when cars had presence

[Steve Kish]

I went to a few Group B revival days, two at Stoneleigh Park and one at Castle Combe.

One of the Stoneleigh ones had the legend that is Michèle Mouton in her original Pikes Peak Quattro doing a few exhibition laps. :mrgreen:

 

[dyna-ti]

when cars had presence


...and were too fast and killed spectators.

Nature removing the weak :?

 

[lewis1641]

There was a group b demo at silverstone classic last year.

One sad aspect of the demise of group b is that those regs were used for circuit racing cars too. Despite them being much safer on closed circuits they were still not allowed to race.

As for the rs200, i thought it was the lancia s4 that was creditted as being the car that stopped the group.

On a side note, i was at the european drag race finals at santa pod a few years ago. Late in the afternoon a man was killed near the finish line very close to where i was stood. Turns out something went wrong with a car's parachute mechanism, a pin hit the tyre and was flung into the banking. Sadly went straight through a man's chest.

The track was closed and treated as a crime scene.

 

[Dr S]

Group B demise was due to a few factors. It was due to be replaced in 1987 with Group S. This was for 25 cars but with restrictions on the engine to around 350bhp. Opel, Fiat, Lancia and Toyota were amongst manufacturers that had cars up and running for the new formula.

Then there was the accidents. Firstly Henri Toivonen hit a road car on the Monte's 'Concentration Run' which raised a few eyebrows in the French papers. His team repaired the car and despite a leg injury and a bent chassis he won the event. Next up was Portugese Champion Jochim Santos who lost control of his factory backed RS200 on the first stage of the Portugese Rally when confronted with a road full of spectators- he had nowhere to go and three spectators died and a dozen were injured. The final blow was the death of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresta 4 weeks later on the Tour De Corse. His Lancia Delta S4 left the road and exploded on stage 17 whilst leading. This came a year almost to the day that another Lancia pilot had perished on the same event.

Group was spectacular but was soon eclipsed performance wise. I remember a tyre test in the South of France in the mid 90's. The 2lt front wheel drive 'kit spec' Peugoet 306 that we were running was one and a half seconds per kilometre faster over that stretch of road than Timo Salonen's 205 T16 had been just 9 years earlier. The WRC cars at the time were already in a different league. Later that week we were joined by a rather rapid Scot in a blue Subaru- but that's a different story for another day

 

[ptr138]

Not group B but watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDs0oFmVWzM

Gilles Nantet in a Porsche 911. Some impressive driving. Watch til the end :?
Scary stuff. Long sweeping straights + rev limiter kicking in :twisted:

 

[longun]

flat out...............stop!!! shit,quality driver tho

 

[Steve Kish]

Despite them being much safer on closed circuits they were still not allowed to race.

Yup, just like the ones I went to see.

Each car had a small blast individually on the circuits in time trial mode and had to finish before the next car started. I'm assuming that if it had been a 'two or more on the track together' event, this would have constituted an actual race and insurance for this would either be astronomical or declined outright.

 

[lewis1641]

what confuses me is that group b cars are banned from competition but didnt they get bought by hill climb and rally cross competitors and used in competition?

 

[legrandefromage]

what confuses me is that group b cars are banned from competition but didnt they get bought by hill climb and rally cross competitors and used in competition?

Metro 6R4s were sold to the public! An estate agents in Hove, Brighton had one, just of Brunswick Square. All in original white and parked near my Gran's flat in about 1986/7

 

[cchris2lou]

all group B cars needed to be produced at 250 models to be allowed to enter the championship .