Following major investment by Fiat in 1969, Ferrari's Sports car racing programme was gradually scaled down. Wanting to avoid inter-brand competition and unnecessary expense, Fiat ultimately…
Read MoreHaving long since ranked among the elite manufacturers in top flight rallying thanks primarily to high performance iterations of the Mk1 and Mk2 Escort, Ford’s European arm took a sabbatical after…
Read MoreHaving first got involved with sports sponsorship during the early 1970s, Rothmans International went on to make a big splash in the world of motor sport towards the end of that decade when works…
Read MoreAfter a disappointing debut season in 1982, the Lancia 037 came good in 1983 by winning that year’s Driver and Manufacturer World Rally Championship titles. The rear-wheel drive 037’s state-of-art…
Read MorePeugeot produced the 205 T16 with the sole intention of delivering Driver and Manufacturer titles in the World Rally Championship. At the time, rallying was even more popular than Formula 1 with huge…
Read MoreBetween 1974 and 1976, the Lancia Stratos established itself as among the most successful rally cars of all time winning three Manufacturers’ titles for the Turin-based firm. However, ahead of the 1977…
Read MoreAs more and more manufacturers piled into rallying following the introduction of Group B regulations for 1982, the new generation of purpose-built machinery led to an explosion in media…
Read MoreFollowing 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…
Read MorePeugeot’s 1984 World Rally Championship programme kicked off at the French manufacturer’s home event: the Tour de Corse in early May. Although the T16 had been homologated a month earlier (on…
Read MoreAfter several months of rally accidents, things came to a head with a grim burst of fatalities in the spring of 1986. As a result, the FIA announced Group B cars would be banned from the beginning of…
Read MoreA major contributing factor to the incredible pace with which Group B machinery developed between 1982 and 1986 was the Evolution rule. Evolution variants enabled manufacturers to…
Read MoreAlthough rallying had been in rude health throughout the 1970s, for the second half of the decade, sports car racing was in the doldrums. To help stimulate a revival, a new simplified regularity…
Read MoreFor 1982, the FIA introduced new regulations for motor sport. At the top of the tree was Group C, a category for out-and-out Prototypes with no minimum production requirement. The next rung of the…
Read MoreAt the end of 1979, Ford officially withdrew from rallying. They did so as Manufacturers’ champions having beating Datsun by 14 points. Ford’s Bjorn Waldegaard also took that year’s Drivers’ crown in…
Read MoreBy the early 1980s, Fiat knew that for their domination of World and European rallying to continue, an all-new challenger conforming to the latest Group B regulations would have to be produced.
Read MoreIn 1982, Audi won both the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers and Drivers. In 1983, Audi driver Hannu Mikkola retained the Driver’s title but the Manufacturer’s award went to Lancia.
Read MorePorsche’s 959 was the ultimate road-going evolution of the 1980s 911. Conceived as a Group B homologation special, the first 959 prototype was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in…
Read MoreGroup B regulations permitted manufacturers in possession of homologated machinery to produce further uprated batches of 20 Evolution variants every twelve months. The T16 Evolution 1…
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