How Homologation Specials Made Group B INSANE 

Honourable mentions for homologation specials: Alfa 155 (BTCC) Ford XY Falcon (ATCC) Ferrari 250 GTO Basically all of GT1.

Clarkson recreated Lancia management distracting WRC officals with a long lunch between car counting sessions on the Grand Tour in his excellent Lancia v Audi history segment.

A world where endurance racing has a Group B moment “H-Hey why are the GTs keeping up with the prototypes on the straights?”

Homologation cars are held in such high regard because there's no way the accounting side of car companies would ever let them happen anyways. The only one we see nowadays is the GR Yaris, which will be worth enormous money in 30 years and I'll be kicking myself for not buying one and leaving it in a shed

In the category of insane specials I believe that the 1988 DAF Turbo Twin X1 truck raced at the infamous Paris-Dakar Rally takes the cake (or biscuit). There's the famous video of Jan De Rooy racing Ari Vatanen's Peugeot 405 Turbo 16 in the desert...

I don't think there's a single petrolhead on earth that doesn't love a homologation special - there's just something a bit naughty about them, knowing they're skirting the edges of the rules to try and become a little bit quicker for racing. It's why there's so much love for that Yaris GR, even if the car it was homologated for isn't going to rally - it very much felt like the last hurrah of a dying breed - but for me, a Delta Integrale Evo is absolutely unmatched.

These cars are so much more interesting than modern supercars

My favorite? The 205 Turbo 16. That's like a dream car for me. I also love Quattros, and the Ford RS200 is really cool as well. Then there's the naturally aspirated Metro 6R4 and the biggest monster of them all, the Delta S4. Then Renault 5 Turbo/Maxi Turbo. I also love Porsche 911s that raced in Group B, Opel Manta B 400, BMW M1, Ferrari 308 GTB, and as a Czech guy, the Škoda 130 LR (despite it being like a regular paprica among chillis). Though not really a homologation special (as it never went past the racing concept stage), I love the Mitsubishi Starion 4WD. Outside of Group B, my favorites gotta be the Celica GT-FOUR, the WRX STI and the Lancer Evo (especially Evo VI). And let's not forget about the new homologation special, the Yaris GR.

As a young pup in 1993 the FORD COSWORTH RS in REPSOL colors got me into rally from 🇺🇸 and will always have special place in my heart ❤. I just wish to see or drive one in real life

I’m somewhat disappointed in the lack of mention for the prototypes attempted by other companies, such as Citroën who made the BX 4TC, which handled like a quattro when the even the team behind quattro wanted to shift to a mid-engine layout. I’d also like to point out, the Lancia 037 won the constructors championship in 1983, not 1984.

Imagine if group S actually became a thing

I think while current supercars are nice and fast (and give absolutelly no emotion to car geeks), you couldn't ever compare them to being able to buy road worthy middle-engine economy shoebox (size 5), pardon, Renault 5 Turbo. Now THIS is nice craziness and character.

my favourite grp B was always the rs200. it just looks cool and in the hands of stig looked so close to out of control it sums up the era perfectly.

No mention of the Metro 6r4, that's a shame. That really did show what group B was all about.

The lancia delta integrale is one of the best looking cars of all time imo, shame that they're going for 100k dollars these days

Sounds like Stock Cars to me :) My favorite was the 69 & 70 Winged Warriors that competed in NASCAR at Daytona & Talladega ( and some of the other 'Downforce' tracks). More specifically the Dodge Daytona & the Plymouth Superbird, using a production Hemi 426 cu. in. First cars to crack the 200 m.p.h. (average lap speed) barrier on a closed circuit. Ford & Chevy just had to draft behind to achieve such speeds Of special note to collectors is the optional 426 cu in (7.0 L) Hemi V8 engine, which only 70 of the 503 Daytonas carried. In Perfect Condition one brought $577,500.

