The 10 forgotten Group B cars

Every car enthusiast and specifically rally fan have heard about Group B rallying. Many people call it the Golden era of rallying, but when it comes to cars - everyone thinks about the Audi quattro S1, Lancia 037 and S4, Ford RS200, Peugeot 205 T16 and so on…Here are some of the forgotten legends in the most limitless rally group ever. Some competed and some unfortunately only remained as prototypes because of the Group B’s short running period.

Ferrari 288 GTO

The Ferrari GTO was built to compete in the new Group B Race series and a minimum of 200 cars were required for homologation. However, after the death of Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto in the 1986 Tour de Corse, the FIA disestablished the class, leaving just the Group A Rally championship. As a result, the 288 GTO never raced and all 272 cars built remained purely road cars.

Ford Escort RS 1700T

The Ford Escort RS 1700T was a prototype RWD car designed by Ford Motor Company in 1980 to compete in Group B rallying. Prototypes were based on the MKIII Escort and featured a Cosworth developed 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produced over 300 bhp (224 kW) maximum power. Also a prototype with a 2.4 litre Hart engine (derived from a Formula Two unit) was tested in 1982. Persistent problems during the vehicle’s development prompted Ford to drop plans for its production and instead begin work on an all-wheel-drive model to beat the Audi Quattro, designed and built from scratch, resulting in the famous RS200.

Mazda RX-7

Mazda wanted no part of the Group B class. Early efforts by Rod Millen and Timo Salonen seemed to be ignored. Achim Warmbold aimed to get their attention by creating Mazda Rally Team (MRT), but Mazda headquarters appeared to ignore it. Several drivers competed in group B RX7s. Ingvar Carlsson placed 3rd in the 1985 Rally Acropolis for MRT. Achim Warmbold managed to place 6th at that rally as well. Mazda did notice these results, but instead of backing the Group B RX7s, they decided to put their effort behind a group A 323.

Mitsubishi Starion

An all wheel drive version of the Starion was produced for Group B specifications (one of the few Japanese automobile manufacturers to enter this class), but after an encouraging start as a prototype, it was not homologated before the FIA banned Group B cars for safety reasons. The Starion was converted to all wheel drive by adding a strengthened transfer case from a Pajero behind the transmission.

Nissan Silvia

Nissan had had success in motorsports for many years. In 1982 it took a great leap from the 280ZX rally cars of the 1970s into the world of Group B rally. The Nissan 240RS (chassis code BS110) was developed for Group B. It was powered by a 2.4L DOHC engine also known as the FJ20. Power was transfered to the rear wheels using a Nismo competition trasnmission.
The 240RS was powered by a new engine developed for Group B. The bore and stroke was increased from the popular 2.0 liter FJ20 engine (89mm bore / 80mm stroke), to 2.4L (92mm bore / 88mm stroke) to be known as the FJ24. The FJ24 is unique among the FJ Family in that it used a Twin Webber carburator fueling setup instead of Electronic fuel injection.

Opel Manta

Opel’s rally program had a small measure of success, but the rally effort wasn’t as serious as the efforts of some of the other Group B contenders. The Group 4 Ascona 400, with Walter Röhrl driving, won the 1982 driver’s championship, even though Röhrl only won two rallies during the season. The Manta 400 succeeded the Ascona. It was back in 1981 when the futuristic Manta 400 was first seen in the UK driven by Tony Fall. At this time he was watching Jimmy McRae in his Ascona 400 and Fall was confident he would have the Manta in competition in a few months. It took until May 1st, 1983 before FISA gave the official stamp, no.

Porsche 959

Porsche built a Group B twin-turbo 959, the first 4WD Porsche. It never actually competed in a Group B rally event, although it was successful in the Paris- Dakar Rally, with 959s finishing 1-2 in the 1986 event. The support car was a 928-engined Merc G-Wagen.

BMW M1

The BMW M1 first competed at world championship level on the 1983 Tour of Corsica, the same event as Lancia’s 037. Driven by Bernard Béguin, it produced 430Bhp from it’s 3.5l 6cyl engine, and weighed 1150kg. The car was run by the ORECA team and sponsored by BMW & Motul. The car retired from the event but went on to score two second places, one on the 1983 Lyon-Charbonnieres rally and another at the Antibes rally. Main problems with the car were reliability and size. It was a good twenty cm wider than anything else competing at the time. The car never competed on a gravel event.

Mitsubishi Lancer 2000 Turbo

After a successful number of rallies including a Lancer GSR 1600 1-2-3-4 finish in the Safari Rally, Mitsubishi took three years away from the WRC to develop the Lancer 2000 Turbo. Mitsubishi and its Austria Distributor Denzel AG jointly developed the Lancer 2000 Rally Turbo as a Group 4 car. With the help of Andrew Cowan and Ralliart the Lancer 2000 Turbo was prepared to compete as a Group B car. The turbocharged Lancer fully utilized the light, highly rigid non-turbo Lancer body boasting its turbocharged power plant and heavy-duty suspension resulting in very high performance and stability.

Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo TA 64

The Celica twin-cam turbo was Toyota’s choice to enter the World Rally Championship when they decided to take a run at the title. The Celica’s major handicap was its lack of four-wheel-drive, however, the car was well-built and fairly straightforward to maintain. The engine produced about 290 horsepower (which later grew to 370 as the evolution versions were released), and it had a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout.

Source: Google, Wikipedia and Groupbrally.com