My tutor at university (Geoff Goddard) designed the engine when he was chief engineer at Cosworth. He had been at Cosworth since day one and through the DFV era. After he moved to TWR, the project followed him as the original v12 and 4wd planned for the XJ220 would have been to heavy. The Le Mans version had around 880bhp and was a bit of a handful. Just like the XJ220 transit.
You guys are so awesome for doing videos like this. We've all seen enough boring new car vids to make our head spin, every car that hits the market will be reviewed by dozens of reviewers, but you've got the balls to go drive classic Group B cars, and answer the questions we've all asked. Please please please don't stop doing these they're so great, you can't find first hand experiences of legends like this very often.
the sharp bark of a 6r4 echoing in the forest miles before it gets to you is a memory that i shall always treasure .God only knows what beasts would be stalking the forests if group b was allowed to continue?
I just looked it up. The XJ220 had a modified version of the 3.5 twin turbo V6 in that metro. The one in the metro was designed by cosworth, TWR heavily modified it and put the engine to use in the XJ220.
Did you know the engine from this car ended up in the XJ220? Austin Rover withdrew from the rallying scene at the end of the season, but in 1987 all the parts and engines were sold to Tom Walkinshaw Racing, whereupon the V6 engine reappeared under the bonnet of the Jaguar XJ220, this time with turbochargers added
I was lucky enough to be brought up in the Northumberland hills n I used to LOVE watching these little beasts annihilate the cossies, the scoobies and even the twin engined cortinas in the pennine rallies. Good times :) Awesome car.
on my old ps2. colin mcrae rally 3. my 6r4 was my favorite car.. what a monster to drive that thing hard. always sideways always arguing with you. what a monster.
The idea Austin Rover had of making it naturally aspirated to give good throttle response and reliability was essentially wrong and lead to the car not really having quite enough power against the opposition - If they’d of turbocharged it and it was likely to have happened in its course of development had group B gone on it would have been a serious contender for a world rally championship - given the limited funds Austin Rover had to develop it, it’s a remarkable achievement and essentially a really very sorted car that just needed a little more cash and time to make it truly great
When Group B was banned, the 6R4 factory cars were sold off and a lot of them were used in rally cross. They had to be competitive, 6R4's like Will Gollops car had twin turbo fitted and ran 900bhp. They were insanely fast and quicker than RS200's in rally cross.
Wills car ran at around 600BHP, i was involved in Group B for a short period and i still chuckle when the ill informed comment on the HP during this era - keeps the intrigue going i suppose
> Paul Taylor : not exactly :) the wills car have Electronic Boost control allows the power to be turned up from 600bhp to over 800bhp at the turn of a dial .
The delta s4 only had 480 bhp but could still accelerate from 0 - 60 in 2.5 seconds. On gravel, they couldn't accelerate as fast on tarmac as they required higher gearing to prevent the torque from shredding the rear diff.
@35yearoldboy I do believe that a group B Audi S1 popped over to show the Yanks how to do a hill climb in style over at Pikes Peak. Destroyed everything
I love the S4 and the 205T16 in evo2 spec was also a seriously formidable weapon. The T16 had slightly more top end power than the delta with it's F1 style turbo, but the delta was an amazing design with the engine being both super charged and turbo'd. Just constant power response from the delta.
Group B Rally was insane. The most powerful cars had 600-700hp, and some claim they had more power than the contemporary Formula 1 racecars of the mid 80's. For the consumers Group B was good too since the rules stipulated a certain number of roadlegal versions had to be built. That's why we saw the Audi Sport Quattro, Peugeot 205T16 (mid engined) and several others.
I'd heard they were going for £10k at the end. Can you imagine that? Brand new, just off the production line for £10k? ...You're looking at ~£90k at auction now.
I remember hiking through Kielder Forest many years ago and almost freezing to death to see these things in action, along with the RS200 and what was that little Peugeot thing?
That review goes to show just how good a driver Tony Pond was. If you watch footage of Pond in the 6R4 he makes rapid progress in a seemingly unhurried way, which given the twitchy chassis, must be no mean feat.
Rohrl's S1e2 at Pikes Peak in 87 was the ultimate Group B car for me. There was the mid-engined 205T16's and delta S4's competing at the race and Rohrl's front engined Audi was over 20 seconds faster than the second place T16. The 205's at Pikes Peak had over 600HP, so who knows what the power output was in the Audi??
my wrx has 227 hp and awd and the torque of a turbo four. which is not terribly much really. its only a 2l turbo. off boost i have no torque,..however a STI versus a metro 6r4 on a rally road would be close. high tech awd and suspension makes up for overwhelming power
One of the pikes peak quattro's had just over 850 bhp if they turned the boost up but they wouldn't do it for long periods as everything else couldn't really cope.
ths would be good as a sedan rover metro no offeince that mean making it longer and a special verion called rover metro xxl meaning rover metro limo. i not keen on the v6 layyout but a 3liter inline 4 or 5 would be good tho as well as the v6. the metro had been in btcc as well back in the 1970 called group a or somethinge like tat to late 90s where they was out dated but was called rover 100 later on.
I've been on the show in la coupe days ago, and spot the Jaguar Xj220 supercar. Is that true that engine in XJ 220 is from this car? That was written on the data sheet.
Look like "Renault 5 Turbo/Copa Turbo", the most popular rally's car used in Europe's land. Was know like "El creador de viudas" ("The Widow's Maker"). Drivering across France, you can see a lot of "Renault 5 MaxiTurbo", a bigger and powerfull evolution of first one: a collector's desire. Great video: congratulations!!! SaludoX.
in the world of rally many manufacturers actually use license plates from their own country or the team that created the car, such as prodrive, they put license plates on from their home country, check out subaru impreza WRC cars, although they are a Japanese manufacturer, prodrive (the designer and manufacturer of the impreza WRC car) they are a British company :) hope this summed it up for you! haha
rally cars need to be street legal, they run on public roads time to time. When going between special stages - the regular stages, you don't see these on TV - they must be able to drive with civilian traffic at the posted limits and make it to the next SS for their start time or incur time penalties. Which also makes them unique in the elite racing world. There was an instance a few years back a police officer didn't allow a driver to get to the next SS because he couldn't allow it on the road due to the damage it had. Forgot who it was, but the driver was like, "I know I can get it there," and the officer agreed but still couldn't allow it on the road.
carrionfernandez the delta s4 and 205 t16 were the big dogs by 1986, the quattro was only competitive in certain events due to its layout/design and compensated by the 5 cylinder engine.
"Being an Austin..." Light clusters aside, this car had more in common with a Jaguar XJ220 than any Austin. You can tell because everything Austin touched turned to shit. That's why Rover no longer exists.
The fact Austin assented to control so much of the British car industry is more due to British politics than Austin's engineers. They can't hold a candle to the likes of Rover, Morris, Triumph or even Wolsley.