Small correction..Audi won both drivers and manufacturer titles in 84...at that point the 037 had no chance. The company that did the "100 cars now and 100 "different" cars later" was indeed Lancia. They also had fake cardboard roll cages during the Lancia 037 days painted the look like metal to meet the requirements...as long as nobody touched then much they wouldn't notice. I can't believe I'll say this, but there's a great mini documentary floating around RU-vid of Clarkson speaking about the Lancia 037 vs Audi Quattro war in the WRC...it's worth a watch! (Probably every car guy has seen it at this point)

As an American, I have to go with the Dodge Challenger Daytona and it's sister car, the Plymouth Superbird, where Chrysler, being tired of getting their asses kicked in NASCAR, went to their MISSILE DIVISION and asked "How do we aerodynamics?" They would be some of the most dominant cars in NASCAR, but also the most controversial, from the shenanigans Chrysler pulled to make NASCAR think they built and sold enough of them to the Dodge Charger Daytona's debut race at Talladega, where the car was probably beat by the previous model of Dodge Charger except for a "scoring error" invented on the spot by NASCAR to save Chrysler from embarrassment.

Group B was really something else.... And watching Walter Röhrl driving that Quattro S1 is mindblowing.

NASCAR dealt with a similar thing in 1970. Most cars up until the 90s were cars you could buy at the dealer tuned up (or at least they used the bodypanels from consumer cars). Chrysler had problems with the Charger's aerodynamics compared to the Ford Torino, so they commisioned their ballistic missle division to make the thing as aerodrynamic as possible, hence the Charger Dayton and Plymouth Superbird were born. The thing kinda shook NASCAR because they had made the rules surrounding homologation way before the automakers had actually taken an interest in the sport, and nobody in 1948 ever thought one of the Big 3 (+AMC) would dump THAT MUCH money into trying to win in their sport.

The "show some cars, go for coffee, move same cars to other room and show them as the rest" was Ferrari for the 250 GTO homologation.

Awesome fireside chat Aidan, keep them coming!

There has been a void since “Victory By Design” stopped airing. Your videos are the closest thing that I’ve found that fills it. Thank you

Thanks Aidan, I did suggest a video on group B a while ago, it was such an intense series that resulted in some brilliant engineering coupled with immense driver skill that resulted in a crowd favourite form of motorsport for it's era. Please make more videos about group B :)

I still love that you could get a GT 40 at your local Ford dealer and that it was street legal. I think you had to go to a Lincoln dealer to get a Pantera.

Yes ! I’ve been waiting for you to do Group B ! Edit : my favourite Group B car was probably the S1 quattro ( without the huge splitter and wing ), although apparently a Lamborghini Countach LP400s had been in group B for one or two events, not as much as the 288 GTO’s that competed on tarmac stages for multiple years under the radar, such a shame I haven’t been able to find much on the Group B Supercars. I know this is getting a bit long now but “ apparently “ the F40 was made based on the 288 to honour it’s time in the rally stages, there was also the “ 288 Evoluzione “ or something that was designed specifically for Group B then slightly modified for Group S and it had a much shorter wheelbase, crazy Trans Am GTO style bodywork and all. The worst thing about it is I’ll never get to see any group B car pushed to the limits in real life, at least anytime soon.

I'd love to go to Europe sometime and find a Renault 5 Turbo and a Peugeot 205 to drive just for a few minutes each. I just love the way they look

Not only do you need more views but you deserve more views, your channel is awesome. It baffles me that your videos don't get more hits. good luck, and thank you.

Holden made a similar engine displacement change in Australian Touring cars in the late 80s. They destroked the 308ci V8 engine down to 304ci as that brought it under 5000cc and thus they could run less weight.

