yeah remember em well standing in a ploughed field at chatsworth house/donington to watch metro 6r4,pug 205 and quattros driven by people who"d not slept for 4 days in the pitch black,allways had to laugh as the marshalls blew thier whistles to warn you 1 was coming,f**k me you could hear em coming for miles!!!!
Dave your a bit older than me. during the group B i was about 8 but always had a sweet spot for them and the RS200 is my fav as is the 959
oh yeah they were great,bit of a concorde moment though they were just too powerful,too fast and too dangerous i think it was a rs200 that ploughed into a group of spectaters,mind you things were getting crazy the crowd would just part at the last moment a bit like the tour de france if you get my drift,mental!!
Yep, that was my era. I drove an ex works, ex Hannu Mikkola, Dave Sutton prepared Quattro once. The damn thing tried to kill me at every opportunity. But despite turbo lag that you needed to measure with a diary rather than a stop watch, a huggggge engine overhanging the front wheels and extremely antisocial habits in traffic, what a rush. The good old days when I would cover almost as many miles as the competitors just following the Lombard RAC all over the country. They were monsters, driven by monsters. The 350bhp versions were known as 'club' models, available to the public to meet the 200 sale homologation rules. The actual works group B's had closer to 600 horses towards the end. It all came apart when an RS200 ploughed into the crowd in Portugal and Henri Toivonen was killed in an accident. The day before I got married, as it happened. That's how I always remember my anniversary.
I am sure i went to Dunham Massey park near Knutsford to watch these and the sight of the Quattro spitting and popping was mint good days.Would be about 22 years ish if that stacks up.
Yep 1986 was when they said enough. I was at that last RAC rally when they turned their last wheel in anger and Marku Alen crossed the flying finish of the last stage on full opposite lock and only the navigators side wheels.
i still think rally drivers are the more talented cant really see hamilton/button being as quick when its: blind crest 3 right tightens, lol how did raikenen do though he gave it a whirl for a wnile but hes finnish so does"nt count lol!!!
They are special. They give up about 50 mph on F1, but do it sideways on loose surface between trees and boulders and drops off the edge of the world. We crawled up through club events to night rallies and on to staging events but the next step up again wasn't just championship to premiership. It was was massive and the best we could do was to shield our eyes from the reflected glory the top crews exhuded. I like to think that co drivers at that level aren't proper navigators anymore. But I would, wouldn't I.
They were right to ban them really, 500bhp+ monsters doing ridiculous speeds dodging trees, verges and spectators through gravel strewn tracks, people were going to die. I still miss the old days of rallying, the Stratos, the BDA Escorts, Opel Manta 400's, Chevette HSR's, Mini's, lotus Ford Cortinas, Sierra Cosworths. And lots more which i'll remember as soon as i click on the "Post quick reply" button.
Oo la la... And here is my beloved Michelle, demonstrating how mad she, Group B and Group B spectators were.
