An event never to be forgotten: Hannu Mikkola shocked the world in the new Audi Quattro beating everyone by minutes on the snowy first stages until he crashed. Then Jean-Luc Thérier in the Porsche took the lead until he also crashed on the descend of the Col de Turini. After that Ragnotti took over and won the event. Although the Renault 5 Turbo was running in Group 4 for the first three years it is often seen as a precursor of the Group B "supercars". Read more … Renault 5 Turbo - 1981 - Gr. 4
US boy John Buffum was a regular guest in Europe and his only European event in 1980 was on the RAC Rally driving a Triumph TR7 works car. Buffum was lying eleventh overall for a long time until his gearbox seized on the last of the 67 special stages. Read more … Triumph TR7 V8 - 1978 - Gr. 4
After Mercedes Benz stopped their official involvement in rallying in 1981 the German team "Scuderia Kassel" continued to enter these big Mercedes in German events. In 1982 and 1983 the silver coloured Mercedes 500 SL with registration number KS-CC 250 was an inherent part of the German scene, driven by Austrian Sepp Haider and either Peter Diekmann or Jörg Pattermann as co-drivers. On the Deutschland Rally which was not a round of the German Championship they were sponsored by Liqui Moly and came second overall. Read more … Mercedes 500 SL - 1982 - Gr. 4
With their little 2-stroke engine, the Wartburgs could not do a great deal against the western teams and thus, on the 1979 RAC Rally, Winfried Heitzmann and Bernd Fromann came 72nd overall some 3 hours and 38 minutes behind the winner, Hannu Mikkola in his Escort RS1800. Normally, when it came to scoring class wins in those small engine capacity categotl_files/images/Info-Nennungen/Braune_Wartburg_353_WR-alt.JPGries, the Wartburgs were always in the running but on the RAC, the smallest class was up to 1,300cc and was won by a Vauxhall Chevette. Read more … Wartburg 353 WR – 1979 Gr. 1
Alongside its intensive racing programme of the early 1970s, BMW also ran an official rally team and had some success with drivers like Rauno Aaltonen and Achim Warmbold. One of the biggest victories came on the 1972 Portugal Rally, a second important one was on the Austrian Alpine in 1973. Shortly afterwards BMW scrapped the rally programme and only concentrated on touring car races. Read more … BMW 2002 - 1972 - Gr. 2
As none of the old works cars survived until today, Hans Peter Lohmann simply rebuilt one with the help of the old Wartburg works drivers Hermann Hanf and Egon Culmbacher. This is the only Wartburg 311 rally car that exists today. All the old works car were transformed back to ordinary road cars and sold to customers. Read more … Wartburg 311 – 1964 – Gr. 2
