Why are those 4 lights in the center covered?
So they they don't get smashed by flying stones when they're not in use, ie during the day.
That would suggest that these cars could be making 500 or more ponies without the restrictor. Not far off the 600-odd hp that Group B cars were making. Remove the restrictor and size the turbo accordingly, and 600+ hp is not that difficult to achieve with such hardware.
And that is "old"? A front-engined, front-driven tiny hatchback gets a different engine, in a different location, with a different drivetrain - but the direction is the same, so it's not a new design?
I find it funny that the Escort Mk2 "Nemesis" was never mentioned in this thread (I looked, but if it was and I missed it I'm sorry). When I was a kid, my rally idol was Markku Alen and that guy, with this car, was a blast to watch fighting guys like Mikkola and later Vatanen in the Escorts.
So, here goes the fully deserved mention (in this thread) to one of the greatest Rally cars of all times and eras. The Group 4 Fiat 131 Abarth Rally
definatly got to be the mkII escort and the audi qauttro for me tooSpot on here.The Escort for being so simple yet so fast and still used by clubmen everywhere today!(And cos I have one) And the Quattro for inventing modern rallying!
The Ford RS200 might be the greatest rally car never to win a championship... it was too fast, too hardcore, and was partly responsible for the banning of Group B and the wild days of Rallying.
And man, it just looked hardcore. None of the pretense of looking like a road-going car, like with other Group Bs (aside from the Lancia Stratos, no other rally car ever looked so sleek), and it had an engine so powerful that it would reoprtedly eat itself alive if you twicked the boost up... wonderful...
It's a shame Ford's last RS200s never made it into the WRC...
I just watched this video that I didn't know beforehand. It's a bit repetitive. But it's full of AWE. And of many of the cars mentioned in this thread (Ford, Fiat, Stratos, 037)
Makes me wish 4WD were banned ...
Easy question. Lancia Delta, 037 and Stratos. Nothing beats those 3.
Quote from 2010, so obviously you meant the now previous generation 2.0 engines and not the current 1.6L engines, but I'd say those (2.0) produced considerably more than 300 hp. The "300" has been the nominal target figure ever since Group A and it's usually the officially touted figure. Especially during the Group A era, excluding the first years, the real norm was likely closer to 400 than 300. On the contrary Group B figures are usually exaggerated.And having said that... looking at some sources... apparently, WRC cars do produce a bit over 300 hp... but in a huge band from around 3k to the rev limiter. That would suggest that these cars could be making 500 or more ponies without the restrictor. Not far off the 600-odd hp that Group B cars were making. Remove the restrictor and size the turbo accordingly, and 600+ hp is not that difficult to achieve with such hardware.