Rally Racing (History)
Rallying
–noun
form of motor competition that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars. This motorsport is distinguished by running not on a circuit, but instead in a point-to-point format in which participants and their co-drivers drive between set control points (stages), leaving at regular intervals from one or more start points. Rallies may be won by pure speed within the stages or alternatively by driving to a predetermined ideal journey time within the stages.
Rallying, or rally racing, involves two classes of car. The modified Group A, but road legal, production based cars and the Group N Production cars compete on (closed) public roads or off-road areas run on a point-to-point format where participants and their co-drivers “rally” to a set of points, leaving in regular intervals from start points. A rally is typically conducted over a number of ’special stages’ of any terrain, which entrants are often allowed to scout beforehand at reduced speeds compiling detailed shorthand descriptions of the track or road as they go. These detailed descriptions are known as ‘pace notes’. During the actual rally, the co-driver reads the pace notes aloud (using an in-helmet intercom system) to the driver, enabling them to complete each stage as quickly as possible. Competition is based on lowest total elapsed time over the course of an event’s special stages, including penalties.
The top series is the World Rally Championship (WRC), but there also regional championships and many countries have their own national championships. Some famous rallies include the Monte Carlo Rally, Rally Argentina, Rally Finland and Rally GB. Another famous event (actually best described as a “rally raid“) is the Paris-Dakar Rally. There are also many smaller, club level, categories of rallies which are popular with amateurs, making up the “grass roots” of motor sports.
“Monsters of Rally”
| “I have to accept risk as a racing driver.” Emerson Fittipaldi |
“I thought: This is not racing, it’s a suicide mission. ” Barry Sheene |
| “On one test road…they were doing a Formula 1 race and it was exactly same length…we were testing on a gravel road and we were just 4 seconds slower…We said it was really going fast” Unknown |
Group B was introduced by the FIA in 1982 as replacement for both Group 4 (modified grand touring) and Group 5 (touring prototypes) cars.
Group A referred to production-derived vehicles limited in terms of power, weight, allowed technology and overall cost. The base model had to be mass produced (5000 units/year) and had to have 4 seats. Group A was aimed at ensuring a large number of privately-owned entries in races.
By contrast, Group B had few restrictions on technology, design and the number of cars required for homologation to compete (only 200). Weight was kept as low as possible, high-tech materials were permitted, and there were no restrictions on boost, which turned out to mean almost unlimited power. The category was aimed at car manufacturers by promising outright race victories and the subsequent publicity opportunities without the need for an existing production model.
Group B was initially a very successful concept, with many manufacturers joining the premier World Rally Championship, and increased spectator numbers. But the cost of competing quickly rose, and the performance of the cars proved too much, resulting in a series of fatal crashes. As a consequence Group B was cancelled at the end of 1986 and Group A regulations became the standard for all cars until the advent of World Rally Cars in 1997.
In the following years Group B found a niche in the European Rallycross Championship, with cars such as the MG Metro 6R4 and the Ford RS200 competing as late as 1992. For 1993, the FIA replaced the Group B models with prototypes that had to be based on existing Group A cars, but still followed the spirit of Group B, with low weight, 4WD, high turbo boost pressure and staggering amounts of power.
The FISA decided to separate the rally cars into three classes: Group N (production cars), Group A (modified production cars), and Group B (modified sport cars). These groups were introduced in 1982.
Group B was conceived when the FISA found that numerous car manufacturers wanted to compete in rallying, witnessing the successes of the Stratos and the Quattro, they felt that having cars with mid-engine and RWD or 4WD was the way to go. Unfortunately, they found that their RWD models had been gradually replaced by their FWD counterparts, lessening their chance of winning. By reducing the homologation minimum from 400 (in Group 4) to 200, manufacturers had a chance.[1]
Group B cars could be two-seaters and the minimum production was only 200 cars/year. Manufacturers were allowed to homologate an evolution each year by producing only 20 cars of that evolution. The cars entered in the races were further modified (same modifications allowed as in Group A). Group B could in theory be used to homologate production sport cars, which could not be homologated in Group N or A, because they did not have four seats or were not produced in large enough numbers (e.g. cars like the Ferrari 308, the Porsche 911, etc). The designation used in the regulations “Sports Grand Touring Cars”) show this intention.
The big manufacturers, however, used them in a different way: they designed a rally car, of which 20 were produced and designated the evolution model, and then built a limited series of only 200 street cars for homologation. (Similar things have been done before in Group 4, for instance the Lancia Stratos.) In some cases these cars were sold at a loss and journalists reviewing them now acknowledge that their development was not quite finished.
In each group there were classes based on engine displacement (with a 1.4 equivalence factor for forced induction engines). Each class had different weight limits, maximum tyre sizes, etc. The most important classes for Group B were the 3000 cc class (2142.8 cc with turbo or supercharger), 960 kg minimum weight (Audi Quattro, Lancia 037) and 2500 cc (1785 cc), 890 kg (Peugeot 205 T16, Lancia Delta S4).
The original Renault 5 Turbo had only a 1.4 L engine so it was in the 2000 cc class. The Ferrari 288 GTO and the Porsche 959 were in the 4000 cc (2857 cc), 1100 kg class, which would have probably become the normal class for track racing if Group B had seen much use there. Otherwise they existed for old Group 4 cars which competed until 1985.
Audi was in the 3000 cc class due to the displacement of the street car happened to be in that class, and as a car derived from the street version, it would have been difficult to reach the minimum weight needed. For the 037 Lancia decided that the lower class might be too light and consequently too fragile for gravel rallies, and they happened to have a good 2000 cc engine.
When these rules were decided it was felt that these displacement restrictions would be enough to control power, but in the early and mid-80s engineers learnt how to extract almost unlimited amounts of power from turbo engines (the same thing was happening in F1).
The Group B regulations fostered some of the quickest, most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built. However, a series of major accidents, some fatal, were blamed on their outright speed. After the death of Henri Toivonen and his co-driver in the 1986 Tour de Corse, the FIA disestablished the class after only four years. The short-lived Group B era has acquired legendary status among rally fans.
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Famous Drivers (Past & Present):