One to Buy: 1985 Monte Carlo & Swedish Rally winning Peugeot 205 T16 Evolution 1
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While Lancia were first out of the traps with a true purpose built Group B supercar for the special stages (the 037), Peugeot’s even more compact all-wheel drive 205 T16 emerged from rallying’s most popular and spectacular era as the best there was.
Using Evolution 1 and 2 versions of the T16 base car, Peugeot collected a back-to-back clean sweep of both WRC Manufacturer and Driver crowns in ‘85 and ‘86.
Juha Kankkunen was crowned Drivers’ champion for the last year of Group B in 1986 while the season prior it had been fellow Finn, Timo Salonen, who took the title.
Salonen’s eventually quite comfortable run to the ‘85 championship would likely have been much tougher had team-mate Ari Vatanen not suffered a terrible accident that effectively ended his WRC career on Rally Argentina.
Prior to his nasty crash, Vatanen had strung together five WRC wins on the bounce with victories at the 1000 Lakes, Sanremo and RAC events of 1984 followed by wins in the opening brace of events in 1985: Monte Carlo and Sweden.
Set to go under the hammer at RM Sotheby’s auction in Monaco is the T16 Evolution 1 which Vatanen piloted to victory on the Monte Carlo and Swedish Rallies of 1985: chassis C11. After those two outings, C11 appeared at Rally Portugal where Vatanen and Harryman posted a DNF. It then served as the recce car on three events.
