THE 80's RALLYING

scoobyonline200

scoobyonline200

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scoobyonline2000
Nice vid & yeah the crowds are ridiculous. Not only is the poor driver trying to control the car at its limit hes also got to contend with idiots running in & out of the road. Let alone one mistake & he'll send the car into the crowd injuring & killing people. :scared:
 
Got it. Bloody nutters.

I wonder how many people did get killed over the years?
 
I remember reading in the WRC magazine a few months back on an article about Group B that in some rallies.....spectators were accidentlly used as rails, scary stuff man.
 
yup, thats what the magazine said. Amazing that people still went after these things, that is until they thew away Group B.
 
yea, I think the whole reason they ended the class was because of the death of a driver and co pilot. I read that the car burned really bad, so bad infact they couldnt find the bodies (correct me if I'm wrong). I guess they let group be get out of hand. But in many ways it was also the spectators fault for standing to close. I just imagine what would have been, had Group B been around even today.
 
GrpB was originally instituted to bring back waning manufacturer interest in the WRC. The rules were basically that you only had to have 200 examples of the road version to build the rallycars. There was no limit on horsepower, the drivetrain, engine placement, or lightweight materials. From RWD cars that were basically well prepped road cars with around 275hp, rallycars became 650hp, turbocharged, supercharged (sometimes both), mid-engined, kevlar bodied stage terrors.

No one foresaw the heights that GrpB would ascend to the way it did. These cars were more advanced than F1 cars at the time, and certainly as fast. I think Miki Biasion did a lap in a Lancia Delta S4 in the 85 San Marino GP that would have placed him sixth on the the grid. In the last days of GrpB, they were also testing a GrpS version of the Lancia Delta S4 that had just over 1000 hp. For cars designed to race on b-roads and varying weather conditions. Benchmark cars included the Peugeot 205 T16, the Ford RS200, Lancia Delta S4 and Rally037.

Im amazed not so much with the cars of the time, as I am with the drivers. All of these cars had no variable differentials, sequential gearboxes, and weighed around 1520lbs. We will never see this magnitude of driver again.


It was a very special time in motorsport.
 

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