The last RWD car to get the drivers title. Röhrl's 1982 Ascona B

BTW Toyota did a Yaris homologation special recently, it looks rally good :)

Well actually Audi won Constructor's championship in 82 and 84, and drivers won with Audi in 83 and 84

my favourite motorsport category, absolute insanity

The ATCC had some interesting Homologation specials(re Bathurst)pop up throughout the 60s n 70s like the 1964 EH S4 Holden and Fords '65 GT500 Cortina with its twin tanks ect and through to the GT-HO Falcons and A9X Toranas with some Chryslers thrown in for good measure. Ford for example to run the 1971 XY GTHO Ph3, in the 1972 Bathurst race, to Homologate the Globe "Bathurst" 15x7 alloy rims that was meant for the still born 1972 XA GTHO PH4 that was meant to race that year,they more or less gave them to existing Phase 3 owners to say to the powers that be in CAMS "See they are regular production order option for the GTHO" so they can use them in what was stock "standard" series production Touring Car class at the annual 500 mile endurance race

How about a story time about where some of the Group B cars ended up after they were banned from the WRC? Most went to rallycross, some competed at Pikes Peak (most notably Peugeot, who converted the 205 T16 into a 405 lookeylikey and went after the record there), and some ended up doing the Dakar rally (again Peugeot/PSA - first with the 205 T16, then a 405 lookeylikey based on that, then a reworking of the car into a lookeylikey of the upcoming Citroen ZX). I’m sure they turned up in other places too. Lancia even used the Delta S4 as the basis for some kind of safety vehicle that did the rounds of motorshows after Group B ended.

I can hear that 5 Cylinder Audi Quattro just by the thumbnail Also It was the Lancia 037 that pulled the. “Take FIA to lunch and then show them same cars in a different car park” stunt.

3:45 it was actually both (with the 250 GTO for Ferrrari and I thought it was the O37 according to Clarkson, but it might have been the Stratus, or more likely both :) )

While not anything like a rally or circuit homologation special, I have a 1986 Pontiac Grand Prix Aerocoupe, which was a homologation special built by the General Motors company to run in NASCAR, its not light by any means, nor does it handle very well, but it is a unique car. About ~1800 Grand Prix Aerocoupes were made for the 1986 and 1987 model years before it was dropped from NASCAR, as the the newer body style, more aerodynamic cars would be raced in their place.

What really sucks is that most if not all the Homologation specials were not certified for the USA :/

How about Nascar Homologation specials from when they were actually stock cars? The Dodge Daytona/ Plymouth Superbird and the Monte Carlo Aerocoupe stick out in my mind.

Aiden, do a story on the Holden Monaro HRT 427C. Biggest homologation special con-job ever !! 😂 2 ever made, no 7.0L Monaro was ever registered as road-going. Hahaha

Are you forgetting the Homologation Special that Toyota made recently? The GR Yaris? Cute little thing, that.

awesome video

hey Aiden, can you mabe make a video about Group 5 / Imsa GTX cuz it would be quite intresting I think, and keep up the good work m8, love your content

3:48 Lancia did this with the 037, they had the cars stored in several different areas, took the inspectors around a long route to those places, and moved the cars around a shorter one

Ah group B when cars were cars and everyone was scared. Have you covered how the group B era was drawing more spectators than F1 and Bernie allegedly did some behind scenes dealing to get F1 back on top?

If we don't restrict to rally, NASCAR faced homologation issues with the Plymouth super bird and Dodge Daytona.

Back in 1986 when I worked on the EEC-IV for Ford I spent a relaxing Sunday blowing 50 EPROMs for an RS200 homologation run (at triple overtime!). That car was so ugly it was beautiful.

Sierra Cosworth and the Subaru 22B are probably my favorite!

I never thought the s4 was a silhouette car, I never recognised the Delta in that rocketship. Apparently it shared the windscreen and rearlights with the production car. Sum and total

NASCAR actually had homologation rules up until (I believe) the 90s, with it being first having to have at least two of a car a manufacturer wanted to run be available at every dealership in a manufacturer's dealer network, then if a manufacturer wanted to change something on the race car they had to have it on the road car, example of this being the Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the 80s having a sloped rear window... if they still had homologation then the Toyota Camry and Supra probably wouldn't be able to run, since they don't have V8 engines

