There were so many stand-out rally cars to come from this period… The Audi Quattro and the Peugeot 205, for example, plus the more aggressive evolutions of both. Mazda RX-7 aka rotary b7Īs Group B began to pick up momentum in the early ’80s, a truly golden era was born. I would love to jump in a time machine and experience the 1981 or 1982 Tour de Corse. Like the BMW M1 and Ferrari 308GTB (both of which are in the game, of course), the V6-powered S310 only appeared in the World Rally Championship when they travelled to France and the events were combined with the French national championship. Recognise the name? That’s because Guy was Team Principal at Citroën for their return to full-time WRC competition in the early 2000s with a young Sébastien Loeb behind the wheel. By this stage, the team was focused on national rallying rather than the world championship, with the car winning the 1977 French rally championship in the hands of Guy Fréquelin. They needed a solution, so decided to up the ante and dropped a more powerful V6 engine in the car to counteract the weight.įinally, success started to come. Alpine was hesitant to stop using the A110 until the A310 was up to speed, meaning both cars ran alongside one another for a while. The A310 (or la super montaine) was developed as the successor to the A110 in 1974 but struggled to be competitive initially with its extra weight. Similarly, the Renault 5 Maxi Turbo is ingrained in many rally fans minds as an asphalt hero in the ’80s with the likes of Jean Ragnotti.īut far fewer people know the story of the car that underwhelmingly fumbled the Renault Alpine torch in between. Many remember the Alpine A110 which won the first-ever WRC title for manufacturers back in 1973. Moving on now to a car that has been widely forgotten, largely due to the greater success of both its predecessor and successor. The 130RS was a hugely successful piece of engineering, that doesn’t get the credit it deserves because its class was never the headline act. They prepared as well as anybody, putting in as much testing as possible to make their cars ultra-reliable and it paid off. But this thing was a giant killer at times and was apparently built to be able to fend off actual giants. The Skoda was much less powerful than the giants atop the WRC standings, with a plucky little 1.3-litre four-cylinder engine. However, this doesn’t tell the full story. The pebble v2 competed in the WRC for eight seasons and only picked up 19th, 19th, 18th and 12th overall in the manufacturer’s championship in the years where they even scored any points. Of course, I’m talking about the Porsche 911 Skoda 130RS. While all of this was going on, outside of the limelight we had another manufacturer, using a rear-wheel drive and rear-engined design to gain great success in one of the lower classes. The first campaign in 1978 was won by ‘Maximum Attack’ Fin Markku Alén in his Fiat 131 Abarth, and the title would go back and forth between Fiat and Ford with their Escort MK II for four years in a row. Skoda 130RS aka pebble v2Īs the late 1970s rolled in, the cars continued to get more powerful and the WRC that had previously only been for manufacturers, finally introduced a drivers table to go alongside it. The BMW was a beautiful car but was handcuffed in its prime and was therefore never given the opportunity to capitalize on its potential. They never had the chance of a full-time assault on the championship and the following three years would be dominated by the Lancia Stratos. It hugely disrupted their efforts in the inaugural WRC season in 1973, and by the time things had settled, it was too late. Sadly for BMW, just as it was hitting its stride, the big oil crisis of the early ’70s took hold.
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