When Group B monsters roamed the earth

[Sarc]

Thought I'd post this in its own thread rather than having it lost in the random video thread. Great stuff...

[HardDrive]

The Renault Le Car tubro. I believe Car and Driver called it the 'killer chipmunk'.

[drcoastline]

Very cool thanks for sharing.

[audiman08]

great video, those are brave fans too

[jyl]

Those are stupid fans, and the lives of 10 or even 100 of them didn't justify outlawing the killer B's. Truly. that was a case of Art being more precious than Life.

[jyl]

But, despair not, for we have this

[Laneco]

Wow, now THAT's a well setup 944!!!

(I know, I deserve to have my hiney kicked or that one).

angela

[CurtEgerer]

Cool vid - thanks for posting!

That fiery crash at the beginning was Attilio Bettega in a Lancia 037 at the '85 Tour de Corse. He hit a tree and was killed instantly. Amazingly, his co-driver was uninjured

[emcon5]

If that isn't enough, here is another 80 minutes of Group B insanity:

Best of Group B


And although not Group B, one of my favorite rally clips:


Onboard with Petter Solberg setting a stage record in Rally Finland in 2004 - Ouninpohja

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMLbn4PmGes Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0xFXOB5EHc Part 2

[porsche4life]

That gives a whole new meaning to "drives like its on rails"!

[CurtEgerer]

A little Gruppe B trivia - although rallying was even more obscure to the US motorsport fan back then than it is now, the final Grp B rally was held in the USA. Olympus Rally in Washington State. Not many people were there to witness it.

[audiman08]

wow, that Washington rally had virtually no fans trackside...I wonder if it was because of the bad reputation Group B had or that nobody over here cared about rally racing?

[madmmac]

I was there. The problem was as a spectator, you almost needed a rally car to get to most of the stages. I had a Jeep back then...problem solved.

They even had a stage on the pavement in downtown Tacoma, that was really cool and actually drew a pretty good crowd.

[LSA]

Those are some monstrous cars! The 037, Quattro, Delta S4, Rs200 so awesome!

[CurtEgerer]

Originally Posted by madmmac

I was there. The problem was as a spectator, you almost needed a rally car to get to most of the stages. I had a Jeep back then...problem solved.

They even had a stage on the pavement in downtown Tacoma, that was really cool and actually drew a pretty good crowd.

I'm envious! Did you take any photos?

Even today, it is very difficult to spectate at a rally. It often involves driving 15-20 miles on gravel roads, parking and then walking another mile to get to the stage. And, of course, there are now designated 'safe areas'. Then the cars go by and you pickup and drive to next stage and do it all over again.

US fans seem to like the convenience of a padded stadium seat and a beer vendor nearby, thus rallying will never draw big crowds here. That's why they're slowly killing stage rallying in the US and going to X-games/stadium rallycross type stuff

[jpachard]

As far as crazy spectators go, you guys haven't seen the Baja 1000 then. when I was pre running people, cows etc would appear out of nowhere, quite scary on a bike when you are doing 70+MPH...

[CurtEgerer]

This is some VHS footage I had digitized of John Buffum in his Group B quattro at the '85 POR in Michigan. This car is an animal. During the night stages you could hear it snorting and popping from 2 miles away.

[t6dpilot]

Geezus Curt, that thing is a monster. With that rebel yell and the popping, I thought for a second - gunfire. Those Group B cars were awesome. Big bummer when they were outlawed after only a short time on the race circuit.

[tcar]

"Super B's"...

Somewhere (can't find it) there's a video of Buffam's feet while he's horsing the Quattro around in the snow during a winter rally... it's like a ballet...

[CurtEgerer]

Scott, I was hoping to have the new engine done for the ice races so you could drive it. But I doubt I'll have it sorted out by then. We're going to need to wait til Elkhart I think!



More Gruppe B goodness here: