The darkest era of WRC: The ban of Group B
WARNING: The shown video footage is not for the faint-hearted. Don’t watch them, if you’re uncertain about it.
For a start, a brief explanation of Group B, although most people might already know all about it. The era of Group B rallying began in 1982 with RWD cars such as the Lancia 037.
Those cars were extremely powerful and light at the same time. The 037 for example weighed only 980kg while having up to 350hp and even though that doesn’t sound that excessive by today’s standards, you have to keep in mind that those cars were driving on narrow gravel roads through forests. With the introduction of All-Wheel-Drive in Group B, starting with the Audi Quattro S1 in 1984, the cars got even faster. Maybe the fastest of all of them was the Peugeot 205 T16, winning the championship in 1985 and 1986. But after 2 very serious accidents in 1986, Group B ended out of a sudden.
Actually, I’m not here to talk about how amazing Group B was. I’m here to talk about whether it was the right decision to ban it.
When reading posts and comments about Group B here on CT, I always get the feeling most people blame the FISA (former name of FIA) for banning those cars. The intention of my post is getting those people to think about it a bit more, because in my honest opinion, the ban was absolutely justified.
The crash in Portugal
The first of the two crashes, that led to Group B’s sudden end, was this one in Portugal 1986. The Portuguese driver Joaquím Santos lost the rear end of his Ford RS200 and simply wasn’t able to catch it again. So he ploughed through the crowd of spectators, killing three of them (not four as said in the video) and injuring more than 30 people. After this crash, most people blamed the spectators for standing on the outside of a dangerous corner and they are partly right. But there’s more to it than just people standing in the wrong place. Having lots of spectators around the track was always normal in rallying and neither before Group B nor after has there ever been a similar crash. As in most cases the initial reason for the crash was a driving mistake, but the cars were so unbelievably fast and hard to control, that he had almost no reaction time after the first loss of traction. And this is exactly my main argument for the ban. The suspension simply couldn’t keep up with the rapid increasement in power. While most drivers loved the way the cars felt, almost noone of them was denying how difficult they were to drive. Although that was a part of the spectacle, the engineers simply went one step too far, creating an unbelievable amount of unnecessary risks for both, drivers and spectators.
Toivonen’s crash at the Tour de Corse 1986
Only two months later at the Tour de Corse on the island of Corsica, the next fatal accident happened. The Finnish driver Henri Toivonen lost control of his Lancia Delta S4 and fell down a steep slope, crashing into some trees. The car instantly started to burn and both, Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto, died at the scene of the crash. It’s still unknown what actually made Toivonen lose control, but it’s clearly visible that those cars were driving fire hazards. This is the second reason, why the cars weren’t safe enough in my opinion. Yes, the crash alone would have been enough to kill them, but a race car shouldn’t burst into flames in the case of an impact. After this accident, the FISA quickly decided to ban Group B from participating in any WRC race ever again.
What is left of Group B today?
However, for homologation reasons, Group B brought us some of most extreme street-legal cars of all times. Those monsters on wheels are one of the reasons Group B will never be forgotten.
A little surprise at the end
Few people know that Daihatsu build a prototype for their own Group B entry, but sadly the ban thwarted their plans. The Daihatsu DeTomaso Charade 926R was powered by a mid-mounted 926cc inline-3 delivering 118hp. The car featured an RWD layout and weighed just about 800kg. I bet the homologation model would have been an unbelievable experience to drive.
So, what is your opinion on the ban? Was it rightful or exaggerated?
Comments
Huskbaru (Sled dog) (Gaming squad) (Furry Squad) here’s the blog post I spoke of
Musclecarlover7 (510 squad) (Furry squad) Since I know you’re a rally fan, I thought I’d tag you
I think it was totally justified, but there’s no denying that it was sad to see it go
Exactly what I’m thinking. I love those cars, they are amazing machines, but they were simply too dangerous
The fact of the matter is that they were simply too dangerous. Motorsport has always had a high mortality rate and thanks to Jackie Stewart, motorsport was slowly turning into a sport in which one will be able to survive a crash, unfortunately, Group B had to go as a result
As sad as it is, but they’ve simply overdone it. There’s always a risk in motorsport and it has to stay that way, but the mortality rate at that time was just absurd.
The ban is still highly exageratted, why we dont ban WRC then? People still stand in the outer part of the corners, get plowed by the rally cars and yet no ban comes because the cars are underpowered and modern…i think they could do a comeback on this era since we need it more than ever
They’re still a lot safer than Group B. Even comparing an early 90s F1 car to a later modern F1 car. In the 20 year old one, you can punch through the body while driving, on the modern one, you can have a head on crash with the wall and walk away. Group B was a classic case of being too overpowered for the rest of the car, if we had that sort of power to weight ratio difference today, they’d brake much better, handle much more predictably and will be survivable in a crash that would’ve ended in instant death in the 80s
It’s not really their speed, it’s their handling. Suspensions have improved extremely in those 30 years. Since this year WRC is nearly as fast as it was during group B but those cars don’t do silly things. They steer into the direction they are supposed to steer, instead of being a gamble whether you’ll make the turn or fall off the cliff. And the fire hazard was just incredible. Those cars had side mounted tanks made out of thin aluminium. In the event of a side impact, the tanks were the first thing to hit it. Suddenly compressing a tank full of racing fuel isn’t really a good thing to do
I agree the ban was perfectly justified. The cars were spectacular and incredibly fast but they were simply too dangerous..
This was great, thank you for the lesson.
Ultimately it was the lack of safety in both the cars and track side planning what lead to the ban. Quite simply the development rate of the cars and their outright speed was higher than the development of crash structure. It was well known that the front of the cars were just metal tubing and nothing else in the quest for lightness which gave it more speed but meant the crumple zones were the drivers and co-drivers knees. That was completely the fault of FISA at the time and the main reasons why the drivers started making a fuss which lead to the ban.
What you need to understand is a modern WRC car is quicker than a Group B car over a rally stage (Group B has the legs on the straights but modern rubber and suspension means the WRC car is quicker everywhere else and can brake much later despite the extra weight. Its also so much safer yet accidents still happen (look at Monte-Carlo where a spectator died when he got hit by a car).
FISA were completely correct in banning Group B as they couldn’t guarantee safety in events with these cars as they were setup.
P.S I love rally, been to a few WRC events and had the honour to meet a few drivers and drive 2 mad cars from that time- a Matra GTE and the bonkers Metro 6R4. Not bashing on your article, just giving my 2 cents :-)
You’re right there. This year the cars are almost as fast as they were in group B (by fast I mean acceleration, I know the modern cars are faster in the corners) and it has already started a new discussion about them being too fast. But this time I don’t see the reasoning behind that. The modern cars have extremely good suspension setups and are easily controllable compared to group B. And yes, these days it’s actually even forbidden to stand on the outside of corners but that can’t prevent every single crash, especially when people are simply ignoring it.
Group B teached us an important lesson. Stability>power. That’s why Group A was a true hero, nit Group B
Group B was still amazing though. I really love some of those cars, but it was a stupid move to increase power while not being able to improve the suspension. With the massive suspension travel that’s necessary for rallying, the suspension had to be a lot too soft and spongy. Driving at high speeds while barely having any grip at all doesn’t seem very appealing to me :D
I mean sure the cars were death traps, but you can’t ignore the spectators’ complete stupidity in regards to where they were standing on the track! That was extremely dangerous.