1985 World Rally Championship
The 1985 World Rally Championship was the 13th season of the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile World Rally Championship. The season consisted of 12 rallies following the schedule as the previous season. Peugeot Sports Timo Salonen beat Audi Sports Stig Blomqvist and Walter Röhrl to the drivers title, Peugeot won their first manufacturers title, ahead of Audi and Lancia. Peugeot Talbot Sport, having made a successful entry to the Group B with their new Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 car. At the Swedish Rally, Vatanen won again, establishing himself as the favorite for a drivers title. A disaster struck in May at the Tour de Corse, on the 4th stage of the rally, Italian driver Attilio Bettega crashed his Lancia 037 into a tree and was killed instantly. His co-driver Maurizio Perissinot survived the crash uninjured, the crash raised questions about the safety aspects of Group B cars. Ironically, exactly one year at the same event Henri Toivonen suffered a fatal accident forcing FIA to ban Group B. Unfortunately, Vatanen had an accident in Argentina while speeding down a long.
The flimsy exterior of the car shattered, but the strong rollcage absorbed most of the impact, the drivers were airlifted to hospital by Peugeots helicopter, and Vatanens injuries were severe and seemed life-threatening. Although he would recover and return to the sport, the Peugeot team was forced to turn to its other driver, Salonen had already taken the points lead and finished with the drivers championship on the strength of five rally wins. Audi Sport faced the pressure of Peugeots strong 205 car in competition. With the danger of Group B rally becoming a more publicized issue, while both Stig Blomqvist and Walter Röhrl were retained as drivers, they suffered generally at the hands of the Peugeot team although they would ultimately place second and third respectively. Their season however only included a rally win between them, with Röhrls triumph at Sanremo proving to be Audis last Group B victory in the World Rally Championship. The Lancia Martini teams season was an even greater disappointment than Audis, the rear-wheel drive Lancia Sport 037 met with little success, even in the hands of such drivers as Markku Alén, Massimo Biasion, and Henri Toivonen.
Toivonen would suffer an accident, breaking three vertebrae in his neck early on and missing most of the season, the team awaited the arrival of the Delta S4, a four-wheel-drive car, hoping it would give them a competitive advantage. Arriving for the rally of the season, the RAC Rally, it succeeded in collecting the victory. Austin Rallying made its entrance to the scene with the new MG Metro 6R4 and its 3. 0L V6 engine
Renault Dauphine
Along with such cars as the Volkswagen Beetle, Morris Minor and Fiat 500, the Dauphine pioneered the modern European economy car. Lefaucheux instead saw Renaults survival in automobiles and achieved success with the 4CV. The Dauphine was born during a conversation with Lefaucheux and engineer Fernand Picard, the two agreed the 4CV was appropriate in its postwar context, but that French consumers would soon need a car appropriate for their increasing standard of living. Internally known as Project 109 the Dauphines engineering began in 1949 with engineers Fernand Picard, Robert Barthaud and Jacques Ousset managing the project. A1951 survey conducted by Renault indicated design parameters of a car with a top speed of 110 km/h, seating for four passengers, the survey indicated that women held stronger opinions about a cars colors than about the car itself. Engineers spent the five years developing the Dauphine. Having largely finalized the design, testing of the prototype began at Renaults facilities at Lardy, France – by secrecy of night.
Engineers tested parts by subjecting them to twisting and vibration stresses, by August 1953 head engineer Picard had an almond-green prototype delivered to Madrid for dry condition testing, ultimately experiencing only five flat tires and a generator failure after 2,200 km. Subsequently, Lefaucheux ordered engineers to test a Dauphine prototype directly against a Volkswagen Beetle, the engineers determined that noise levels were too high, interior ventilation and door sealing were inadequate and most importantly, the engine capacity was insufficient at only four CV. The four-cylinder engine was redesigned to increase its capacity to 845 cc by increasing the bore to 58 mm, giving the car a new informal designation, by 1954 a second series of prototypes incorporated updates, using the older prototypes for crash testing. Lefaucheux followed the testing carefully, often meeting with his engineers for night testing to ensure secrecy, but did not live to see the Dauphine enter production. He was killed in an accident on February 11,1955.
