The Absolute INSANITY of Group B Rally 

Group B Rules, the car must have 4 wheels, rules end.

Maybe to give you an idea about the absolute insanity that was Group B. The Lancis Delta S4 was Lancias purppose build Group B car and their answer to the likes of the Peugeot 205 or the Audi Sportsquatro. It was one of the first cars designed with computer technology, it used stuff like electrically timed direct injection and more. It had a mid mounted 1.8 L 4 cylinder engine which was both super and turbocharged. The official power output was about 450 hp, but many said that it was more like 500+ hp in actuallity. And they apparently were able to crank it up to 1000 hp at 5.5 bar on the testing block. The whole car barely weighted a ton. And they once did a track test at Estoril with a cranked up 800 hp version that laped only a few seconds of the F1 cars at the time, which were in their own turbo steroid age with power trains cranking out 1000+ hp in qualifying settings on a regular basis. So yeah, they drove cars with F1 level performance with barely any saefty meassures and on tiny wheels on gravel, dirt and ice, with humans as the track frontier. What could possibly go wrong.

The most batshit insane racing series. The most batshit insane drivers The most batshit insane cars The most batshit insane spectators

The thing that still gets me the most about GroupB is the time period. This was the 80s. Not the 70s, 60s, or 50s. Everything else had been pretty well sanitized by then, but rally just got even more insane.

Timo Salonen looking like a radio shack employee, wearing glasses, and smoking a pack between stages. Elite

Group B is the optimal out come of a conversation that goes like this "Think we can get that to work?" "I dunno probably, might as well try."

I remember seeing a comment somewhere about how the drivers just saw the spectators as trees. If they saw them as people, they couldn't drive.

I'm surprised that they haven't made a Michele Mouton movie. Her story is legit super interesting and deserves a movie.

Fun fact: Michele Mouton is now FIA Safety Delegate, and works WRC events! Her job includes telling people off for standing where cars could crash to. There's an FIA video about it.

Group B was the Cold War of the automotive industry, Who could go the fastest without unaliving themselves and the crowd

Group B was the Rally equivalent of "Hold my beer."

Everyone involved in Group B were insane. The drivers, engineers, co-drivers, fans, everyone. Oh, and love the random FFX track.

Even Slapshoes respects the time honored tradition of slapping some Dark Synthwave music over clips of Group B rally.

Of all the “group B” movies, videos, and documentaries out there, your take stands out for one simple reason: it’s about group B! All others shed way too much light either on the cars and manufacturers, the drivers, or the gore. This one and all the other stuff you put out are becoming legend. So good of you to do this!!

"Name a combination of RU-vidr and subject you didn't know you needed." This is my answer.

3:15 to 3:45 is an absolute masterpiece of an intro. My hairs were standing up. Congratulations no this amazing vid, the best one on Group B i've seen.

The real insane people who stand in the middle of the road when a 1000000+ RPM rally car is barreling towards them

My dad sold Porsches and Audis in the 70's and 80's. He usually brought home a Porsche as his demo car, But I remember him bringing home the Quattro when it first came out. That was a beast on the street, it was like driving on rails. You can imagine how they were in racing.

Look man, to each their own, I love and appreciate all motorsports (F1, WEC, Nascar, etc.) but i will never understand how someone can watch a rally and not immediately consider it the greatest motorsport in the world. It's literal art, the sound, the dust clouds, the locations of the stages.

*Group B, the Florida Man of Racing.*

Group B is what happened when the pursuit of speed at any cost caused casualties. It was bonkers but I'm glad the sport is safer than ever.

The reason Group B is so beloved is because it's one of the rare series in history that actually captured what racing is about... Creating the fastest most powerful car with crazy engineering and finding a driver that's crazy enough to push it to the limits... Too many rules about everything is what ultimately dulled all motorsports

As an F1 fan, Jean Marie Balestre and the FIA in general is something you NEED to look into. Balestre was a literal SS officer for Occupied France, his successor Max Mosely was the son of the fascist British politician Oswald Mosely, and the antics that both men got up to could fill TOMES.

you have the perfect combination of the knowledge, editing and resources that bigger influencers get but you still seem like a real person that I can understand and relate to. Great channel

If theres a more iconic, evocative single video clip in motor racing than that Quattro powersliding out of the corner and the man walking into shot hands on head ... well I've yet to see it.

In the words of 1995 WRC champ Colin McRae, "If in doubt, go flat out!" Great video as always S1ap. Respect from this UK fan.

What he didn't mention was that in the Lancia Delta S4 that Henri Toivonen crashed, the driver and co-driver literally sat on top of the fuel tank! Those things were insane deathtraps!

My mom used to live right above a Lancia dealer, and she still remembers the time one of their rally cars was exposed there: the Lancia Delta S4, the last of Lancia's Group B cars, known in Italy as "Ammazza Rally" (Rally Killer) for its astonishing performance. Sadly Lancia has become a farce of a constructor as of now, but they'll probably make a comeback in WRC with the new Ypsilon. It's really great to hear you talk about racing series outside of the US, I would love to hear more in the future.

