Lancia 037 WRC — Group B Madness.
If today everyone wants a piece of the action, back then that wasn’t enough. You simply had to live the action yourself, even if it meant getting you killed.
Which happened a lot, sadly.
The Audi Quattro S1 Rally (in Pikes Peak form) (1985)
The undriveable. In its S1 trim, which never really enjoyed that much success, the Quattro would develop more than 600bhp and become a living nightmare for the brave man (or woman, Michele Mouton did drive it) who tried to tame it.
As for spectators, it was the greatest thing in the world. The face in the cover of the Group B.
As for this Pikes Peak event, in Colorado:
“Audi sent Michèle Mouton to America, and in 1985 she set the fastest time ever recorded on the mountain. 1986 came, and Audi hired American racing driver Bobby Unser to drive. He won. The elusive 11 minute barrier was broken in 1987 by Walter Röhrl setting a new benchmark in 10:47.85 minutes in the 600-bhp quattro S1 prepared especially for this mountain race. — GBR”
And now, something completely different.
For some, that is. Here’s some amazingly precise and agressive action from one of the most underrated cars in Group B, the Mazda RX-7. It wasn’t all Audis and Lancias, Mazda knew how to gather a crowd as well.
Ari Vatanen — Manx Rally 1983
This awesome onboard footage was suggested to me by petrolhead and it’s definitely worth taking a close look. Ari Vatanen drives the Opel Manta 400 like a missile, on roads which are just barely wider than the car itself.
He nearly lost it at 1m38s in a very bumpy corner, which made his co-pilot forget about the notes he had to give and express a “Dear God…” instead.
Also notice the amount of steering inputs necessary to keep the car straight in every step of the way. Vatanen was one of the Men.
Audi Quattro Sport, Group B.
You know what? If this were Villeneuve, he would have taken it all the way to the pits.
