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The Original Rally Supercars

134K views 79 replies 25 participants last post by  Adrian Wintle 
#1 ·
Ever wondered what came before Group B? Well, it was Group 4. Homologation rally cars were required to be built in quantities of 400 road going versions to compete at international level.

Starting with one of the most amazing rally cars ever to compete on the World Rally Championship - The Ferrari 308 GTB


Jean Claude Andruet finished 2nd overall on the 1982 Tour of Corsica, the cars best WRC result. Andruet had also finished 2nd in the 1981 European Rally Championship at the wheel of a 308.


Jean-Claude Andruet and 'Biche' on the 1981 Tour Auto



Also known as the Tour de France Automobile, the Tour Auto was a rally that ran for one week, with cars travelling from French capital of Paris to Biarritz, near the Spanish border, I don't know how many stage miles the rally was run over, but Andruet won with a time of 8 hours 50 minutes, beating second place Bernard Darniche in a Lancia Stratos by nearly 5 minutes!!

It must have been quite something to see Andruet on that Tour Auto in 1981




Andruet on his way to second on the 1982 Tour de Corse










The cars pulled a crowd whenever they showed up around the major rallies in Europe.




Every schoolboys dream, a Ferrari rally car, then they grow up and buy a Porsche instead:)




 
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#2 · (Edited)
You kind of missed the whole generation of supercars before that, headed by the Lancia Stratos, and including the Gp4 versions of a bunch of other cars (some of which were 'super' only in performance). The Ferrari 308GTB was a street car that was homologated. while cars like the Stratos were rally cars for which street versions were built.

This isn't putting down J-C Andruet (who is one of my favorites), or the 308GTB (ditto), but I'm sure it helped that a) the French championship was all tarmac, and b) that one of his biggest supporters was the French Ferrari importer.

A DeTomaso Pantera was run at San Remo (when it was a mixed gravel/tarmac event), and then there were the Gp5 sportscars that were eligible for things like the Tour Auto and the Giro d'Italia.

Adrian
 
#4 ·
The car was also entered for the 1982 Monte Carlo Rally, although this photo shows the car at full chat on snow, the '82 Monte was a fairly snow free affair which was eventually won by Walter Rohrl in an Opel Ascona 400.







Sadly it all ended in tears with Andruet hitting a bridge and retiring the car, the 308 rally weighed approximately 1000kg and put out a then healthy 310bhp, perhaps if Rohrl had been let loose with one of these cars in '82 the record books might have read somewhat different....




Flying high, same sponsor but new colour scheme, apparently the French importer of Pioneer Japanese Hi Fi equipment was a motorsport enthusiast and saw the potential media attention and public reaction a good enough reason to put some sponsorship the way of Ferrari-France.




Andruet on the 1982 Targa Florio, by now the event was a rally, the great road race itself had been banned




Andruet again, this time at a French rallysprint in 1982







Jean-Claude Andruet on the 1982 Cevennes Rally in the south of France




Antonio Tognana - 1982 Sanremo, Tognana actually won the 1982 Italian Rally Championship (which was not held entirely on tarmac. Despite what many people think, the 308 was competitive on gravel, remember that the Quattro was the only 4WD rally back in '82) driving this Ferrari 308, he never competed outside of Italy




Bjorn Waldegard drove a privately entered 308 on the Sanremo Rally in 1983, he retired with engine failure.

Waldegard on the '83 Sanremo







In 1983 one the cars was sold to French comic book artist Albert Uderzo, who was famed for the Asterix cartoons, he used it in club events and eventually sold it in 1998, the car is now back in it's original condition and resides in the suburbs of Paris.




Due to the development of cars such as the Quattro and the 205 T16, Ferrari decided to pull the plug on their rally dream, they had planned to use the Ferrari 288 GTO as their Group B rally car, Enzo Ferrari himself was fully behind the project, the 288 GTO was built in sufficient numbers to homologate it into rallying, but they just ended up as collectors items for the wealthy.
 
#6 ·
Due to the development of cars such as the Quattro and the 205 T16, Ferrari decided to pull the plug on their rally dream, they had planned to use the Ferrari 288 GTO as their Group B rally car, Enzo Ferrari himself was fully behind the project, the 288 GTO was built in sufficient numbers to homologate it into rallying, but they just ended up as collectors items for the wealthy.
I always thought the 288GTO was really targeted for GpB track racing, which could potentially have been a serious GT championship rather than a place for a few M1s and 930s to play beside the GpC cars. It was certainly the logical progression of the 308 design and, IMO, the best looking of the family.