The fuel tank of the Toivonen-Cresto S4 was puntured by a broken chassis tube, not a tree branch. That was reported at the time. Photos of the gutted frame confirm that the main impact was on the lower tail of the car, and the worst crumpling damage is seen just behind Cresto's place. The only video of the accident, filmed from across a ravine, shows the treetops moving suddenly as the car fell through, but the fire does not erupt until it comes to a sudden stop when it hits the ground. The Lancia'd bodywork is made of Kevlar reinforced plastic - a very tough material which is especially puncture-resistant. Lancia would not have gained any prrformance advantage by removing a kilogram of skid plates from under the cars. Power to weight was not a crucial factor for the S4. Not to say that those would have made a difference, given that the offending chassis tube was inside the shell. This vid regurgitares nearly every false story about Group 4 and Group B Lancias. Why didn't you throw in the stupid "cardboard roll cages" tale, too?

Part 2 of this should be how on Earth did a Lancia 037 end up in JGTC.

7:50 no need to make it that complicated... Lancia just built 200 rally cars that were shaped like a Delta. Period. The rules didn't allow all those changes. It was just a different car.

My fav. is group A, but my fav. rally car ever is the Impreza S6 P2000 WRC.

STRAAAAAAATOS! I mean WAAAAAAAARG!

Nissan BNR32 Skyline is the true OG of homologation for touring cars ! Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution has to be the best homologation special, in my honest opinion. It wiped the floor in Dakar for consecutive years in the 90s. An off the shelf offroad endurance rally machine...

Quattro got me loving motorsport. 1983 Swedish Rally on BBC Grandstand. Ooh, says a 12 y/o me. I like those! I bought a Motor Sport magazine. The rest, they say, ....

Nothing to do with this video but RIP Sean Lock

Come om boys lets get this man a quatro

Hell yea Aidan! Nice video and unlike some other youtubers who've made similar videos, here the facts are actually facts. I respect that very very much 💯🙏🏼 Oh and I'd most definitely love owning a Delta or a Lancer Evo one day. Gotta hope for a rich wife😂

Audi did the same over here in north america with the imsa spec Quatro 90. It was so successful competing in the GTO class that imsa officials first forced them to run with extra ballast and when that didn't work they forced them to run a high downforce set up which didn't work so they just banned them from competition in 1992.

In the US when they were counting cars coming off the assembly line for homologation, manufacturers would drive them off the line and around the building to go through again.

Delta variant...I see what you did there.

the 1980s were awesome for motorsports

For me, the best homologation special is the Metro 6r4, its just so damn cool....off to fire up dirt rally 2 and drive it ;-)

I know it has been talked about to death but could you do a video on the Toyota Corolla Levin / Trueno? Since the resurrection of story time i have been glued to youtube for more amazing stories :P

I feel like group B rules were made as a wink to the mechanics to “ be creative”

I think it was the designer of the quattro that once said that the death of Toivonen shouldn't ever happened, because yes, the GrB cars were dangerous, but the design of the S4 used in Corsica '86 had the fuel tank underneath the driver's seat and that was 'stupid'

Not sure if you’ve done this. But a video on the different groups of rally.

The Ford RS200 has been my favourite car since I was about 6. It just looks amazing and goes like the clappers, especially in Evolution form. It was the only completely purpose designed Group B car, with the only similarities to other models being a few Sierra bits to cut costs. Regards the Toivonen crash, my Group B book suggests it may have been a special undetectable additive added to the fuel to help the turbo that had the capacity to eat through the fuel tank and then put you to sleep. Not ideal when driving a rally car on a demanding stage. They shouldn't have killed Group B, and if they did they definitely shouldn't have killed Group S. They could have taken a year out to sort out spectator safety, tighten up car safety and ban evolutions, but one of the main reasons it was banned was because it was becoming more popular than F1 and Balestre didn't like that. Promoting Group A to the main class solved the crowd problem because no-one turned up to watch.

And Chrysler did the exact same thing in NASCAR with the Charger Daytona in 1969 and Superbird in 1970, until NASCAR got wise and pulled the plug on them for 1971

The Audi S1 Quattro is my favourite Groub B Car.