The Flins factory was renamed in his honor, and he was succeeded on the project by Pierre Dreyfus, a monument in Lefaucheuxs memory is erected at the Saint-Dizier highway exit, Haute-Marne 52100. In December 1955, Pierre Bonin and Fernand Picard presented the first example to leave the factory to Pierre Dreyfus, advance press preview testing began on February 4,1956, under the direction of Renault press secretary Robert Sicot, with six Dauphines shipped to Corsica. Journalists were free to drive anywhere on the island, while under contract not to release publication before the date of March 1,1956. In addition to its internal project number, Project 109, the prototype had been called by its model designation. Lefaucheux, Renaults chairman, often called it La machine de Flins. Dauphine is the form of the French feudal title of Dauphin
Colin McRae
Colin Steele McRae, MBE was a British rally driver from Scotland, born in Lanark. McRaes outstanding performance with the Subaru World Rally Team enabled the team to win the World Rally Championship Constructors title three times in succession in 1995,1996 and 1997 and he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to motorsport in 1996. McRae died in 2007 when he crashed his helicopter near his home, the accident killed his son and two family friends. In November 2008 he was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame. McRae was married to Alison, and had two children and Johnny, McRae moved to the principality of Monaco in 1995, partly through his friendship with David Coulthard. However, as his family grew up, he spent more time back at his home in Lanarkshire—accepting the higher tax liability of living in Scotland. The couple bought the 17th century Jerviswood House, Colin McRae began his competitive career in motorsport riding trial bikes at an early age, despite being more interested in four wheeled machines rather than two wheel bikes.
At the age of sixteen, through the Coltness Car Club, McRae discovered autotesting, he traded his bike for a Mini Cooper. A year later, he began to negotiate with another member to use his Hillman Avenger for the Kames Stages. McRae finished the event fourteenth, first in his class although he had run most of the event in a higher position. In 1986, driving a Talbot Sunbeam, McRae entered the Scottish Rally Championship and soon made a name for himself with his speed and his driving style drew many comparisons to Finnish ex-World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, whom McRae had always idolised. In 1988 he performed a giant-killing act when he took the Scottish Rally Championship series crown in a humble Vauxhall Nova, craving more power, his next car was a Ford Sierra XR 4x4. His first WRC event was the 1987 Swedish Rally behind the wheel of his Nova, that year, he finished 5th overall at Rally New Zealand in a rear wheel drive Sierra Cosworth. By 1990 McRae was driving a Sierra Cosworth 4x4 and achieved sixth place in that years RAC Rally,1991 saw McRae turn professional as he was signed by Prodrive boss David Richards to his Subaru team in the British Rally Championship for an annual wage of approximately £10,000.
McRae was British Rally Champion in both 1991 and 1992, soon graduating to the Subaru factory team at World Rally Championship level. 1992 saw Colin McRae make his début in the British Touring Car Championship, in the second of the two races of the event, McRae collided with Matt Neal. Race officials found McRae to have caused a collision and subsequently disqualified him. On his promotion for 1993, McRae initially drove the Prodrive-built Group A Subaru Legacy alongside Finns Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola, McRae won his first WRC rally in the car at that years Rally New Zealand
Lancia Rally 037
The Lancia Rally was a mid-engine sports car and rally car built by Lancia in the early 1980s to compete in the FIA Group B World Rally Championship. Driven by Markku Alén, Attilio Bettega, and Walter Röhrl and it was the last rear-wheel drive car to win the WRC. In 1980 Lancia began designing the 037 to comply with the new FIA Group B regulations that allowed cars to race with relatively few homologation models being built, as the project was number 037, this eventually became the name by which the car was known. Abarth, now a part of the Lancia-Fiat family, did most of the design work, the car was born from the collaboration between Pininfarina, Abarth and the project manager, engineer Sergio Limone. Prior to its first participation in the 1982 World Rally Championship season,200 road-going models were built to comply with Group B regulations. The car made its debut at the 1982 Rally Costa Smeralda in Italy. The 1982 season was plagued with retirements for the 037, both drivers, missed the final round of the series, despite Röhrl maintaining a mathematical chance of the drivers title, such honours instead went to Audis veteran Finn, Hannu Mikkola.
