Group B: The Race That Killed Its Own Fans 

Henri Toivonen in an interview just before the crash: ”This is crazy. We are driving in this rally more kilometres in a day than the whole Rally Sweden. It’s not about physical fatigue, but mental. Brains do not follow.” Those were his last words.

Always wondered how much longer Group B would have lasted if they took action to fix it’s problems sooner

Rally in Portugal was insane. It was like the country stopped just for the races. My mother, the safest, calmest and most cautious person in the world, to this day says that her biggest dream is to be inside a rally car while it zooms through the road. That's how insane rally was in Portugal. One of my earliest ever memories, is being at a rally with my parents, them running just to get the perfect spot to show me the cars

One of the reasons I love group b, was that the drivers weren't rivals,well, not as much as other racing types, they all banded together to get their voices out and i find that incredible, that doesn't happen too often

God, watching those people stand so close to the track is absolutely bonkers

After Group B ended a lot of the cars were modified even further and became Rallycross monsters. I used to watch them testing at an aerodrome where I grew up and those things were shockingly fast

group B objective: 1. win 2. alive (optionable)

How those people can stand on a racetrack without worrying about the risks blows my mind

I'm portuguese, and my father went to that Portugal race when he was a teenager. He was a few curves away from where the accident happened so he didn't see it, but he still remembers seeing heavily injured people, some missing legs, when he was leaving. Rally Group B was so crazy, it's even hard to believe that it was allowed in the first place.

Hey, man! I have been watching a few of your videos, and I have to say that I appreciate what you do for your viewers. I am 51 and used to race go-karts with the likes of Bryan Herta, one or two of the Pedregon brothers, and Page Jones, and a lot has happened since then. Of course, all of them went on to do bigger and better things, with the exception of Page Jones' life changing accident. Since those days, I haven't been involved much in the racing scene, but I have tried to keep up as best as I can, so watching your videos has been a little refreshing. It has brought back some memories, good and bad, but it is obvious that you do your homework before posting. Thank you for doing this. Again, it is refreshing to watch your videos, especially to see someone much younger than I am be so involved in doing what you do. Keep up the good work, brother!

I saw this in Portugal as a teenager and I feel in love with rally. Portuguese spectators are insane!

Honestly so sad to see, group B created some of the best cars ever. Would love to see it come back.

Group B was incredible, I truly wish I would've been alive to witness it in person. I doubt there will ever be another motorsport quite like it.

Only the 2nd video of yours I've seen as I only stumbled on your channel recently and you have a new subscriber. Even though I already know the content being covered it's great to see it being covered in a different way, by a passionate fan. Keep up the great work.

Man, looking at your image as you give the narrative, you are a relatively young man and certainly wasn't around during the group B era but boy, your research is superb, impeccable,accurate,and well done. I was around and witnessed it all, collected lots of material from the Teams at the time and I can tell you, you've nailed it spot on. Good job mate!

No matter how many videos I watch about Group B, I never get bored of it. Great video!

Can confirm the crash of Joaquim Santos, one of the women i worked with on my first job is the daughter of one of Santos team meachanic and hearing her talk about it and how her father saw Santos still in shock after getting back to them was mind blowing. I can also confirm that we Portuguese are crazy about motorsport, be it Rally, Rallycross, Hillclimb, F1 or MotoGP. If it has wheels and an engine, we go crazy over it

Group B: The Race That Killed Its Own Fans Le Mans 1955: he hasnt seen nothing yet

I worked service for a friend of mine at the last Group B rally, the 1986 Olympus Rally in Tacoma Washington. But my buddy wasn't even close to a Group B driver, his car of choice was a SAAB 96 which was reaching the end of its eligibility. So the last Group B rally was also the last WRC rally for the venerable SAAB 96! Unfortunately my friend's car gave out about half-way through, regulating us to spectators. We were well aware of what had happened earlier in the year and took some precautions (made easier by the small crowds compared to Europe) but in retrospect in a couple of cases maybe not enough (though I was standing next to Steve Millen at one point so it's not like we were clueless newbies compared to everyone else, that's just the way it was. It did make for some good memories and some inside access as since we were part of the rally we had access to the drivers and other team workers that we would not have had otherwise. I also spectated at the '87 and '80 Olympus WRC rallies but they weren't the same as that 1986 race which I will never forget!

I love watching videos of Group B races. They're just so raw and visceral compared to any of their counterparts.

Rally fans haven't changed, I attended WRC Rally Croatia this year and I stood on a hill before a hairpin, a lot of people stood on the outside of a decently fast hairpin when the road was wet, a marshal came before the event started and told the people to go away but after the marshal left more and more people came back to the hairpin. There were like 30-50 people behind the guardrail of the hairpin

i absolutely love how you said exactly how it is. group B didnt have to go. they should have listened to the drivers and limited spectator contact and made safer cages.

Very good video! Thank you and congrats from a Portuguese “small” rally driver!

I just found this Channel today! Will share with my friends! This man is great, passionate historian! Truly I have learned so much from these videos and the editing is incredible! I can’t wait for the next video!!!😊

The memories I have from group B will for ever stay with me, I remember as a kid going to Sintra in Portugal 🇵🇹 with my family and see these monster cars and drivers on the narrow roads, the smells, noises and the roar of the crowds it’s too hard to describe. What a great thing it was but times change. Now to get close to this kind of experience only at the Isle of Man 🇮🇲 TT 😮

You are not the first RU-vidr to do an analysis of Group B, but I most certainly enjoyed yours more. A Razor-sharp intellect coupled with a prodigious amount of hard-core research and spiced to perfection by being a good narrator. I think you've overtaken Hunter's Moon

Your videos are true tutorials of the automotive and racing history!! Keep on the great job you're doing!

Yup, the reason why i loved rally so much. Watching group B era of rally was mesmerizing not only because the cars were fast, but also that the drivers were so skilled that they could pull off crazy corners in such fast cars driving on dirt and gravel.

Nicely presented: good energy, interesting info, excellent lack of smarm. Cheers!

Even after these gruesome incidents group B still is and will continue being remembered with fondness for the legendary cars and drivers it had

It was the most exciting but also the most tragic period of rallying.

The 80s.... Crazy times but memorable ones. Those that saw those monster cars will never forget.

My dad was at one of the group b races and told me about it. He said it gave him pure adrenaline being this close to the cars

This was a great mini doc. Thanks dude!

One thing to remember that the "Groups" were used in motorsport in general and not just rally. Group A actually competed in both rally and sports cars and Group B sport cars were also in the works from Porsche and Ferrari. It was only Group C that was purely sports prototypes which didn't get used in rally.

Group B was so exciting to watch. Fans knew the risk.

Get PayPal Honey for FREE today ▸ joinhoney.com/albon. Honey finds coupons with one click. Thanks to Honey for sponsoring this video! NOTE: PLEASE BE CAREFUL OF SCAMS IN THE COMMENTS. I will make a full RU-vid post and make a video on the second channel notifying the winner. I will not leave you a comment reply. Also, the official Albon account has a ✔️ checkmark next to it's name. Please be careful!

I'm not even into rally car racing, but I gotta say - this video was still super interesting and entertaining. I didn't know a thing about rally racing before watching this. So I learned quite a bit. If I ever was to get into racing it would be stuff like this that would be my focus. Super cool stuff that looks like it would be fun to be a part of. Thanks for making this video and sharing it with us! 👍 Have a good one and ✌️ out!

Another fantastic production Albon! Great work, thank you.

Group was the pinnacle of rally racing. It was the answer to the question" how far could we go in the ultimate pursuit of speed"?. There has never been anything like it before and after. But it came at a cost.

I would have loved to see a race just once. It looks primal.

Great video, I love the group B cars. Cool to see some deeper history about them.

Exceptional work in narrating Group B history! Well done!!

The spectators were literally 'bullfighting' the cars, I say those that got caught up got what they were looking for.

I've been preparing my wheels for paint this last days and I have to say this was one of the best videos to watch while I work on my car. Keep it up

CONGRATS ON 200K!!!

Have to say, excellent work on sifting through the minefield that was Group B rallying during the 80's. Blessings be upon you

I bleeding love rallying. You covered Group B in a much better way than others.

I love watching your videos. Thanks for the content.

Awesome storytelling, Albon!! That video was over in a blink of an eye!!

OMG finally a saab 96 in the video and a saab 99 THANK YOU i love you put them in!

I never knew anything about group B rally before this video! Albon, you made a great documentary!

You are a great story teller and I always find myself checking to see if you've uploaded. I've always wanted to know more about rally, so I appreciate you making this video

I was there when the accident took place in Portugal - the place was so packed that there were even people standing on the trees…

Nice video learned alot about rally's past.

10:35 You forgot to mention there that one major reason for his death was the rollcage since after some investigation they found out that the roll cage was made out of paper which made the car very fragile

It never gets old learning about Group B, you certainly made it even more interesting!