I like the photos - keep them coming. Do you have the shot of Andruet's 308 upside-down in a ditch?? ;)

Adrian
 
#5 ·
Much thanks to autohabit. These images are so cool! The one with the 308 in the snow in the Monte is sweet! It's also cool to know that one has been restored.

I had never seen a 288 GTO so I looked it up.


^It kinda looks like 037 does it not?^

Thanks again autohabit!
 
#14 · (Edited)
Based on the FIA list at: http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/F1738402CD97FDC3C125739A0053B6F9/$FILE/HomologatedForms-SortedByMake&Model.pdf

(with the Historic Rally Championship regs)

it looks like the original Gr4 homologation was in 1976, and this car was re-homologated into GpB (so presumably the fibreglass body). It was then re-homologated twice more based on the same homologation. There are no details on the list, but I'd be surprised if one of those wasn't to allow the steel body (I expect there was also an extension to the Gr4 homologation allowing it). The Quattrovalvole was also homologated into GpB, and it would definitely have been the steel body.

The 288GTO was actually homologated into GpB

Adrian
 
#16 ·
Next up, quite possibly the most iconic of all the Group 4 rally supercars, the Lancia Stratos.

The car first appeared in anger on the 1972 Tour de Corse, although the car was not homologated at this point, it was allowed to compete in the then prototype class.




Homologated in the latter half of 1974, the Stratos was of tubular frame construction and weighed comfortably under 1000kg, it had a tuned 270 bhp Ferrari V6 engine from the Ferrari Dino road car, it goes without saying that the Stratos was one of the best sounding rally cars of all time.

Munari took the car to victory on its maiden world championship event, the 1974 Sanremo Rally



A win for Munari on the '74 Rideau Lakes Rally in Canada meant back to back WRC wins for the Stratos.

The car also finished an impressive 3rd overall on the 1974 RAC Rally, again in the hands of Munari




Bjorn Waldegard on route to a home victory on the 1975 Swedish Rally.




A feature which was not seen again for 10 years when the Group B Peugeot 205 T16 was released, was the ability to remove the front and rear of the bodywork for servicing. Occasionally the same bodywork was known to detach itself, most famously on the 1975 RAC Rally with Bjorn Waldegard at the wheel.






Sandro Munari on his way to 2nd on the 1976 Sanremo, team mate Waldegard took the win, this was the heyday of the Stratos.




Sandro Munari on route to victory during the 1976 Tour de Corse, back then the Corsican round of the WRC was held in early November, just prior to the RAC Rally, hence this photo looks more like a scene from a spectator stage on the RAC rally!

 
#22 ·
Alitaila were title sponsor to the Lancia team, so Lancia were unique back in the '70's in having the luxury of being able to fly their rally cars to certain events, here they are setting off for the 1977 East African Safari.




...and here is one of the cars on that same 1977 Safari Rally, it turned out to be the wettest Safari ever!




Munari 1977 RAC Rally, in the famous Alitalia colours




Stig Blomqvist won his home event an amazing 7 times, it should have been 8 wins in Sweden for Stig but a problem on one stage meant he missed out on a victory in his only Stratos outing in 1978, he completely outclassed the field on just about every other other stage.




Markku Alen 1978 RAC




The official Lancia rally team stopped using the Stratos at the end of 1978, but this didn't stop private teams using the car to full effect.

Bernard Darniche entered a private Stratos on the 1979 Monte Carlo Rally



He proved the car had lost none of its competitive edge, or spectator appeal







A famous win was achieved and the Moët flowed in Monaco harbour




Darniche followed his Monte win with victory in Corsica later in the year, note the spare wheel!




Darniche 1980 Acropolis Rally




The car itself ran out of homologation at the end of 1981, it was then unable to compete at WRC level after this.

Incredibly it was still a winner at top level right until the end. Bernard Darniche carried on using the Stratos as long as he could, here he is on his way to 6th position on the 1981 Monte Carlo




Darniche gave the Stratos its final WRC win on the 1981 Tour de Corse - Despite doing his best to rid the car of its bodywork!






Darniche won the European Rally Championship for drivers using a Stratos in 1976 & 1977, at the time this was the highest accolade a driver could achieve (WRC drivers crown didn't start until 1979)

The WRC Manufacturers title did however exist from 1973 and the Stratos won that crown in 1974-75-76


Markku Alen gave the car it's final appearance on the 1981 RAC Rally, he led on the early spectator stages but retired after an accident in the forest.




