"So much power" -
Juha Kankkunen
Those were the days. Special stages were 50km+, everyone started off at 10/10ths and then by Timo Salonen's own admission, at the end they were simply trying to finish the stage. Nobody had a posh A/C caravan, they all crashed at the same hotel and the parc fermé would be a roped off car park out back.
Live crowds of 1 million spectators or more.
Nowadays we worry about cars igniting their own flatulence.
Here's an S1 from an old RAC.
Even the Evolution S1 was, frankly, the worst car in Group B. The engine was absolutely idiotically placed incorrectly -- something Subaru are guilty of to this day, incidentally -- and shortening the wheelbase meant what was previously a van was now still a van, but slightly less ponderous. Still, there was now over 1 meter of bodywork out either end of the wheels. They moved the radiators to the back to spread out the weight. Rumour had it that the thing was a bit of a truck, and years later it came out that VAG had conspired to test a correct car -- mid-engined, unlike today's Subarus I'll add once again to rub it in to our y0 WRX 4 lIf3 crowd everywhere. Röhrl drove it behind the Iron Curtain.
Anyway, you can see both the gate and the exhaust pluming in this shot.
Here's a rather animated Walter Röhrl explaining gravitational waves -- or something -- to Michele Mouton as (I believe) Hannu Mikkola and Christian Geistdörfer look on in concern.
Have a good Sunday all, I'm off to make lamb chops. Toodles!
