The History of the World Rally Championship: 1985

1985, and the Group B years were to reach their peak.

Audi were world champions but Peugeot had won the last three rallies they had entered. Lancia were off the pace but putting the finishing touches to a machine that they hoped would put them back on top.

The cars were louder and faster than ever before, bedecked with wings and spitting flames. The spectators loved them and the crowds were larger and more unruly than ever before. There was trouble on the horizon, but for the moment everybody was too busy enjoying the show.

Audi were now veteran rallyists and had three World Champions in the team. Peugeot, led by current FIA boss Jean Todt, were the new kids on the block. The Quattro had a power advantage, but the 206T16 handled better. It looked like it was going to be close.

But it wasn't.

On the Monte Vatanen continued his winning ways and, depite an 8 minute penalty imposed for a complicated timing error, Rohrl was beaten for the first time since 1979. Rohrl was not a happy man complaining, like Blomqvist, that the short Quattro was so twitchy it was almost undrivable.

The final positions were Peugeot-Audi-Peugeot-Audi. It was the same story in Sweden and in Portugal it was Peugeot-Lancia-Audi, with Timo Salonen spraying the champagne as Vatanen's five rally winning run came to an end with mechanical failure.

Peugeot failed in Kenya whilst Audi stayed home and in Corsica Renault beat them into second. Then in Greece, New Zealand, Argentina and in Finland Peugeot dominated, Audi were bridesmaids and it was all over. Thanks to a Herculean effort by Walter Rohrl Audi got a token victory for the big winged S2 Sport Quattro in Italy, but it had been Peugeot's year.


In many ways it was a bit of a disappointment. What had promised to be one of the competitive years ever had turned out to be one of the most one sided. However this was more than compensated for by the spectacle of the cars themselves.

These were still old style rallies, four or five days long. The RAC Rally of that year for example took the drivers straight from the Sunday spectator stages into Wales where they completed the current route of the Rally GB without a break before heading up through Kielder Forest to Scotland.


It was an epic rally, and not surprisingly many of the top drivers fell by the wayside. What was a surprise was who that left dicing for the top places. Lancia were debuting there 038 Delta, a turbocharged and supercharged monster. Alen led until a last minute off, but behind him, and snatching victory at the last minute, was a rejuvenated Henri Toivonen. After years of lacklustre performances for Opel and in the old 037, he had finally found his winning way again.

British fans took heart at the performance of Tony Pond's little 6R4 Metro, and for a while we dreamed of success in '86. Alas they were false dreams.

But the year had not been all fun and frolics. The first sign of trouble was on the Monte when Vatanen went into the crowd. Fortunately there were no serious injuries, but the warning signs were there.



Then in Corsica tragedy struck. Attilio Bettaga died in horrific crash in his Lancia 037 Rally. Bettega was considered to be a safe driver and the 037 a safe car, so the shock was tempered by the thought that this was a one off, a piece of bad luck that wouldn't happen again soon.

But then in Argentina Ari Vatanen was seriously injured in what at the time was thought to be a career ending accident.


A popular driver who shunned fast living and toasted his victories with milk, his accident was a shock to the world of rallying. He had fallen behind Salonen in the driver's battle thanks to mechanical failures, but was still considered the fastest driver in the world and hot favourite for a second world crown.

Suddenly serious questions were being asked about the safety of Group B rallying.

Vatanen's injuries essentially gifted the World Championship to his team mate Timo Salonen. Salonen has won his first world rally for Fiat in 1977, but had then played second fiddle to Alen before driving under powered Datsun's to remarkable class wins. Wearing glasses, overweight and usually smoking a cigarette when out of the car, he was not an obvious sportsman, but he was able to tame the powerful Peugeot and won the Driver's laurels by a record margin.

With the cars not getting any slower and a flood of new manufacturers wanting to get in on the Group B rally game, 1986 looked like it was going to be very exciting indeed.