Ford versus Fiat take three, and this time the blue oval is out for revenge.
Ford lost in '77 mainly through poor tarmac performance and so spent '78 putting together the most awesome tarmac Escort ever. Industrial action had stopped them trying it out in Corsica and Sanremo, so it was first unveiled on the 1979 Monte Carlo.
Group 4 rules were fairly flexible about such things as suspension mounting points and Ford had bent the rules as much as they dared putting their new car together. What exactly they did is still a little controversial but it appears they moved the rear axle several inches forwards and the engine a few inches back whilst shifting everything they could into the boot. The result was a car that has the weight distribution of something mid engined like a Stratos.
Boreham had also rung some more power out of the BDA engine, so the car may have had more power than a Stratos too. Fitted with extra wide arches and piloted by Waldegard and Mikkola, it looked like the team was going to do what no British team had done since the minis in sixties. The question was though, was it going to be a rerun of 1967 - or of 1966.
Fiat were back hopeful that the fiasco of the previous year would not be repeated. Alen and Rohrl had been joined by previous winner Andruet and the 131 was supreme on pace noted tarmac, or so they thought.
Instead the Escorts, led by a charging Mikkola, started to walk off with the event.
But the French were not going to let the British team have it their own way. First the local police reported Mikkola for dangerous overtaking. No rally officials had witnessed the incident but never-the-less the rally authorities hit Mikkola with a five minute penalty, which cost him the lead. Waldegard then took over and looked set for victory when, as first car on the road on the penultimate stage, he came round the corner and found spectators had put rocks on the road. He estimated he lost about half a minute moving them.
The benefactor of this sabotage, save to say, was a Frenchman. Darniche in his private Stratos had been having a dreadful rally until he decided on the last night to throw caution to the wind. Making some risky tire choices he drove in uncharacteristically reckless fashion but somehow managed to stay on the road and was gaining on Waldegarde at about 3 seconds a mile.
He entered the last stage only 15 seconds behind the Ford, but thanks to the French spectators he came out 6 seconds ahead to give the old Stratos an unlikely fourth Monte victory.
Fiat were well and truly beaten, and as well as loosing the Group 4 battle they also lost a Group 2 battle between Ford's new Fiesta and Fiat's Ritmo (known to us Brits as the Strada). The Fiesta effort was a serious business, with works drivers Clark and Vatanen driving performance versions of the hatchback which eventually formed the basis of the XR2. Off stage delays though eventually gave the Group 2 win to Ragnotti's pocket rocket Renault 5 Alpine.
Fiat sent a single car to Sweden where, in more familiar Ford territory, they were again shown a clean pair of heels. Young Ari Vatanen looked like taking a maiden victory until the old Escort head gasket problem reappeared, and so instead the winner was once again Stig Blomqvist, this time in the whispering Saab 99 Turbo, the first victory for a turbo rally car. That man Waldegard was second again.
Fiat had an unsuccessful crack at the Safari and then threw in the towel. That pretty much took the wind out of the series. The only threats the Ford team faced for the rest of the year were Darniche in the fast but fragile Stratos and Timo Salonen in the steady and reliable Group 2 Datsun.
Darniche managed to get his nose in front in Portugal and Greece only to have the car fall apart on him, although he did manage to win in Corsica against minimal opposition. Salonen managed a series of steady performances but never looked to be challenging for outright victory. A slight shadow fell over the team in New Zealand where the cars were hastily withdrawn whilst Salonen was a comfortable second. Later it was confessed they had been running over sized valves in a futile attempt to catch the Fords.
With the Makes battle pretty much in the bag attention turned to the inaugural World Rally Championship for Drivers. Top Ford men Waldegard and Mikkola were to be head to head all season but in an unusual twist both men were not only contracted to Ford but Mercedes, so for the endurance rounds they swapped their Rothmans Escorts for big silver Mercedes and continued their duel across Africa.
Mercedes arrived on the WCR in typically understated fashion. After winning a marathon in South America in 1978 (and displaying the still dirty cars at the Motor Show) they attacked the African events of 1979 with a logistics back up that would not have disgraced one of Rommel's Panzer Divisions. However local knowledge, and a bit of luck, saw Safari victory go to Shekhar Mehta and his tough old Datsun 160J.
In the Ivory Coast though Mercedes were racing only themselves. The Drivers title though was still up for grabs. Waldegard notvhed up a third second place in Portugal, but finally tasted the champagne in Greece. But Mikkola was catching up with wins in Portugal, New Zealand, Quebec and on the RAC.
Mikkola eventually brought his Mercedes home first, but Waldegard held on for second which was enough to give him the title. It seemed a little unfair that with four victories to his rival's two Mikkola should be defeated, but Waldegard was possibly the greatest all rounder that rallying has ever seen, able to win on tarmac, gravel or snow, in Europe or in Africa, and he was a worthy champion.
Fiat had been well and blown into the weeds. Alen had driven a magnificent rally on the 1000 Lakes to prove that on home soil he was still the top Finn, but the only other outing of the team was in Sanremo where they were beaten by a private Stratos - giving the venerable car, officially retired last year, its third victory of the year.
It had been a triumphant year for Ford, but it was the swansong for the Boreham team's Escorts. The old rear wheel drive car was being replaced by by a front wheel drive model and so the old RS was being retired.
Old many of the cars indeed were, at least according to their number plates. Ford had not actually been able to register a new chassis since 1976 which meant that for the RAC the works cars needed MOTs. However as Ford regarded body shells as service items there wasn't a lot original in these machines.
Boreham had lots of bits left over though, and they were given to David Sutton to play with. We were going to see a lot more of the old Escort yet.
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