Motorsport WI: Group B Lives On

For those of us here who are racing nuts, onto another such topic. :)

The Group B rallying series, which ran from 1982 to 1986, was considered to be one of the most spectacular rally racing series of all time, simply because of the insane machinery that entered it. Cars like Peugeot's 205 Turbo 16, Lancia's 037 and Delta S4, Ford's RS200, bewinged Audi Quattro S2 and MG Metro 6R4, and cars that never ran such as the Porsche 959, BMW M1R and Toyota MR2 222B.

Group B's demise was partly due to luck. A horrible accident in Portugal claimed the lives of four spectactators in 1985, another died in Sweden after being hit by debris and two more were killed in Argentina in 1986. and the deaths of Atillo Bettega and Henri Toivonen, along with the RAC death of Marc Surer's co-driver (caught live on a TV helicopter) saw the series canned after 1986, which meant that the Citroen BX 4TC only ran four races and the 959 and MR2 222B never raced at all.

Now, assume that the authorities decide to demand better crowd control (which would have saved lives in Argentina and Portugal) and canned the Corscia Rally (which Bettega and Toivonen died at, both cases simply shitty luck - Bettega's co-driver survived the crash that killed Bettega uninjured), Group B could well gone on.

Now, here's what I'm supposing:

1987 - Group B Keeps Up the Pace

1987 started off with excitement, The Toyota Celica is replaced by the MR2, the Porsche 959 and BMW M1R debut to high oohs and ahs, but in the BMWs case not much success as by this point the 2WD Group B machines were obsolete on dirt and snow courses. That doesn't stop Marc Surer winning in the inaugural Rally Japan, which is mostly held on Tarmac. Mitsubishi's Starion 4WD also enters, but its speed is tempered by terrible reliability.

The Lancia Delta S4B and Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 are the primary contenders, with Audi finding the Quattro S3 competitive on wider-open rallies such as New Zealand, Ivory Coast and Olympus in the United States but struggling on tougher courses. The Toyota MR2 is fast but unreliable, and the Porsche 959 faces the same size problem as the Citroen BX 4TC. Private entrants with the Mazda RX-7, Nissan 300ZX, Honda CRX and others are unsuccessful, though American rally legend John Buffum stuns the Europeans with a legendary run in a Ferrari 308 at the Olympus Rally.

The speeds continue to rise, and the Group B machines begin to find new stages in events like the Pikes Peak hillclimb and the Dakar Rally, where they are plenty competitive. Hannu Mikkola wins the 1987 Pikes Peak Hillclimb in his Quattro S3. Buffum's performance at the Olympus convinces Ferrari to prepare a version of its upcoming F40 for the Group B rules.

Lancia's Markku Alen makes up for the acrimonious loss of the 1986 title to Peugeot's Juha Kankunnen by soundly beating him in 1987, and Alen was outshone by his Lancia teammate Miki Biasion. Toyota's

1988 - Ferrari and Porsche up the pace, Toyota goes for the title, The Dakar enters the fray

Group B shifts again as the FIA grows the schedule, making the Group B category of the Dakar Rally a full world championship event, and adding new events in Australia, South Korea and Germany, as well as killing Corsica because of its unsuitably with current rally cars.

Ferrari, despite saying that it did not wish to see the F40 race, still say its cars regularly compete in Group B. The reliability of the F40 also saw it become surprisingly competitive on medium-surface dirt rallies such as Australia and the United States.

Surer opened the scoring again in his BMW M1R at Monte Carlo, as the paved roads were cold but dry, and the 700-horsepower M1R could easily keep up the smaller cars on the unforgiving Monte Carlo Rally. Swede Stig Blomqvist, driving for Ford, took his RS200 to victory in Sweden, with Alen making up for his 1987 title loss with a crushing flag to flag win in Portugal in the Delta S4BV. But for the rest of 1988, the Delta's unreliability caused headaches for Lancia, leaving Alen, Biasion and Argentine pilot Jorge Recalde well out of the title chase. Peugeot goes into 1988 hoping to retake the title from Lancia, but quickly discovers that Toyota's painstaking development work with its MR2 and Ford's work with the RS200 makes that easier said than done. Worse still, the pavement rallies - Monte Carlo, Japan, South Korea and Germany - find the two-wheel drive entries from BMW and Ferrari on the pace.

Toyota opens up its win log when the MR2 gains its debut win in the hands of New Zealander Rod Millen, with South African Sarel van der Merwe close behind him in a Mazda RX-7. Lancia's appalling reliability saw none of its four cars make it to the one-third mark, and Peugeot's Juha Kankunnen's rally ended with a dramatic crash on the Safari, which he walked away unscathed from.

South Korea was the debut of two semi-factory Ferrari F40s, and both of the Maranello rockets took their turn leading the rally, though neither finished. South Korea saw Italian co-driver Maurizio Perrissinot cheat death a second time when Mike Kirkland's Lancia S4BV ran off a 40-foot drop on the sixth stage. (Both drivers walked away.) Local ace Park Hun-Lee and his Honda CRX were a surprise, finishing fifth, beating Alen, among others.

Germany was the first win for Porsche's 959, driven to a 1-2 victory by Rene Metge and Formula One legend Niki Lauda. Surer held up BMW's honor by finishing third. These supercars, along with two Ferrari F40s and a privately-built and entered 288 GTO, easily outdid the rally-designed Group B cars in Germany, showing the superiority of these cars on pavement.

