy nowadays), so it really struggled at hairpin bends and needed all the space it could find to get round some of them, as you can see from the photo below!
Greece was a disaster for Audi, Mouton, who had won in '82 crashed on the first stage! Mikkola retired after all sorts of problems, Blomqvist managed to scrape home in third, a massive 14 minutes behind the winning 037 of Rohrl.
The next big win for Audi was Argentina, this event saw some of the fastest average speeds ever on a WRC event, with some stages taking in long straights, during one stage the Quattro gave an average of 122mph .
Finland, Mikkola finished ahead of Blomqvist (Probably on team orders, due to Mikkola's massive lead in the drivers championship)
Next to Italy for the Sanremo, Lancia wanted a good result to secure the manufacturers title, and they got it, finishing 1-2-3. Mouton giving the team 7th place was the best they could do. Mikkola' car set on fire.
Blomqvist drove well and should have been top three, but he had an accident on stage 53 of 58 (They were long events back then!)
This photo of Stig on the '83 Sanremo shows how popular Group B was becoming.
Mikkola made the trip to the Ivory coast to be absolutely sure of his drivers title, taking second place.
Then it was on to Britain for the RAC.
Mikkola set off flat out over the Sunday spectator stages...
...until he clipped a tree stump in Knowsley Safari Park and knocked the front suspension off, this caused co driver Arne Hertz to get out in an attempt to counter balance the weight of the car, they managed to nurse the car out of the stage and continue in the rally, eventually finishing in second place.
Mouton crashed out on stage 19 of 59
It was Blomqvist who totally dominated the event, having won the British Rally Championship already in his David Sutton run car, he had now won the RAC, his last win on this event had come in 1971 at the wheel of a Saab!
Last edited by autohabit; 30th August 2009 at 03:21.
For 1984 Audi had built up a super team of drivers which would be capable of total domination. Audi were one of the teams who brought big money into driver salaries, finally bringing them closer to F1 drivers.
From the left Fabrizia Pons, Arne Hertz, Björn Cederberg, Stig Blomqvist, Christian Geistdörfer, Walter Röhrl, Michele Mouton and Hannu Mikkola.
The 1984 Monte was a snowy event, although there was some tarmac to be seen in places
Walter Rohrl took an amazing four Monte wins from four starts, all in different makes of cars (1980 - Fiat 131, 1982 - Ascona 400, 1983 - Lancia 037. He didn't compete in 1981!)
Audi finally got the Monte win they craved, not only that, it was a 1-2-3 back at the finish in Monaco, Blomqvist and Mikkola following Rohrl home.
Another 1-2-3 followed in Sweden. This was followed by a win for Mikkola in Portugal.
1984 service, Portugal.
A rare (if not the only) factory outing for South African driver Sarel van der Merwe on the '84 Rally of Portugal.
Rohrl and the growing crowds, Portugal '84
And the winner, Mikkola
No Audi Group B Quattro ever won the Safari Rally, in fact no 4WD Group B car ever won the Safari Rally. Here is Mouton in '84 after hitting a vulture!
Tour de Corse 1984, as you can see from this photo, this was the debut event for the Sport Quattro, Rohrl tried a sole SWB car.
Audi wanted a good result in Corsica, so much so that they gave multiple Tour de Corse winner Bernard Darniche a car to run in the 1984 French Rally Championship, here he is on the Alpin Behra
Darniche was a six time winner in Corsica, but in 1984 he retired after an accident.
Blomqvist continued to drive the A2 for most of 1984, here he is taking a win in Greece. He followed this with wins in New Zealand and Argentina, back in 1984 this was the first time any driver had won three WRC events in succession.
Mikkola took an A2 to second on the RAC, but by now the car was outdated and already the SWB Sport offered a reliable 400+bhp....
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The Audi Quattro Sport, some just know it as the short-wheelbase Quattro. Unlike all the other true 4WD Group B supercars, the Sport was based on a real car, in other words it didn't have a spaceframe chassis or mid-engine layout, this was one of its weak points in many ways. Audi cut 320mm from the Quattro wheelbase to create the Sport, allegedly the idea was to reduce weight and make the car handle better on tarmac stages, for some reason it turned out to be the heaviest Quattro to date, weighing in at 1200kg.
Here is a photo of the A1 Quattro in the foreground and the Sport directly behind it, note not only the shorter appearance of the Sport, but also the much sharper rake windscreen, apparently this was requested by the rally divers at the time, as the original Quattro suffered badly from the sun's glare at certain times of day (the two cars in the background are prototype mules)
The car made its WRC debut on the 1984 Tour de Corse, Walter Rohrl retired the car after just 7 stages with overheating problems, also the car handled badly, the Quattro was always a nose heavy car due to the engine being sat so far forward, the short-wheelbase just seemed to make the problem worse. One good thing about the car was its fabulous 20 valve engine, it was producing comfortably over 400bhp, by 1985 it would be producing around 510bhp, probably making it the first rally car with over 500bhp, 4WD had now made it possible for rally cars to have the sort of power that F1 cars had enjoyed just a few years previous.
Rohrl 1984 Tour de Corse
Three weeks later was the Acropolis Rally, Audi entered four works cars, Rohrl and Mouton both ran the new Sport, while Mikkola and Blomqvist ran a trusty A2 each. The Sport Quattro started overheating as soon as the day became hot, Rohrl was driving with his heater on, whilst having to back off when the oil temperature got too hot. Despite these problems, Rohrl grabbed the lead by the end of the first day, it didn't last though, electrical trouble struck on the first stage of day two, eventually the car stopped with clutch failure.