 
#23 ·
The official Lancia rally team stopped using the Stratos at the end of 1978, but this didn't stop private teams using the car to full effect.
The Stratos was still very competitive. It was Fiat (who owned Lancia) that decided itself to come out and play with the 131 Mirafiori. Fiat judged its sedan to have far more profit-making potential than the elitist Lancia and stole its trademark Alitalia livery for good measure. The Stratos' forced retirement was at best premature, at worst plain stupid, but at least the bean-counters at Fiat had to suffer the embarrassment of watching the old Stratos accumulate yet more trophies for years to come.

Its OK, it gave Lancia a reason to build the 037.
 
#24 ·
So what was the first car to really make use of the homologation rules that governed International rallying? Many people will name the Mini Cooper as a possible candidate, but the Cooper was a Mini with a bigger engine and other mods, so not really that daring, even if it was a very successful rally car.

The original rally supercar was the Alpine-Renault. Alpine started building lightweight cars on Renault chassis during the early 1950's in Dieppe. The Alpine A110 had a glassfibre body and a 1600cc then latterly an 1800cc engine.

1600cc doesn't sound like a supercar engine right? It produced a reasonable 155bhp but the reason the car went so well was its weight, it tipped the scales at just 680kg.


Here is Jean-Luc Therier on the 1970 RAC Rally, Therier had already won the Sanremo and Acropolis rallies during 1970.




Ove Andersson on the 1971 RAC, he had enjoyed a successful season, his win on the 1971 Monte Carlo Rally had convinced Lancia rally boss Cesare Fiorio to push ahead and create the Lancia Stratos, so we have a small garage owner in Dieppe to thank for the Stratos, and every other Group B supercar that followed - French clutter!




Jean-Pierre Nicolas on the 1972 Monte Carlo, by now the works cars were running 1800cc engines, these gave 175bhp, the cars had gained a little weight and were now just over 700kg. 12 years later, Nicolas would become the first driver to score WRC points at the wheel of the 205 T16, a car which he helped to develop.




Morocco 1973, yes they actually had a WRC round in Morocco back then, car number 1 and the winning car is that of Bernard Darniche (his name keeps showing up in this thread) Alpine-Renault won the World Championship for makes in 1973, the first time it was ever run.

 
#26 ·
'The Porsche 911, one of the most successful rally cars ever'


I find that statement usually causes a reaction! I think a lot of people dismiss the 911 as a rally car because its so long since the car was winning international rallies. The 911 actually pre dates the Group 4 rules themselves, not only that but it was actually re homologated into Group B (I'll have to go back to that in the Group B thread)

Porsche started to take rallying seriously in the mid 1960's, this was the era of the 2 litre 911, for 1967 they signed the brilliant young British driver Vic Elford away from Ford, the photo below shows Elford on the right with co driver David Stone during the 1967 Monte Carlo, they finished 3rd overall.




One year later, same pairing, same car, but this time there were no mistakes, Elford took a famous win, which remains to this day, the last time a British driver won the Monte Carlo Rally.



A proud moment for any driver, collecting the silverware from Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco. It is worth noting that Elford travelled straight to the USA after this win, one week later he took victory on the Daytona 24 Hours, Porsche's first ever 24 hour race win, not a bad few days work.




On the right of this photo, the man with the two cameras is Huschke von Hanstein, he was public relations manager at Porsche before public relations existed! von Hanstein actually won the 1940 Mille Miglia driving for BMW, stood next to him is Pauli Toivonen (Henri's father) who finished second to Elford in 1968.




A small crowd gathers for the start of the 1969 Mote Carlo Rally!




Elford switched to the race team full time for 1969, Porsche signed Swedish driver Bjorn Waldegard for their rally team.



Waldegard took the 911 to victory, not just on the 1969 Monte but also on the 1970 event, three Monte Carlo Rallies on the bounce for the 911.




The 911 performed on all types of events, here is Waldegard on his way to 2nd place on the 1971 RAC Rally.




An interesting chase car, 1978 would be the 4th Monte Carlo win for the 911, this time the car was a 3.0 litre, 300bhp model, weighing in at 1000kg, car #3 is the winning car, driven by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Nicolas. The car was prepared by Almeras.




Waldegard was back with the 911 for the 1978 Safari, he very nearly won but had to settle for 2nd.



 
#28 ·
ProDrive 911 Rally

Awesome thread, it kept me in the garage on the internet for a while on a beautiful day, so it must be filled with good stuff!! :)

One of the ProDrive 911s, the car piloted by Saeed al Hajri is being restored here in CT, unfortunately the current owner does not plan on rallying it again. :(

Here's me, sitting in awe in that machine...


Just at the bottom of this pic you can still see the notecard with the startup sequence on it.











