What was Group B racing? Wanting to add excitement to the World Rally Championship, the FIA decided on adding another Group to WRC.
Homologation for Group A required a minimum of 5000 production cars, whereas Group B only required 200 cars, which attracted more marques since the price of admission was not as steep, & to sweeten the deal let's say the regulations were a bit more relaxed.
The rules were that a car needed to have two seats, no open roof, weight & tire size were dependent on engine displacement. That’s all. This resulted in small engines, with MASSIVE turbos. Cars could be AWD or RWD. Finally, there was NO LIMIT on power. At first, in 1982, cars maxed out at 250hp. In 4 short years, cars were well over 500hp.
Some of the greatest icons of Group B rally include the â–´2 Audi Sport Quattro S1 with 600hp, â–´3 Lancia Rally 037,â–´4 Lancia Delta S4,â–´5 the AWD Peugeot 205 T16,â–´6 the 550hp AWD Ford RS200, & â–´7 the Toyota Celica Twin-Cam, to name a few.
The rules were non-existent. The cars were rowdy. Competition was fierce. â–´8 Ever seen old pictures of crowds around rally courses dodging cars? That was Group B. People were lining up literally on the course to see this racing. And that kind of was its downfall.
1986 was shaping out to be a wonderful year for Group B. More marques decided to join Group B which meant more competition, more recognition on the world stage & more attendance. Disaster struck two times. The first was in Portugal, when trying to avoid a group of people on course, a Ford RS200 plowed into a crowd. 31 injured & 3 dead.
▴9 Group B’s nail in the coffin was when in Corsica, a Lancia S4 drove off the edge of a cliff and both driver, Henri Toivonen, & co-pilot, Sergio Cresto, lost their lives. Unfortunately, what happened remains a mystery as there was no onboard telemetry or any footage.
The FIA immediately ended Group B racing & all that we are left with are memories & cars that have now become legends.
Just to think, Porsche and Ferrari were JUST about to get their hands dirty, before it all went away.
📸Sources: | wikipedia | Toyota UK |