Rohrl 1984 Acropolis
At the end of July 1984, Rohrl made his one and only appearance for Audi on the British Rally Championship, the Ulster Rally in Northern Ireland, he was up against the Opel Manta 400s of Jimmy McRae and Russell Brookes, although the Opel was only producing about 275bhp it had often beaten the Quattros in previous British tarmac rallies. Rohrl sent co driver Geistdorfer over to Ulster prior to the event to make pace notes (this was unusual, as most drivers like to call the notes to co drivers during a low speed pass of each stage, Rohrl tended to do as he pleased, such was his talent, he arrive shortly before the rally and drove once over each stage which would be run in darkness) Although the car was difficult to drive, it turned out to be a demonstration of brutal power and sheer skill by Rohrl, he took victory by well over four minutes.
Blomqvist clung on to his beloved A2 for as much of the '84 season as possible, here he is making his Sport debut in Sanremo, an oil pipe let go after a hard impact and Stig was out.
Blomqvist needed a few points to be sure of the 1984 drivers title, so he was sent to the Ivory Coast Rally, only six cars finished this gruelling African rally, it turned out to be the one and only win for the Sport in the WRC, Blomqvist taking the win and the drivers crown.
The final appearance of 1984 for the Sport was the RAC Rally, where Michele Mouton finished 4th
1985, the traditional start to the WRC, the Monte Carlo, Rohrl put up a fight against the 205 T16 of Vatanen, but the little mid engined Peugeot was too good, Rohrl settled for second.
Blomqvist finished a massive 14 minutes behind Rohrl in fourth position.
Round 2 in Sweden, same result, Vatanen's 205 taking the win, with Blomqvist in second, Stig said the car was just not comfortable in the corners. He once even commented that a better combination might have been the 20 valve Sport engine in an A2!
Portugal followed, Vatanen retired with suspension damage, this was Rohrl's chance, he set 23 fastest stage times.
But it was not to be, he suffered a broken transmission casing on the notorious 35 mile Arganil stage, the car was fixed but too much time lost.
Blomqvist had a bad rally also, he finished fourth behind Rohrl in third, this time Salonen won in...... a 205 T16, Audi were starting to plan their next move, but in the meantime, the drivers would make do with this awesomely powerful, yet difficult car.
Blomqvist Portugal '85
Audi sent two cars to the Safari, Stig and Hannu both retired.
Blomqvist on the '85 Safari. Have you ever noticed on those Hollywood films, when a helicopter takes off and everyone runs for cover as dust blows everywhere, of course that doesn't happen in reality.....
.....Well, not usually!!
Stig Blomqvist taking second on the '85 Acropolis.
Michele Mouton took part in the Pikes Peak Hillclimb in 1985, she and co driver Fabrizia Pons had won the rally car class in 1984 driving a Sport, for 1985 Michele decided to go it alone.
She won the event and took the hill record with a time of 11 minutes 25.39 seconds.
Blomqvist '85 New Zealand
The final factory WRC outing for the Sport came on the 1985 Ivory Coast Rally, Mouton had been entered in the hope of retaining her A priority status as a rally driver, to do this she needed a top three finish, the rally was a total disaster for the team, Mouton's co driver was taken ill during practice, so Mikkola's co driver Arne Hertz was brought in, they hit a train during practice! The rally went no better and she retired, this was her last rally for Audi, a sad way to end.
Hannu Mikkola used a David Sutton run Sport on the 1986 British Rally Championship, here he is on his way to victory during the Welsh Rally.
So, the Sport was heavy, didn't handle too well on the stages, wasn't loved by any of the factory drivers as a rally car and was often unreliable. Did spectators like watching that car on the stages? - Yes. Would I have a road going Sport in my dream garage? - Yes. So, I guess Audi must have got something right.
For the final chapter in Audi's Group B story, they would need something very evolutionary if they were going to make this short Quattro capable of taking on Peugeot.......
The Audi Quattro S1 E2, quite possibly the most memorable of all Group B supercars, due to its outlandish use of aerodynamic wings and that glorious 5 cylinder noise.
Audi knew they had to improve weight distribution if they were to take on the Peugeot 205 T16. They did this in main by moving the oil coolers and radiators to the rear of the car. Moving the radiators proved to be a very good move on the part of Audi, because they were able to gain FIA approval for their large rear wing by using the reason that it was (partly) for cooling purposes. Peugeot apparently also wanted a much more extreme rear wing but were turned down.
The car made a somewhat low key debut on the 1985 Olympus Rally in North America. Thanks to a friend of mine in Seattle, I have these never seen before photos of the S1 E2, he tells me that you could count the spectators on that Olympus Rally, only a few people were aware what an extraordinary debut they were witnessing. It must have been like a spacecraft landing, just look how crude the other cars look next to the winged wonder.
Hannu Mikkola drove the car.
The car made its WRC debut a few weeks later in Argentina, Stig Blomqvist showed the car was competitive with a number of fastest times, but retired with engine problems.
No matter what angle you saw it from, the E2 looked totally purposeful.
The bodywork always looked more suited to a racing circuit rather than a gravel rally stage.
Blomqvist soon showed this was very true!
One thing the Audi engineers perhaps overlooked was sufficient cooling for the brakes, they introduced a water cooled braking system ,this was very effective on shorter stages but on longer stages it required a lot of water!!
Blomqvist - Finland 1985
The drivers did comment how well the car flew, due to the well sorted aero package
It didn't stop drivers pushing beyond the limit though
Roland Gumpert and his men get busy. Blomqvist finished second in Finland to the Peugeot of Salonen.
It was going to take a machine like driver to get the absolute best out of this car, a certain German driver was preparing himself in the Italian countryside for his S1 E2 WRC debut.....
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