To Fast To Race !! Part 1,2,3,4.

I was looking for some info on the Group B SuperRally Cars of the Early 70's to the Mid 80's where Audi, Lancia, Puegot, etc.... competed in these grueling Rally events and the Horsepower was up to 500-600 on mostly dirt roads with big cliff drop offs just inches away from the edge of their tires.

900hp Group.B´s and 1500hp Can-Ams is a bit too much. Gr.B madness and the power figures were from 500 to 600/650 for the top brands (Peugeot and Lancia) and from what I have heard the most powerful Can-Am car was the 917/30 with 1100hp.

About the Lancia Delta S4s Abarth supercharger + KKK turbocharger system, it was considered revolutionary at the time, but it came a bit too late, cause a few months later Gr.B was sent to the trash due to the Toivonen deadly crash.
There was also a new class: Gr.S with cars that could be what WRC is nowadays, but it never even started. Opel had already built and tested a group S Kadett and I think that Audi also had a car ready, but they never even raced.
From then on everybody knows, the multimillion race programs were discontinued, and the only company that had a road car fit to compete in the Gr.A was Lancia with the Delta 4wd, so they got the headstart over everyone else.
Peugeot turn the 205 T16 from a rally car to a rally-raid car and went on to do the Paris-Dakar.
Audi took the Quattro to Pikes Peak
The rest went to rallycross, Ferrari 288GTO never got started on racing, others like the Citroen BX Gr.B disapeared, the MG Metro 6R4 gave is engine to the Jaguar XJ220, and now these cars only roar in the memories of the fans.
It's weird to find out about the 288 GTO which was pretty much only going to be built for rallying but never got started and was detuned after Group B rallying was banned. They detuned the car to a mere 450hp (from its original 650hp) and used it as the 288 GTO Evolution which was a platform for the later F40 Supercar. Here are the videos. Just click on the Download button which are Zip files. Remember its a 4 part series and sort of long.

Part 1 - http://www.autoclips.net/detail.php?id_video=452
Part 2 - http://www.autoclips.net/detail.php?id_video=492
Part 3 - http://www.autoclips.net/detail.php?id_video=532
Part 4 - http://www.autoclips.net/detail.php?id_video=574



Also here are some interesting videos including a clip of a 360 Modena in one of the videos. It reminds me of an event that I went to a while back at Beech Mtn near Banner elk and Boone NC not too long ago for a Hill Climb race.
http://ahvideoconcept.free.fr/Clips/Stursanne.wmv
http://ahvideoconcept.free.fr/Clips/04trento.wmv

 

thanks mucho... on their way down. =)

 

I found some pics of the 1987 Ferrari GTO Evoluzione. Only 5 of them made in the world. I would have love to have seen Ferrari in the Group B Rallies but its too bad Group B is banned forever.

Also I was curious on when the Lancia Stratos came out in the early 70's did it come standard with a 308 Ferrari engine in it? I know there was only 400 of those made too.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

If anyone wants the full movie in one file you can get it here:
http://sublevo.com/fchat/
I'll leave it up for a few days/weeks depending on how much bandwidth is used.

Does anyone know how the current WRC cars compare to the Group B in terms of horsepower and speed?