Driver Attilio Bettega died in a 037 crash in 1985, antónio Rodrigues won the 1984 Falperra International Hill Climb. For approval in Group B it was necessary to build at least 200 road versions of the model in question, Pininfarina production records show 220 cars built under the Montecarlo Corsa name. Steel subframes were used fore and aft of the production car center section, the mid-engined layout of the Montecarlo was retained, but the engine was turned 90 degrees from a transverse position to a longitudinal position. This allowed greater freedom in the design of the suspension and while moving engine weight forward. An independent double wishbone suspension was used on both the front and rear axles, with shock absorbers in the rear in order to cope with the stresses of high speed off road driving. Unlike its predecessor, the V6-powered Lancia Stratos HF, the first 037s had a 2.0 liter 4-cylinder supercharged engine, Lancia chose a supercharger over a turbocharger to eliminate turbo lag and improve throttle response.
Initially power was quoted at 265 hp but with the introduction of the Evolution 1 model power jumped to 300 with the help of water injection. The final Evolution 2 model produced 325 hp thanks to a displacement increase to 2,111 cc.60 and 0.60 and 0, the Worlds Most Exotic Sports Cars, Super Cars
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments.
Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands.
The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
1973 World Rally Championship
The 1973 World Rally Championship was the inaugural season for the Fédération Internationale de lAutomobile World Rally Championship format. It consisted of 13 events, each held in a different country of the world. Many of the events would be staples of the series through to today, including Monte Carlo, Tour de Corse, as with following seasons, gravel events formed the majority of the schedule. Two pure tarmac and one snow and ice rally were included, the first award of the Championship for Manufacturers was firmly won by Alpine-Renault, which had already gained fame competing for the earlier International Championship for Manufacturers. Fiat successfully placed second ahead of challenger Ford, but could not seriously challenge the winning Alpine, this would prove to be the last award for the Alpine, as it gave way in subsequent years to Italian firms Lancia and Fiat. A French manufacturer would not regain the Championship again until Peugeot successfully captured the 1985 World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, from 1973 to 1978, the WRC only awarded a season championship for the winning manufacturer.
Scoring was given for the highest placing entry for each manufacturer, thus if a particular manufacturer was to place 2nd, 4th, and 10th, they would receive points for 2nd place only. However, the manufacturer would still gain an advantage in scoring from its other entries, for the first ever World Rally Championship, there were thirteen rallies. Positions in parentheses did not count to championship totals 1973 in sports FIA World Rally Championship 1973 at rallybase. nl
Lancia Delta S4
The Lancia Delta S4 is a Group B rally car from the Italian car company Lancia. The car replaced, and was an evolution of, the Lancia 037, the S4 took full advantage of the Group B regulations, and featured a midship-mounted engine and all-wheel drive for superior traction on loose surfaces. The cars 1,759.3 cc four-cylinder engine combined supercharging and turbocharging to reduce turbo lag at low engine speeds, the car produced a maximum output of 480 horsepower, but some sources even claim that the Delta S4 was capable of producing 500 horsepower. In 1985, Lancia engineers tested an S4 engine under extreme conditions, reaching 5 bars boost, developing around 1000 horsepower. An engine capacity multiple of 1.4 was applied to forced induction engines by the FIA and the choice of 1,759 cc put the S4 in the under 2,500 cc class, which allowed for a minimum weight of 890 kg. The combined super/turbocharger system was a development of the 037 engine that produced 350 hp with a supercharger only.
