Rallying In The 80s

[Del Boy]

Found a Youtube vid covering Rallying in the 80s.
All the old favs of the decade feature including  Escorts,Talbots, Audi Quattros, Metro's, RS200s and Lancia Deltas to name a few. 

[Del Boy]

 A familiar face turns up at 31.35 as manager of Peugeot.

[Dirty Epic]

Nice one Del.

Used to follow Rallying more than F1 back in the early 80's and those Group B's were beasts back then!

Thanks for posting mate!

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

Group B's got banned in the end in 1987 I believe due to safety reasons and one too many crashes, and Group A became the standard regs until the WRC cars came along from around 10 years later. Yes they were beasts!

[B16YUG]

I saw my first rally stages in the valleys of North Wales - Penmachno - in 1987 one of the special stages when I as just 15, I will never forget the awe and the excitement seeing those group N cars come throw the forest sideways.

I was a fan of the Quattro and the Lancia Delta from that day forward...

[Sam Tyler]

I must admit that I've never really been a fan of the Lancia Delta as I always preferred the styling of the Lancia 037 but yes, the Quattro together with the RS200 and the 037 were the cars that I was a fan of.

I recall watching a documentary that is repeated from time to time about the Group B cars, called something like The Killing Years it demonstrated how potent, and lethal, these cars could be. One thing I never understood was why the fans lined the track so closely. I know spectators got killed on occasion but the proximity they stood as the cars went by was suicidal if you ask me. I'd always admired the skills of the drivers though, to handle such cars at those speeds and on loose surface takes some doing. I know that a few F1 drivers tried their hand at rallying but it really is an altogether different skill-set and mind-set to successfully compete.

Thanks for the original clip Derek. 

Sam.

[Dirty Epic]

True what you say Sam about F1 drivers who have a go rallying most don't really succeed and some like Kubica end up with bad injuries and that pretty much finish any decent racing career they may have gone on to have had too.

I think only Jim Clark and in a half decent sense Kimi Räikkönen have been the only really successful drivers who've switched from tracks to scenery that I can think of.