The History of the World Rally Championship:1975

1975 started with a lot of promise.

The oil crisis was over and for once there appeared to be two teams eager to do battle over the whole series for victory. Lancia had the better car, but Fiat had the numbers. So it could have been a classic year, but alas it was not to be. Instead of a battle across the world on the special stages, the championship was decided in an Italian boardroom.

The first event of the year showed that the Stratos was going to be the car to beat. Leaving Renault Alpines and Fiats in his wake, Sandro Munari drove his green and white car to victory in Monte Carlo. The Lancia then showed its all rounder abilities in the next two rounds when, driven by Lancia's own Swede Bjorn Waldegarde, the Swedish rally was wrestled away from the Saabs, whilst only a failure of its Pirelli tires kept Munari's Stratos from first place in the Safari.

The Lancias failed in Greece and didn't go to Moroccan, whilst the Fiats missed the Acropolis and broke in Africa, where victories for Peugeot and Opel marked the further demise of the once all-conquering Renault Alpines. Battle between the Italian giants should have resumed in Portugal, but unfortunately politics got in the way.


Fiat had actually bought Lancia in 1969, but until now the brand was allowed to do its own its own thing. However Turin now decided that Lancia had had enough of the limelight and they were told not to go to Portugal. The Fiats walked to victory and only the mathematical chance that Renault Alpine could clinch the title allowed Lancia to go to Sanremo and Corsica. The Stratos reaffirmed its mastery on twisty tarmac and notched up two more victories.

The RAC, the final round of the year was the foggy RAC which was another Ford benefit with Timo Makinen's Allied Polymer Escort RS1800 narrowly beating Roger Clark's Cossack version. Most of the fastest stage times though were set by Waldegarde's Stratos. Victory was denied the Swede after the car stopped in the forest. Lancia mechanics got him going again, but without the car's rear bodywork. Servicing on a stage was illegal, and as well as having an immodestly displayed engine the car now had no brake lights, indicators or rear number plates, so exclusion was inevitable, but Bjorn's performance in the howling beast created another Stratos legend.

So the year ended with triumph for Lancia, although with the addition of fuel injection for Sanremo the Fiat Abarth's were now almost as quick. No other team seemed willing to challenge the Italians. Peugeot stuck to the endurance events, Saab to Scandanavia and Britain whilst Ford's tentative attempt at competition outside of Finland and the UK turned into a fiasco when the Dunlop tire truck broke down on the way to Sanremo. The Italians would appear to be going to have it their own way for a while longer.