At the Silverstone auctions recently a 91 quattro sold for £163125

The unloved Nissan Pulsar GTiR. What a fun car it was and much more peppy than the scooby, lancia, cosworth and gt4. bested by the evos on the road and everything else on a rally stage, they are all but gone now. prices have shot up as a result. Are the real wow specials not things like the Merc CLK GTR and the Toyota GT-one? isn't the new supercar class meant to breed homologation specials?

Not many would have known that group b would be killed off anyway and replaced with group s had that accident not have happened and group s would restrict power to 300 hp

stratos for sale in UK for just under 700k

The story of "other" Lancias in other room was with the 037

i still love the rs500 altho the sierria sold in us had a bit more power and a turbo as standerd

Didn’t Toyota sort of do this with the GR Yaris where they built it as a rally car first and make it road legal afterwards

for us its the 6r4 metro cos its basicly BL going lets have a go oooo look whe have this mini like thing lets turn it up to 11.

Loved my UR Quattro. Had to wait forever to get it. Ohio rust killed it.

That "showing them the same cars again" was Lancia with the 037 Stradale, a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive rocket ship! And it was 100 (Group B needing 200)! This makes these EXTREMELY rare and f*cking expensive, more than the Quattro and much to my chagrin as I like to do things different and it's half of my perfect 2 Cars Garage! It was on Top Gear, as the ONLY 2WD car to ever beat the "mighty" Quattro! I've seen pictures and immediately fell in love with the Lancia 037 Rallye! It was in black... I'm not saying any more... A while back, though, there was another Homologation Special from Toyota reviewed on Top Gear! The price stung at first and I actually realised exactly what it was before Chris revealed it was one! Almost a shame it could never compete, though... and my dad would have loved one of those Volvos...

6:01 Wasn't the Lincolnshire Spitfire flypast, was it?

037 please!

My favourite is the 911 GT1 or the mazda 323 gtr

Lancia all of them!

Btw the description is no longer below its on the side

Kinda sad I never got to experience Group B as it was, since I was born on the cusp of it being dismissed

What was the background noise that prompted your interval Aidan?

When it comes to the outrageous homologation specials of Group B, the ones that get all of the sunlight, claimed to be the ultimate and are eulogized to no end are the ones like the Audi S1E2. Never mind that cars like the known to mostly anoraks OG doghouse sized rocket Renault 5 Turbo (and Maxi) and mostly unknown outside of Toyotaists Celics Twincam Turbo were more successful despite being hopelessly outdated by 1984. Honestly, I think cars like the S1E2 suffer from 787B syndrome because despite all of the wing, fenders, glorious turbo noise and horsepower it paled in comparison to the competition like 205T16E2 or even the first iteration thereof and the Delta S4 (which by the 1986 Olympus Rally was pushing way beyond 600 Clarksons). It has to be said that I don't include the RS200 in with the S1E2 because it and the 6R4 never got a fair shake in rallying because of what happened in 1986, not forgetting Attilio Bettega in 1985...and people like Martin Schanche and Will Gollop proved what the cars could do. Still my vote for the ultimate homologation special in terms of widespread success and inflicted butthurt, especially compared to how much Ford managed to do with honestly nothing all that fancy even for the time, has to be the Sierra RS Cosworth and obviously the RS500. This not least because of what guys like Didier Auriol and Ari Vatanen were able to do with them in the early days of Group A rallying.

Delta best for me made the 19yr old me buy a 1.3ltr delta. What about the 6r4 that has to be right up there too

Group B is always a fasicnating part in motoring history. 🤖

Any GTO that actually raced.

Funny that, cos i could have sworn that was the story of the Ford RS (the show them the same 500 one)

MG Metro 6R4

Apparently interaction helps the algorithm? So comment!

Holden Torana A9X

I'm going to throw my hat in for the Ford RS200 as it also contributed to the demise of group B

Delta s4