Group B: When Rallying Got TOO FAST

the audi quattro lancia 037 and the peugeot 205 t16 some of the most iconic names in rallying cars that pushed the limits of what was possible in a way that we haven't seen since it was called group b and is still held as the golden era of rallying group b was a class where manufacturers were allowed to go all out with almost unlimited power crazy aerodynamics and new exotic materials it brought about new technologies like four-wheel drive semi-automatic gearboxes and clever turbo charging systems however it was only for the bravest of drivers that the hugely powerful cars needed a lot of manhandling to thread them through the tight twisty stages away from huge drops and dodging a sea of spectators but how did this come about and what can we learn from the crazy cars that weren't in the group b era rallying went wild in the 80s the fia wanted to attract more manufacturers and so created a class that would give the designers pretty much free reign no power limits no regulations on boost and whatever exotic materials you liked rally cars over the years have been largely based on road cars with rules tightening and loosening on how close the relationship has to be between the stock car and the ones that actually race the stage for example in the group a class the manufacturers have to produce 5000 road-going versions of the car before it is allowed to compete in group b to lower the cost and interest of manufacturers they ruled that only 200 cars that needed to be produced group b also allowed almost endless modifications to be made meaning the rally cars were nothing like the road cars at all this approach really worked attracting many manufacturers to group b names like lancia porsche peugeot audi toyota ford as well as so many more lancia took the drivers championship in the first year of grope b with the 0-37 it was the last rear-wheel drive car to win in the wrc it was incredibly light using fiberglass and kevlar for the body and was powered by a mid-mounted 250 horsepower engine it has much larger wings than many cars of the time with a huge rear spoiler to stabilize the car at high speeds it was supercharged to avoid turbo lag and it was incredibly quick on the tarmac stages however it wasn't quite as quick on loose surfaces so in stepped audi with the quattro one of the most innovative rally cars of all time a true game changer it had an inline 5 engine with a very clever turbo charging system that produced over 450 brake horsepower it had a small valve that kept the turbo spooled even when off throttle meaning there was very little turbo lag making the car quick out of the tight turns the audi also had a very aggressive aero kit with a huge spoiler at the front of the car and an even bigger wing on the back this was one of the first sophisticated uses of aerodynamics in rallying drivers said it made the car extremely stable at high speed the insane power was put through a clever semi-automatic gearbox and drove all four wheels it was the first car to use a four-wheel drive system effectively before this many manufacturers stuck to rear wheel drive as they thought the additional weight would outweigh any time gains from the extra traction and yes the audi was very heavy and the four wheel drive system meant the weight was higher up than you would like in a rally car normally but despite the compromise dynamics it worked the audi had more power than the rest of the field but could also use it more effectively deploying more power even on surfaces like gravel dirt and ice audi won its first race with the car and didn't really stop after that they shaved seconds if not minutes off stage times the audi four-wheel drive system really changed the game in rally but the audi dominance didn't last long peugeot came out with a car that would expose the weaknesses of the quattro they used a similar four-wheel drive system but packaged it very differently their secret was that they really nailed the car's dynamics they built the car to look like the road going 205 a small hatchback it had a very short wheelbase which generally makes cars more nimble at low speeds with the trade-off of less stability at high speeds however rally stages are often so tight and twisty that this strategy paid off for persia they also did everything they could to keep the weight central they fitted a 1.8 liter engine in the middle of the car although it didn't have the clever anti-lag system that the audi did so the drivers used an old trick to keep the turbo spooled up they left foot braked for the corners while staying on the throttle this kept the turbo spooled up and gave them immediate power on the exit but what was really unusual about the 205 was the orientation they mounted the engine in normally race cars have longitudinal mounted engines with the crank parallel with the direction of the car however peugeot fitted it in a transverse orientation and instead of mounting the gearbox below the engine like in the audi peugeot mounted it to the side this meant that the majority of the weight in the car was between the two axles and could be mounted lower making the car much more nimble and