WRC

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Anybody here follow WRC? The best IMO rally of the year is on this weekend. Rally Finland. The fastest rally big jumps big air dirt stage sideways drifting night stage - what driving should be about.

This rally is about as close to the defunct beloved group b of the 80s as you can get.

-Ed-

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

I'll post some vids of rally Finland when they come up. Meanwhile a historic vid of what group b was all about.

https://youtu.be/pPk90JZqWM8

Great stuff - there are a couple more to post.

Enjoy!

-Ed-

[wombat666]

I miss the 1990-2000 WRC series, back when there were some potent Group B cars and top drivers competing.
The Finnish Rally or the Rally of a Thousand Lakes was always known to us as 'The Finnish Grand Prix'.
Colin McRae, Richard Burns, Carlos Sainz, Marcus Gronholm, Tommi Makinen, Didier Auriol, Juha Kankkunen and of course Markku Alen were always great entertainers and handled the Thousand Lakes with style.
I never made it to a Group B rally but did get to the 1998 Swedish Rally and several Rally Australia rounds when they were run in Western Australia.

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

Yeah 90s rallys were enjoyable and Colin is a legend. However after WRC cancelled group B in 1986 all top level WRC cars were group A - based on factory models and about 300 HP. Still great racing but not the "run what ya bring" lightweight poorly roll caged if at all near - some above - 500hp. Real bawls out rally racing for the drivers and the fans. In some ways sad that it was deemed too dangerous to continue. If Colin had driven that series would he have survived as the 80s group B cars had very little protection.

Anyway if you thought Ford vs Ferrari was good just think what a good movie this would be. And the story is told by Jeremy Clarkson. It features Audi vs Lancia - all wheel vs 2 wheel drive and it happened in the group b era of the 80s. Take note of the people on the Audi team and remember as one of the best rally drivers ever says in the video. If I wanted to fly I'd have become a pilot - in reference to rally Finland. I think the story is great and would be a great movie.

https://youtu.be/6lo4dGTrzr8

Enjoy!

-Ed-

PS an on a personal note I found this on the net.

https://drive.dirtfish.com/rally-dri...-fundamentals/

This place is about 5 hours away an I have gone by it often without knowing it was there. I've added a half or full day to my bucket list and as soon as the US Canadian Covid border stuff is done I'm there. Expensive but some things one needs to do. Can't wait. The only even near rally style stuff I ever do is in my Jeep in the snow sliding spinning - great fun - maybe now after doing this I'll be able to do it right.

[EasyEd]

Hey All,

I did want to follow-up on this WRC thread.

This video features Michele Mouton the only woman who drove in group B. She is the woman in the previous video driving for Audi.

https://youtu.be/MVqvrEf4S7E

After watching this video - if someone told me she is the greatest woman driver of all time - I would not argue with them. She almost won a WRC championship an did win rallys on rally tracks in the most powerful cars WRC has ever seen. Being the greatest IMO doesn't have to be about records.

My favorite Michele story is one time after winning a rally up Pikes Peak another famous driver made some sexist remark and she turned to him saying I'll race you back down the mountain. That driver shut right up. He was Al Unser Sr two time winner of the Indy 500 who also drove nascar and iroc. He knew he could never match the driving skill of Michele in a rally car down a mountain road.

Next some rally Finland vids. The longest jump flying through the air this year was 69 meters off a hill onto dirt. How much fun would that be? My personal best was probably about 6 meters in a admittedly us government pickup over 40 years ago

-Ed-

[wombat666]

Ed, could not agree more about Michelle Mouton and IIRC the reason she didn't win the WRC title (supposedly) came down to team politics, or so the rumors of the time went.
Michelle found herself in the Ivory Coast Rally level with Walter Rohrl when she learned that her Father had died on the day before the start.
It may have caused her to lose focus as she crashed out in fog on the last night of the rally.
Walter Rohrl, won the rally and the title.

Looking back over the Gr.B era I would say that the cars replaced by Gr.A were just out-bloody-standing and pure thoroughbred racing cars, sadly crowd control was pretty much non-existent, that, plus several deaths among the civilians and competitors was the end of an epic chapter in the WRC.
Crowd control wasn't very flash during the Gr.A years but that's another story.