Group B documentary...

[eric (^__^)]

There was an RS200 at the PNW Historics. I forgot to take a picture! I have the RS200 matchbox car here on my desk :)

[regnu]

Group B = best rally cars ever.

[StereoInstaller1]

Gruppe B is second to Can-Am racing in my book.

Can-Am is the holy grail of auto racing.

Great post, Trey. I have really enjoyed it so far, gonna buy the DVD soon.

Luke

[TDE30]

I've always thought of Group B as the Can-Am of off-road motorsports. The amounts of power that were being made, combined with the difficulty of driving one of them, combined with the insane crowds of people standing within a foot of them when they're flying by at 80+ mph always seemed amazing to me.

I finished the whole video a few minutes ago, it really was spectacular. It increases my lust for my favorite Group B homologate, the Peugeot 215. When I move to Europeland, I'll definitely have a 205 GTI or a 206 RC, they have always seemed like cool cars with loads of Group B/WRC pedigree.

[SpecM]

thanks trey, that was great

that lancia stratos gave me a hard-on

[BeirBrennerE30]

That was awesome, thank you!

just another reason to love cars from the 80's

[ABuseO]

I dunno if any of you are interested, or if this is just a repost whatevs.

Dust to glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OtMvwwDTIM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfpmSwF0j90

[xlr8rbob]

just finished watching it.

that was great.

[dashboardmonkey]

just finished watching it.

that was great.

Great post, thank you.

Andy

[Lance Racing]

Back in '83 and '84 when ESPN was desperate for programing, if you can believe it they showed Group B rallies from around the world. They would be about 6 months delayed from the actual event.

So in the video they mention rally cross. that is basically an autocross on a dirt course. They would put 6 or 8 cars out at once. no co-drivers. The cars would get pretty beat up. Anyway, when the FIA pulled the plug on Group B, there were literally all of these Grp B cars that had no where to compete, so private competitors bought a lot of the factory Grp B cars and raced them in rally cross. Mostly in Great Britian.

The only problem with running a Grp B car as a privateer is as you can imagine they were insanely expensive to maintain. No different than a private person owning and running an old Formula 1 car.

[Lof8]

that is awesome. anyone know of a really good CanAm documentary like that?

[TDE30]

I found a few more videos, sort of a documentary/compilation of sorts. My French is rusty, but the sound of a 20V 5-cylinder Audi howling past is good enough for me.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


Part 5:


Part 6:


Part 7:


Part 8:


Part 9:


Enjoy.

[Nic01101011]

I dunno if any of you are interested, or if this is just a repost whatevs.

Dust to glory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OtMvwwDTIM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfpmSwF0j90

I saw the whole thing in the theater a couple years ago, I don't know how they could condense it to 20 minutes

[Dankula]

Group B was absolutely ridiculous.

Great find. I have it on DVD and have to watch it over and over again :p

If you guys are interested, there is another very very good Duke video out there called "Evolution of Rallying". They don't focus on any particular era a whole lot, but it's awesome to see how the sport has evolved over the years.

Ford Escorts, Lancia Stratos, Audi S1, Peugeot 205, etc. etc..

They also show some great events which are long gone now. Really too bad.

Here is a clip from the Group B era

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUqWf4VJX_Y

Rallying is amazing. Not one question about it. It's just too bad that it has become so cluttered with electronic gizmos today. Sometimes, i really wish for the old RWD days to come back :mrgreen:

[TDE30]

There you go. I agree, today's WRC is by no means weak, but it is hardly as ballsy and badass as the days of Group B. I would love to follow it though, hopefully Speed will pick it up sometime soon when the NASCAR fetish has died.