The Group B years – Audi

Posted on 17. Feb, 2010 by Dean in Features, Group B History

The second instalment in an ongoing series by Alan Ockwell, looking at the Group B era of World Rally.

One of the most significant rally cars of all time made its introduction to the world in 1980, with the unveiling of Audi’s rally contender, the Quattro. The Quattro was the first rally car to take advantage of the new rules permitting four-wheel-drive for rally competition, but there were some initial doubts about four-wheel-drive’s suitability to rallying. Some thought it would be too complex and heavy to be competitive. The critics were quickly proven wrong.

The Quattro won its first rally on its first outing, the Austrian round of the European championship in 1981: the four-wheel-drive experiment was an instant success. The Quattro went on to win a couple rounds of the world rally championship, and Audi gained additional exposure when Michèle Mouton won the 1981 San Remo rally, the first woman to win at the international level. The 1982 season looked set to be an Audi tour de force.

While the Audi was clearly the fastest and one of the most revolutionary rally cars in some time, it did have a number of shortcomings. The Quattro was rather heavy, its front-engine, monocoque chassis gave the car clumsy and unwieldy handling characteristics, and the car had problems with mechanical reliability. The car did win the 1982 championship for constructors, but Walter Röhrl took his first win of the year and the championship on the final event, the Ivory Coast rally, after Michèle Mouton’s Quattro suffered a broken transmission.

Audi Sport Quattro S1

The 1983 season was another bittersweet season for Audi; the introduction of the Lancia 037 promised fiercer competition (despite the 037 still being rear-wheel-drive), and the 037 delivered. Audi’s #1 driver, Hannu Mikkola, won the 1983 driver’s championship, but Lancia pilots Markku Alen and Walter Röhrl finished in the points frequently enough to give Lancia the constructor’s title. The 1984 season was Audi’s most successful year in rallying. Stig Blomqvist’s sideways driving style plus the introduction of the short-wheelbase, more powerful (450+ hp) and more advanced (six-speed transmission, kevlar bodywork) Sport Quattro combined to take both titles for the 1984 season.

However, the 1984 season saw a new challenger to Audi’s crown: Peugeot launched their brand new 205 T16 in Corsica for the 1984 Tour de Corse rally. The new 205 differed from the Quattro in several key respects: it was rear-engined, it had a space frame, and it was a generally smaller car with less weight. Peugeot driver Ari Vatanen nearly won the 205′s first rally, except a crash prematurely ended his rally. The Peugeot caused enough concern that the Audi team managers sent messages back to the engineers in Ingolstadt, reminding the engineers to keep up development, and not to be complacent with the current success.

The title of “king of the hill” was transferred to Peugeot at the start of the 1985 season. The Sport Quattro was simply unable to keep up; its handling and reliability was poor compared with the 205 T16. Audi never ceased development despite losing its crown, and the radical Sport Quattro S1, introduced at the 1000 Lakes rally in 1985, proved to the rally community that Audi was very serious in its attempt to regain its previous form. The S1 had more power than any other rally car in history, reaching over 600 horsepower in 1986, and it had huge wings to aid with traction on faster stages. Faced with ever-increasing competition, the S1 only managed a single victory, on the San Remo rally in 1985.

The curtain call for Audi’s Group B program came with the death of Henri Toivonen on the Tour de Corse 1986; following Toivonen’s death, Audi, along with Ford, immediately pulled the plug on its Group B rally program. The Quattro in its various iterations competed for four and a half years, winning four championships, and changing the face of rallying forever.

Pikes Peak Hill Climb

While the Quattro was attacking the world rally championship, Audi decided that it needed to increase exposure in America. Audi decided to send its American works driver John Buffum to Pikes Peak, to compete in the annual hillclimb. The Quattro’s first attempt was impressive: Buffum set a time which was only beaten by eight purpose-built hillclimb racers. The 1983 event was similar to 1982, with Buffum finishing sixth overall. In 1984 and 1985, Audi sent Michèle Mouton to America, and in 1985 she set the fastest time ever recorded on the mountain. 1986 came, and Audi hired American racing driver Bobby Unser to drive. He won. In 1987, Walter Röhrl won again for Audi, setting another overall record. The following year, Peugeot sent Ari Vatanen to America with a 405 T16, and he broke Röhrl’s record by less than a second. Vatanen’s record stood for a number of years, when it was finally broken by Rod Millen’s supermodified Celica hillclimb special. The Group B cars not only changed rallying, but they impacted hillclimb racing as well.

Perhaps the most incredible feat Audi ever achieved in rallying never made it to rally competition. After the cancellation of Group B in 1986, Audi announced they had built an engine for rallying with more than 1000 horsepower! The engine was tested in several hillclimbs, but the drivers reported that the car was completely undrivable, with an unsettling tendency to simply go straight in the corners. The Audi engineers never ceased to amaze rally observers during the Group B days, and even today, rally fans remember the Quattro with a mixture of awe and respect.

Tags: Alan Ockwell, Audi, Group B, Michele Mouton, Walter Rohrl, World Rally Championship