Like Peugeots earlier 205 T16, the mid-engine Lancia Delta S4 was a Delta in name and body styling only, the chassis was a tubular space frame construction much like the 037. It featured long travel double wishbone front and rear, with a single large coil over at the front and separate spring. The bodywork was made of a fibre composite with front and rear bodywork fully detachable for fast replacement due to accident damage. The door construction style was brought from the 037 with a hollow shell all-Kevlar construction that had no inner door skin, the door was opened with a small loop and the windows were fixed perspex with small sliding panels to allow some ventilation and passing of time cards and suchlike. The all-wheel drive system, developed in cooperation with English Hewland, the Group S Lancia ECV was to replace the Delta S4 in the 1987 season but Group S was scrapped along with Group B and Lancia used the production-derived Delta in 1987. The method of turbocharging and supercharging an engine is referred to as twincharging, the Delta S4 was the first such example of this technology.
Contemporary turbochargers were inefficient, as they did not produce boost at low RPMs and this phenomenon, known as turbo lag, negatively affects driveability, an important aspect of a rally car. Superchargers do not suffer from lag as they are powered directly from the engines crankshaft, because of this direct mechanical connection, the supercharger presents a significant parasitic load to the engine at higher RPMs. Lancia designed their system so the supercharger provides instantaneous boost in the lower RPM range. In Italy the car was priced at about 100 million Lire, five times the price of the most expensive Delta of the time, the HF Turbo. The Stradales chassis was a frame, similarly to the racing cars, built out of CrMo steel tubes and aluminium alloy for the crash structures, it was covered by epoxy. In road tune the 1.8 produced 250 PS at 6750 rpm and 291 N·m at 4500 rpm
Thierry Neuville
Thierry Neuville is a Belgian rally driver. He is currently competing in the World Rally Championship and his co-driver was Nicolas Klinger from his debut until the end of 2010. Klinger was replaced by Nicolas Gilsoul for the first 2011 IRC rally, since 2014, Neuville and Gilsoul have driven a factory-backed Hyundai i20 WRC for Hyundai Motorsport. Neuville drove a self-entered Citroën C2 at the 2010 Junior World Rally Championship, collecting a win and he competed in six rounds of the Intercontinental Rally Challenge with a semi-works Peugeot 207 S2000, scoring a 3rd place at Ypres and a 4th place at Sardinia. In 2011, Neuville competed full-time in the Intercontinental Rally Challenge and he took his first two victories in the Tour de Corse and Sanremo, resulting 5th in the standings with further 2nd, 3rd and 4th race finishes. Citroën signed Neuville for the 2012 World Rally Championship, driving all races on a Citroën DS3 WRC for the Citroën Junior Team except two for the Qatar World Rally Team.
The Belgian scored points in six races, with 4th at Alsace as his best result, Neuville joined Qatar for the 2013 season, now driving a Ford Fiesta RS WRC. He retired for the time in Rallye Monte-Carlo, after going off track on the third stage. He managed to get some points in Rally Sweden, scoring a 5th place. Then, in Mexico, he was one of the men of the rally, round 4, was disappointing, since he finished out of the points, after returning to the rally in Rally 2 after retiring from 5th place. 5th place was again for Neuville, in Argentina, came a streak of podiums which turned Neuville into the surprise driver of the season, third place in Greece and second place in Italy, Finland and Australia. At Rallye Deutschland, which Neuville considers his home rally, the Belgian was in place during the second day. But in a surprise twist, Latvala left the road and Neuville did the thing right after him. Thierry led the rally for a stage, but eventually, and in the second to last stage of the day, the next stage of the day was canceled, so the drivers entered the final two stages separated by just 0.8 seconds.
The second to last stage was won by Sordo, which left the Spaniard three seconds ahead of Neuville in the overall classification. Both gave everything in the PowerStage and Thierry eventually had a small off in the very last section of the stage and he ended in second place,53 seconds behind Sordo. At Rally Australia, Neuville was in place,25.2 seconds behind Mikko Hirvonen. With Sébastien Ogier comfortably in the lead, he needed to finish in second place overall, Hirvonen punctured in the stage, allowing Thierry to finish in second overall and second in the PowerStage