OOC: Thoughts so far?
 
I think BMW would rather use a Group B M3 than the old M1. But I like this TL. Maybe you could include the planned Group B replacement, Group S. But still, it's a nice TL, especially since there aren't much Motorsports TLs.
 
I think BMW would rather use a Group B M3 than the old M1. But I like this TL. Maybe you could include the planned Group B replacement, Group S. But still, it's a nice TL, especially since there aren't much Motorsports TLs.

The M3 first appeared in 1987, and it would horribly underpowered compared to the road rockets, plus the M1 has the advantage of being a mid-engined, rear drive car with excellent weight distribution.

Group S was created because of the insanity of late-model Group B, designed to slow the cars down because of the string of accidents. It lost all meaning when the FIA banned the whole idea after Toivonen died. Here, Toivonen's death is simply passed off as another victim of the roads of Corsica, so the Group S probably would have never even been proposed.
 
I'd love to see what the rally F40 looks like, can someone rig up a photo?

I'd like to see too, but remember that the F40 Group B, like the Lancia 037 and Porsche 959 rally cars, didn't ride that much higher than stock. I'd imagine that as a pavement-biased Rally car it'll probably look fairly similar to the way it did in GT racing trim. Something like this, with the front lip removed and another 2-3 inches of ground clearance.

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The BMW M1R would probably be close to the same as the M1 Procar race version, though it would likely be without the front spoiler of the Procar racers. The M3 would be a better tool by 1989, though, but the M3 would be a better Group A rally car, running against the Lancia Delta Integrale, Ford Sierra Cosworth and Toyota Celica GT-Four. I do think that by the early 1990s, the Group B category would be a faster sideshow to the Group A machines, though cars like the Nissan Skyline GT-R would probably run in Group B.
 
Well, I know a good replacement for Group B in your TL. The Class 1 reglement, the DTM (Later ITC) used IOTL. When I think of it, this would have been really awesome. Imagine a rally car like that:

fz-opel_0427.jpg
 
^ I actually envision that Group B sports car racing would get off the ground about this time, and that Opel Calibra would ultimately be a Group B road racer. Jaguar, Porsche and Ferrari developed Group B machines for road racing (The XJ220, 959 and 288 GTO, respectively) and the insane-tech ITC cars of 1994-96 would been right at home with them.

The Group A/B/C idea lasted until the cost of competition (and Bernie Ecclestone's influence with the World Sportscar Championship - two-bit, lying, worthless mother$!*^%#) effectively pushed it overboard in 1992/93. The ultimate Group C racers were Nissan's unbelievable R92CP and Jaguar's XJR-14. On Mark Blundell's 1991 Le Mans qualifying lap, where his turbocharger wastegate jammed shut, allowing his boost meters to register over 80 psi of turbo boost :)eek:), Nissan estimated he has over 2000 horsepower on full blast under his right foot. 2000 Horsepower! :eek: Nissan also in essence destroyed the Group A category with the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R, which was physically thrown out of the Australian, British and Japanese Touring Car Championships after nobody else could beat it.

Here, the sportscar racing gets off the ground as Group B's rallying goes bigger and bigger, and more manufacturers enter all forms of it - Group A to showcase their latest and greater road cars in racing, Group B to show off how far their road car technology is, and Group C to pioneer the newest tech they have for the future. I'm envisioning the Lancia 037 having a second life as a road racer, against the aforementioned competitors from Jaguar, Ferrari, Porsche, BMW and Nissan. Think of the DTM cars against the supercars......:cool:
 
Group A was well on the way out by the time the R32 GTR appeared. The big problem was that only one car in the field was Australian and it was uncompetitive after 1986 and the homologation production criteria were too high for Australian conditions. Our final Group A Commodore didn't come out until the VN model was replaced, only 302 of the 500 were built and finished 2nd at Bathurst a lap behind the winning GTR. In the end the GTR drivers were booed on the podium.
 
Group A was well on the way out by the time the R32 GTR appeared. The big problem was that only one car in the field was Australian and it was uncompetitive after 1986 and the homologation production criteria were too high for Australian conditions. Our final Group A Commodore didn't come out until the VN model was replaced, only 302 of the 500 were built and finished 2nd at Bathurst a lap behind the winning GTR. In the end the GTR drivers were booed on the podium.

Perhaps that was the case in Australia (fighting with a big V8-engined, four-door Commodore isn't helpful, it's really fighting with one hand tied behind your back, and even Peter Brock's best efforts couldn't fix that) but the GT-R was canned or moved into the GT categories in other series because of its speed. It, the BMW M3 and Ford Sierra Cosworth got so good that they destroyed the competition. It got canned in Japan in 1992 for the same reason - its competition (Toyota Supra, Mazda RX-7, Nissan 300ZX/Fairlady Z and Mitsubishi Galant) couldn't keep up, either.

I'm more thinking that here the GT-R goes into the Group B category on the racetracks and leaves the Group A racing to stuff like the Supra and 300ZX. I better write up the Group B racetrack series, which I envisioned kicking off in 1988......
 
Personally, I liked Group A, I like when manufacturers make homologation specials. The problem was with turbo equivilency factors, homologation numbers in the Australian context and Ford Aus dropping their V8.
 
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