Sorry to be thread digging and all that, but I thought I might add that GrpS had far more of a view to safety than GrpB. The thing about GrpB cars that made them a handful was the more primitive suspensions than modern rallycars have. Now this may seem odd considering the comparatively limitless budjets that GrpB (and perhaps GrpS) enjoyed, but one would be hard pressed to make that point to say, Walter Rorhl, or Juha Kankunen (both of which have thousands and thousands of miles under their right feet in rally cars from as early as the early 70s to modern machines of today.)
The other matter to consider is differential technology. GrpB cars had locked center diffs. On loose surfaces, this wasn't much of a liability, (Hardly, I would think), but on tarmac, the difference (if you'll pardon the pun), was like night and day. A WRCar or IRCar ahs the advantage of being able to pull the handbrake into a tight turn. In the GrpB cars this was impossible. Not only does this very important point affect why newer cars are faster than the GrpB cars, but think about the limitations in a situation where an unexpected obstacle (say, a drunken foolhardy spectator, or an animal (maybe drunk too, it was the 80s!) and you need to control the rear of the car to get out of that matter. It becomes clear why newer cars are faster.
In all of this, I'd like to make one last point. There is a lot of romanticizing when talking about the Group B years. but I don't think it all comes down to just a matter of sheer brute force. I think it had a lot to do with what you are looking at. Now I love rally cars. I love the rally rims, the the liveries, (I really miss Martini colors, somehow rallying is lacking without them), but what modern rallying is missing is the exotic shapes. The GrpB cars have visual impact that I personally think todays machinery is missing. Mid-eighties rallycars were a sight to behold even as they sat in parc-ferme ready to to do battle. The fact that GrpS was a consideration only exemplifies that point. But the panic by FISA scared all that away. Pity. The decision to implement World Rally Cars as a safe, cost effective formula in the end did nothing to cut costs. The only real cost was that manufacturers had lukewarm interest in them.
People love racing because it is exciting, its a carnival, a circus, entertainment. You want to see something you don't see everyday. Something you have to be there to see, something you can't just quite explain to someone that wasn't there, something that stays with you a lifetime, That you never forget. People that went to those 80s rallies talk about them today like seeing a UFO. They remember those cars and drivers, places, and events like the first time they saw their kids take their first steps. You never forget seeing a Delta S4, a Quattro Sport short wheelbase, the Peugeot 205 T16. They are timeless, and they remain in your memory forever. They were fantasy, myth, legend.
Again, I apologize for the thread digging, but the thread was a great one to begin with, and I love the sport. I found it looking for 'rallycars that never raced' on Google.
