Review: Peugeot 205 T16 Evolution 1 - 1985 Season
BACKGROUND
Following three wins from its final three WRC outings of 1984, Peugeot’s 205 T16 look the car to beat heading into the 1985 season; Lancia’s replacement for the ageing rear-drive 037 was not expected to arrived until much later in the year while the comparatively production-based but four-wheel drive Audi Quattro Sport was something of a cumbersome beast compared to the agile little Peugeot.
Although Peugeot Talbot Sport (PTS) began the new season with just a couple of relatively minor updates for the T16 Evolution 1 (reinforced pivot points, steering rack link, steering column, transmission shaft and transmission tube plus some uprated dampers), the team’s driver line-up was now as strong as any of its rivals.
Having admitted that he felt too old for the latest generation of Group B rally cars, it was no surprise that Jean-Pierre Nicolas retired at the end of the 1984 season. Inbound were Timo Salonen and Bruno Saby who would join Ari Vatanen for 1985.
Peugeot planned to contest ten of the twelve WRC rounds for 1985 with between two and three cars at each event. While all twelve rallies counted towards the Drivers’ Championship, only eleven applied to the Manufacturers’ contest.
With their stellar new driver line up plus the T16’s impressive form during the latter part of 1984, Peugeot were hot favourites to secure both the Manufacturer and Driver titles in 1985, especially if the T16 Evolution 2 (expected to arrive mid-season) lived up to expectations.
1985 MONTE CARLO RALLY
The 1985 World Rally Championship kicked off in Monte Carlo on January 26th. The five-day event comprised 851km of snowy tarmac special stages for which Peugeot arrived with a trio of T16s that weighed in at 960kg.
Ari Vatanen and Terry Harryman led from the start, but their four-minute advantage at mid-distance was reversed by an eight-minute penalty after they arrived at parc ferme too early.
With 394km of stage time remaining, Audi’s Walter Rohrl inherited a massive 4 minute 41 second advantage. However, this was sensationally overturned by Vatanen before Rohrl subsequently lost time with electrical problems. The final gap to Vatanen / Harryman was over five minutes.
Peugeot also secured third spot (Timo Salonen / Seppo Harjanne) and fifth (Bruno Saby / Jean-Francois Fauchille).
Unfortunately, the 1985 Monte had not been without its controversies. Once again, lax crowd control and astonishingly fast cars meant driver and spectator injuries were becoming frequent. In light of this, the FIA announced the Evolution rule would be scrapped at the end of 1985; it seemed the Group B cars had already become too hot to handle.
1985 SWEDISH RALLY
A pair of T16s were then entered for the Swedish Rally which kicked off on February 15th and took place over three days and 513km of snow-covered gravel.
The brace of cars entered for Vatanen and Salonen ran increased ride height with new inner wings designed to reduce the accumulation of snow in the wheelarches. Michelin also had a new TRX tyre compound developed specially for the fast snowy conditions.
Despite trips into the snow banks for both PTS entries, Vatanen dominated proceedings. He won over half the timed stages and eventually finished nearly two minutes ahead of Stig Blomqvist’s Audi.
Salonen took third to give Peugeot a healthy early lead in both the Driver and Manufacturer standings.
1985 RALLY PORTUGAL
By the time Rally Portugal began on March 6th, Peugeot had completed a dozen of the required 20 Evolution 2s in anticipation of an anticipated approval date at the beginning of April.
Meanwhile, Sanremo-spec. Evolution 1s were entered in Portugal for Vatanen and Salonen. A thicker front skid plate installation was the only upgrade of note. The event took place over four days between March 6th and 9th. It comprised 730km of mixed gravel and tarmac stages.
During the rally, Vatanen’s rear wheel came detached 7km into stage four and, though he tried to persevere on three wheels, his engine soon stopped when a flywheel sensor ordered the electronics to shut down. This brought an end to the Finn’s run of five successive WRC victories.
His countryman, Salonen, also suffered with a driveshaft failure while lying second, but was able to nurse his car to the end of stage and get a repair. Leader Rohrl then experienced a cracked differential housing on his Audi and passed the lead to Salonen who went on to take his first win for Peugeot.
Salonen ultimately finished nearly five minutes ahead of second-placed Miki Biasion in a Jolly Club Lancia 037 while Rohrl came home third in his Audi Quattro Sport.
1985 SAFARI RALLY
Following an impressive start to the 1985 season, PTS headed to Africa for an ambitious attack on the 5200km Safari Rally which took place from April 4th to 8th. A trio of specially prepared cars with a host of heavy-duty upgrades were entered for Vatanen, Salonen and Saby.
Strengthened bodyshells were equipped with thicker titanium-reinforced underbody protection and beefed-up suspension. An 80-litre fuel tank was installed up front in addition to the normal 110-litre unit located under the passenger compartment. Front bull bars and spot lights gave an authentic expedition appearance along with an extra roof-mounted spare wheel. Another spare was stored in the engine bubble.
The 340bhp engines ran larger radiators and a more efficient air filter system.
With all this extra equipment weight rose to 1030kg.
Even though the French firm threw everything at it, the 1985 Safari proved a chastening experience for Peugeot. Lancia and Audi also disappointed as the ‘ultra’ Group B cars lost out to the tougher and more conventional Toyota Celica TCTs that finished first and second.
All three T16s endured turbo problems and suffered from overheating dampers. Saby crashed out and Vatanen eventually retired with a blown head gasket after a troubled run.
Only the Timo Salonen / Seppo Harjanne entry made it to the finish. They placed seventh overall, but were nearly four hours behind Juha Kankkunen’s winning Celica. Bjorn Waldeggard took second spot for Toyota and Mike Kirkland placed third in a Nissan 240RS.