Legends were born in group B ! Nice video !

I remember watching the videos of those reaces... always wondered what happened that i did not see those pop up anymore.

The group B always felt like something out of this world, I was something that was meant to end. "An long joy ends in sorrow"...

You're staring to become one of my top 5 automotive youtube channels ! Great video as always

Having been to Finnish wrc rally in the 90s was so much different from today. The barrier was a plastic safety tape and if you ventured out into the woods, there were huge gaps in where no barrier existed. Now every meter of the rally stages has guardrails or guards. You can only watch from specified zones. Going to a rally stage is not as fun anymore. Its too crowded and you see better from the TV. The special stages and the mechanics area is the only place worth it, at least with how expensive the entry fees are

Group B will forever be remembered as one of the most exciting motorsports!

Imagine if group B was still around today. Wonder how it would be like

I was sad this video ended. Great video of the era! Thanks

Really good video, nice work all round

Great video surprised you didn't feature the metro 6R4 .a group B monster.

That a legend. Actually giving credit to the youtube channel the particular clip is from...Thats respectful. Every channel needs to take notes

Every video of group B gives a kind of the same info, but every group B video tickles me to watch them 20 times

Awesome cars, drivers & noise.. The greatest era of Motorsport. I will never forget those times..

I still remember the mastermind of Lancia behind them fighting the legendary audi Quattro's. Incredible stuff.

The Stratos will always be one of my favorite cars, even if it wasn't in Group B. It's like a little flying saucer for the dirt, with a cool over cabin wing

This is eye opening. I can see how much you put in so much work on this topic. I love watching your videos 😇.

Portuguese here- thanks for the shout out. we are actually rally crazy here. too bad there´s no more F1 tho. with the exceptions of the last two years haha

Love the vid. Could we please have metric units too in the future?

Wonderful video. It's awesome that our off-road motorsport today, especially desert racing, still has the spirt and feels of the immortal group b. When talking about these topics, people need to realise that motosport is dangerous even today. There's a reason Mercedes pulled out of racing for a crazy amount of years or that 50 something drivers have died in f1 since debut. I believe at the bottom line it makes it worth doing. As they say, the closer you are to death, the more you feel alive!

This feels like a very short documentary, and I love it!

Nice video, I was always in awe seeing the Group B going through forests and mountains so insanely quick

The faces you make.. I cant .. 😂😂

As far as I am concerned if anyone dies as a result of getting in front of a race car, that is natural selection at it's finest.

Another amazing video! Great story telling and in depth information!

Ive spent a lot of time getting to know more about one of my passions through your videos, therefor thanks!!

Im amazed how many times this subject has been redone must be the 8th group b docu ive seen aha

I can still remember watching these monsters flying past a young me when they came to New Zealand. Had a huge poster of the 205 T16, 704EXC75. That and the Delta S4 were my favorties.

I'm a sim racer and and even virtually, those cars are literal monsters! Keep up the good work.

I have seen so many people talking about the glorious group B rally. This version of this group B rally is new. How FIA ignored drivers and team's plea for better conditions for rallying. Thanks albon

I am trying to get into the history of rally and this video is amazing

Nothing quite feels like starting up DR2.0, picking any stage and using a Group B car on it. Absolute monsters.

Excellent documentary and I agree , If only management would have paid close attention to the drivers recommendations - perhaps Group B would still exist !

Group B was crazy and very dangerous, but it was awesome too! It has given us lots of iconic and spectacular images :)

I’m old enough to remember watching Group B as a kid on tv. Not watched Rally since 97/98

As always, great content man, good stuff. Gotta say though, the statement "no hp limits" is a bit misleading, perhaps 'unreasonably high' is more accurate haha. However, this was a brilliantly put together and informative and full of obvious passion for the sport.

This era of rallying was just crazy. But it remains in every petrolhead's heart❤

Group B was probably the best rally, paired with fast jumps and no horsepower limit, it could of been long-lasting if they could fix their problems after the first crash.

People had no problem standing on an active race course, seeing all the people running out the way is crazy

Group B racing was thrilling to watch when any moment a car could give out

Just recently discovered this channel. Definitely some great content. Much appreciated!!

Bought a steering wheel to play rally games coz it looks cool in those great Dirt videos. I quit on the first corner lol.

freakin best honey ad! normally ads are anoying. but when done like this, it is very entertaining!

Group b racing back in the day looks insane