The owner wants to go down to bare metal and bring it back from there, so many measuerments were done to ensure that the livery would be correct when redone.



The rest of the gallery of pics
 
#29 ·
Great stories and photos......

I just stumbled across Saeed Hajri not too long ago as he use to also rally an Audi Ur Quattro among other cars.. ( http://www.saeedalhajri.com/thank.htm ) James Bufkin not too long ago bought some rothmans Quattro parts from Dubai which have the Rothmans livery colors.. I ended up with the Rally computer from the dash ( the guts are gone but will have replacements soon ) What history.....





 
#31 ·
This SCRS has done some track time since its rally days and has been changed a touch here and there, thats part of the reason that the owner wants to restore it. It is the real deal, documented and all, from what I understand at one point prodrive was actually interested in buying the car back,
 
#32 ·
Dan, I just hit the link with the document pictures, and that's pretty cool! Is that you fabbing up the sheetmetal in the pics?

Good to see someone taking measurements in metric instead of trying to measure in inches! What is the starting point for the graphic measurements, centerline of car, front or rear square to grid? It would be neat to visit your shop!
 
#42 ·
It's actually my brother's shop, I worked there for a long time, but now I'm an office-softy. :) The shop is in Plainville, CT www.sports-car-restoration.com for contact infor. 860-793-2002
 
#33 ·
1980 would mark the last WRC victory for the 911, Jean-Luc Thérier winning the Tour de Corse in this Almeras car.







Many people link Walter Röhrl and Porsche nowadays, Röhrl only actually ever ran a 911 once on a WRC event, the 1981 Sanremo, back then the Sanremo was run on tarmac for the first leg, so it was no surprise that Röhrl led the event as they entered the second day of the event, he started to slip back when the cars got to the gravel section, the Quattro was coming of age. Röhrl eventually retired after 4 of 5 days with gearbox problems, it must have been quite something to see the then world champion at the wheel of a 911.




1982 would see the end of Group 4, some thought this would be the end of the 911 in rallying, quite a few drivers sampled the car for the '82 season.


Guy Frequelin finishing 4th on the Monte Carlo Rally, in front of him in 3rd was his Almeras team mate Jean-Luc Thérier.




Waldegard was reunited with the 911 yet again.




Per Eklund, Finland 1978




Bring back the 911 to top class rallying!!




 
#41 ·
I am siding with Adrian Wintle on this one. The A310 looks pretty powerful and purposeful while the A110 looks light and nimble. I love both.

And certainly better than that Zit currently running in WRC now - it can't decide if it is a hatchback or suv with hubcaps and Volvo wagon taillamps.

I remember the first sight of the Batmobile Quattro at Olympus. Vomitzva!:eek:

And now it looks cool! Time heals all.:p
 
#44 ·
No rally car thread from the Group 4 era would be complete without the Ford Escorts, namely the Mark I and Mark II Escorts.


Things started way back in 1968, here is Roger Clark on the 1968 Scottish Rally, an early outing for the car, this was the 1600cc Twin Cam version, basically the same unit as used in the Lotus Cortinas, it gave 160bhp and the car weighed 900kg.




Here is Roger Clark again, this time on the 1970 Monte Carlo Rally, note that the car had now gained the recognisable wheel arch extensions.




The Escort became the staple diet of British rallying in the 1970's, even today if you ask any rally fan to sum up rallying, they would probably start talking about an Escort going sideways through the forests.

In 1972 Roger Clark and Tony Mason took a famous victory on the RAC Rally, it turned out to be the first of eight consecutive victories for the Escort on the RAC, here follows a photo tribute to those eight victories and the distinctive colour schemes that the cars all wore (I'm sure we all have our own favouries)


1972 Roger Clark & Tony Mason - ESSO Uniflo




1973 Timo Makinen & Henry Liddon - Milk




1974 Timo Makinen & Henry Liddon - Colibri Lighters




1975 Timo Makinen & Henry Liddon - Allied Polymer




1976 Roger Clark & Stuart Pegg - Cossack Hairspray




1977 Bjorn Waldegard & Hans Thorszelius - British Airways




1978 Hannu Mikkola & Arne Hertz - Eaton Yale lift trucks




1979 Hannu Mikkola & Arne Hertz - Eaton Yale lift trucks (Again!)

 
#50 ·
Excellent move Jim!!! I was a little embarrassed when I let LinkedIn have at my email address book, but given the contributions 'Habit's' made to our site (not to mention all the other sites) I'm glad, for once, that I f---ed up!

Keep em coming - gotta love all those pics and all that info!!!
 
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