responsive in the corners low center of gravity means the car doesn't roll too much and if it's in the center of the chassis the car is easier to rotate in the corners the 205's weight distribution wasn't 50 50 though it placed around 60 of the weight on the rear wheels in simple terms rearward weight distribution promotes oversteer and frontward weight distribution creates more understeer this rearward bias meant the car was easier to turn in and control through the turns you can really see this if you watch the audi through the corners the audi was very front heavy and produced a lot of understeer the drivers are trying to neutralize this with the throttle but they have to correct the car several times through the corner the quattro understeers then oversteers then understeers again through a turn the drivers really have to wrestle it through the corner the quattro was by no means an easy car to drive now look at the peugeot there is one smooth input on the steering and the car looks much more balanced and easy to drive there is no wonder it was quicker it's incredible to watch as these drivers control the car when at crazy speeds on tight and twisty rally stages also not forgetting they are threading the car through a sea of spectators on the stage but why are the fans allowed to be so close to the cars the stages are public roads meaning anyone could go and spectate however it meant that many got extremely close to the cars back then people did get hit but it was considered to be part of the challenge for the drivers they often kept it pinned and had to hope that the fans would get out the way in time this guy even had to jump over a passing car many manufacturers understood that peugeot's approach was the way to go all producing smaller short wheelbase cars with all the weight in the middle mg created the metro with a distinctive boxy shape and a huge front wing and the renault 5 took a similar approach too however it was lancia that did it the best they finally scrapped real world drive after being uncompetitive all year so they created the lancia delta s4 a short wheelbase four-wheel drive monster firstly they developed an engine with a genius twin charging system they fitted a supercharger to avoid the lag of a turbo a bit like the lancia o37 however this created less power at high revs as a supercharger is directly driven by the engine it can provide boost at low revs but saps more and more power as the revs climb so what lancia did was fit an additional turbocharger that would provide boost at high revs so low end boost was provided by the supercharger before cutting out and letting the turbo take over at higher revs this meant the delta s4 was amazingly powerful and had the grip to put it down onto the stage it took many wins before eventually bringing the group b era to a close this era of rallying was amazing to watch incredibly fast cars and amazing drivers all pushing to the limits of what's possible there were different winners every year and cars that looked remarkably different with incredible engineering however you can't ignore the fact that it was extremely dangerous the cars were too powerful difficult to drive and not enough emphasis was put on the safety of drivers and spectators the biggest issue was the minimum weight rule cars could weigh as little as 890 kilograms so to be competitive manufacturers would do anything they could to get this limit down this created a breed of cars that were very fragile and not up to the job of protecting drivers in a crash many of the drivers explained that if this weight limit was higher more strengthening could have been added to better protect the drivers in a crash several huge crashes happened in portugal santos crested a rise in his ford rs-200 he lost control and went off the course horrifically injuring 31 spectators and killing three all the teams immediately pulled out of the rally and it left group b hanging on by a thread a few months later the final blow came lancia's henry toivonen was the championship favorite when he lost control late in a fast turn he was winning by a huge margin when he and his co-driver sergio cresto came flying off the road heading down a steep hill the impact ruptured the fuel tank spilling fuel over the red hot turbocharger sending the car up in flames after the incident it was barely recognizable as a car and both henry and sergio were killed in the crash this led to many manufacturers pulling out and the fia ended the group b class the following year you should watch this video where i explain what it takes to modify a rally car to set the outright record at pike's peak or this other video that i think you'll love thanks very much for watching and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: Driver61

Views: 1,449,134

Rating: 4.9485207 out of 5

Keywords: Formula 1, Driving, Coaching, Motorsport, Engineering, F1, Racing, Incredible Motorsport, Driver61, Rallying, GroupB, Quattro, Audi, Peugeot, Lancia, 4WD

Id: pPk90JZqWM8

Length: 10min 18sec (618 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 09 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/snowmanspike]

Really enjoyed that!