1985 TOUR DE CORSE
Despite the fruitless trip to Africa, PTS still had cause for optimism as, back in Europe, the new T16 Evolution 2 had successfully undergone an intensive development programme. Homologation was granted in time for Peugeot’s home rally, the Tour de Corse, held over 1122km of tarmac special stages from May 2nd to 4th.
Just one Evolution 2 was entered for crowd favourite and ashphalt specialist, Bruno Saby. Meanwhile, Vatanen and Salonen elected to stick with their proven Evolution 1s. However, all three cars ran new 15-inch wheels (instead of the metric TRX sizes) plus the improved Evolution 2 brakes.
Unfortunately, neither Evo 1 had a trouble-free event.
Day one saw Salonen retire after an electrical failure took longer than the allotted time to fix. Vatanen then lost 23 minutes with a double puncture before he crashed out and wrecked his car on day two.
Meanwhile, Jean Ragnotti that led from start to finish driving a works Renault 5 Maxi Turbo while compatriot Saby took second in the new T16 Evolution 2.
As thrilled as the partisan crowd must have felt with two natives finishing first and second in two French cars, the event was overshadowed by the death of popular Lancia driver, Attilio Bettega, who crashed fatally on the fourth stage. His co-driver, Maurizio Perissinot, survived uninjured. Lancia withdrew their remaining cars as a mark of respect.
After the Tour de Corse, PTS went back to using the T16 Evolution 1 for the next three rallies (Greece, New Zealand and Argentina). Development on the Evolution 2 continued while supplies of the Evolution 1 were used up - these works cars typically only contested between one and three rallies before they were retired.
1985 ACROPOLIS RALLY
For the Acropolis Rally, a rough all-gravel 807km event that took place in sweltering Greek heat between May 27th and 30th, PTS entered a pair of Evolution 1s for Vatanen and Salonen. They were set up as in Portugal, albeit with a little extra front ground clearance.
Having earlier won five consecutive events in the T16, Vatanen’s rotten luck since Sweden continued as he retired on the second stage. This time, broken suspension had smashed his oil reservoir.
By contrast, Salonen led from start to finish; a first in the event’s history. He beat Audi’s Stig Blomqvist by over four minutes as mechanical problems with the Sport Quattro hampered the Swede’s efforts. Third spot went to the works Mazda RX-7 of Ingvar Carlsson in what was a rare podium finish for the Japanese manufacturer.
1985 RALLY NEW ZEALAND
Despite having won seven of the eleven WRC events they had contested with the T16, the next event, Rally New Zealand (June 29th to July 2nd), marked Peugeot’s first one-two finish.
PTS contested the 935km all-gravel event with cars in Acropolis trim albeit with one-inch lower ride height plus thinner and lighter sump guards.
Salonen / Harjanne took the win by one minute 17 seconds from team-mates Vatanen / Harryman. Walter Rohrl took third spot for Audi who now seemed increasingly unlikely to retain either of their 1984 crowns.
After New Zealand, Salonen led the Driver standings with 68 points. Audi’s Stig Blomqvist was second on 60, Vatanen was third on 55 and Rohrl was a distant fourth on 36.
1985 RALLY ARGENTINA
The 957km all-gravel Rally Argentina (July 30th to August 3rd) was expected to be the last event for the works Evolution 1.
Peugeot took three cars to South America; one for Salonen, one for Vatanen and a third for Carlos Reutemann who was making his first competitive appearance since he abandoned Formula 1 in early 1982.
The T16s were in Portugal spec. with as much ground clearance as possible.
Meanwhile, Audi used the event to debut their wild new Quattro Sport Evolution 2.
Perhaps mindful of the points gap to his team-mate, Vatanen was really pushing on the second stage when he hit a mud hole at 120mph and launched his car into a series of violent rolls. Described at the time as the most serious survivable crash ever seen, Vatanen sustained major injuries and, although he went on to compete for Peugeot in the Paris-Dakar and at Pikes Peak, he never completed another full WRC campaign.
Terry Harryman miraculously escaped relatively unscathed but was still out for several months.
After Vatanen had retired, Audi’s solitary Evo 2 Quattro followed on stage eight which left the Lancia-free event to Salonen who won by 14 minutes from the Quattro A2 of Wilfried Wiedner. Reutemann drove steadily to third and was only hampered by a two minute stop for a sodden plug lead having splashed over-enthusiastically through the many water crossings to thrill the spectators on too many times.
RETIREMENT & 1985 SEASON POINTS STANDINGS
Having given Peugeot an almost unassailable lead in both the 1985 Driver and Manufacturer standings, the T16 Evolution 1 bowed out from works involvement in the WRC.
Using the Evolution 2, Salonen was subsequently victorious at home on the 1000 Lakes Rally and second in Sanremo. He had secured the Drivers’ championship before posting a DNF on the RAC Rally.
Kalle Grundel was drafted in from the Peugeot Talbot Deutschland squad to replace the injured Vatanen after Rally Argentina but only managed a fifth in Finland and a DNF on the RAC. Saby drove on the Sanremo but failed to finish.
Salonen ultimately ended up with 127 points and won the 1985 Drivers’ Championship easily. Had it not been for Vatanen’s terrible crash on Rally Argentina (the last event for the Evolution 1), he would most likely have been Salonen’s closest challenger. As it transpired, Vatanen’s pre-Argentina points tally of 55 points meant he finished fourth in the standings (behind Audi’s Stig Blomqvist and Walter Rohrol on 75 and 59 respectively).
Peugeot also won their first Manufacturers’ title scoring 142 points to Audi’s 126. Lancia were third on 70.
Text copyright: Supercar Nostalgia
Photo copyright: Peugeot - http://www.peugeot.com