I'm an F1 and Euro-centric road racing fan, but I jumped on the SlapShoes hype train back when he was looking for Airbase Speedway. I loved his presentation style and learned a bunch about NASCAR, and began to really appreciate the sport a heck of a lot more, and now I am thrilled to see some of my preferred areas of racing being covered by him in his animatable style. Keep on rockin' SlapShoes

Portuguese fan here. Rally is in Europe the motorsport of the middle classes, just like short track racing is in the US. It has a low barrier to entry, like in terms of the investment, no need for expensive tracks to race and for the fans, except for some special events, they can watch the race for free, even if you only watch one car every one or two minutes. It was the very popular in the mediterranean europe and Portugal, not only because of the economics, but also because of the mountenous terrain. And still today about 1M people watch the rally every year in Portugal, although this is the overall number for all the stages, so even if a lot of people saw at least one stage every day, that would put about 400k unique spectators in a country of 10M people. That's bonkers. Keep up the good work. PS: F1 is still popular, everybody seems to loves the AIA, but there in no economics that justify in my country to put up 25M€ for a race, and expected to make money. You essencialy need every expectator to put up at leats 500€ in tickets, parkings, concessions, etc, when the average salary is just 1000€ a month. And we dont need more state aid for millionaires and billionaires, although a lot of people demand the state put up the money for a F1 race.

For those wondering, Stig Blomqvist is the father of current IndyCar driver Tom Blomqvist.

Two corrections: 1) The regulation that the Lancia Stratos fit under was Group 4, the top division of rally. Rather than 5000 units, they only had to make 500. 2) The Porsche 959 never rallied under Group B. The 911 did, and you might’ve gotten that mixed up with the 959 being designed for Group B racing. The only other story I’d probably mention is the time in the 1972 Press on Regardless Rally in Michigan. That’s rally is the reason AWD systems were banned originally until Audi appealed. DirtFish have an amazing article on the Jeep Grand Wagoneer (Moby Dick) that effectively banned AWD.

Greetings from Finland, S1apSh0es talking about rallying is a great combo. This stuff really brings people together, appreciating all the different kinds of racing from NASCAR to rallying!

Lest we not forget the car that Ferrari was going to enroll into Group B had it continued, the 288 GTO Evo. But, it came too little too late and never competed.

It would be cool to see a more modern version of group b with better crowd control and safety measures, but bwck to the absolute insanity of the cars being built and brought

Rally is the very definition of needing to have a deathwish to be one of the greats.

I grew up watching rally races. I've had those DVD collections of races and racer interviews and crashes and I absolutely loved rewatching them over and over.

2:58 So there's a bit of a caveat at this bit, throughout the 70's the FIA used the same classes for both rallying and circuit racing, Groups 1-6, rallying only used Groups 1-4 with 1 and 3 being lightly modified touring ang GT cars respectively, and 2 and 4 being the same but for more modified cars. 5 and 6 where circuit racing exclusive, Group 5 being heavily modified production cars, and 6 being full prototypes. When 1982 rolled around the FIA replaced Groups 1-6 with A-C, but they still covered both racing and rallying. The classes technically allowed for less modification that the old Group 2 and 4, but making the production caps so low for Group allowed the base cars to be more extreme. Group A became used for touring cars and the lower class of rallying, Group B was for GT cars (although this never really took off in sportscar racing) and the top class of rallying, and of course Group C was for full prototypes. Group N came a bit later ,and that was for pretty much stock cars, similar to the old Groups 1 and 3.

rally drivers have the biggest balls to drive that fast into a corner. huge respect to them

Slap, there is the fact that when clarkson made the doc about group B's rivalry inbetween Lancia and Audi. It was shown that they were even using cardboard tubes painted to look like aluminium, and it was dangerous. Many of the Lancia's accidents were related to that.

what a great video! that last lil bit where you just had the clips of the new rally cars going around with the music, that got me a lil bit. it really did 🥹

SlapShoes covering one of, if not the MOST, notorious era's of Rally racing... Holy shit, yes please.

A must have line in a documentary like this, when you reference the Stratos, "Just look at that thing!" Love it.

Standing roadside at a WRC rally is a bucket list experience for me. I just gotta know what it's like.

While Walter Roehl played a part in Lancia winning the 1983 Manufacturers Championship, it was actually Hannu Mikkola, a compatriot of Salonen, who won that year’s Drivers Championship for Audi because Lancia didn’t contest every rally that year. That year’s Audi Quattro was the A1, which was barely changed from its Group 4 version. 1984 saw the debut of the A2, while 1985 is when the S1 premiered. It was 12.6 inches shorter to make the car more maneuverable on the rally stages, along with featuring a huge turbocharger and Kevlar-reinforced doors. Good luck trying to buy its road-going counterpart, because that was 4x more expensive than the regular Quattro. “It’s a Quattro, that costs quattro, a Quattro!” - James Pumphrey, host of Donut Media’s Up To Speed series in the episode on the Audi Quattro. As for the Lancia 037, 1983 was the peak for that car. Between Audi updating the Quattro and the arrival of the Peugeot 205 T16, the writing was on the wall for Lancia as vividly as if one left a toddler alone with a Sharpie. They were going to have to build their own AWD beast. And what a beast they built, with the Delta S4. Design-wise, they went the same route that Peugeot did, with a mid-engine AWD hatchback. And it was competitive immediately, winning the 1985 season finale Rally Great Britain with Henri Toivonen at the wheel. He then won the 1986 season opener Monte Carlo Rally, retired from the Swedish Rally with engine problems, and was among those that withdrew after Santos’ accident in Portugal. There are a number of theories for what caused Toivonen’s fatal crash in the 1986 Tour de Corse. He had been ill with the flu leading up to the rally and was also dealing with the lingering effects of a back injury he sustained in a crash in either 84 or 85. He didn’t say anything about the latter, fearing he might lose his seat. One of the theories is that the effects of said back injury caused him to blackout as he approached the corner where he crashed. But short of a séance, we’ll likely never know for sure what really happened. Audi and Ford withdrew from the remainder of the 1986 season after the Tour de Corse, leaving Peugeot and Lancia to slug it out for the championship. Part of the freeze on aero development included the banning of side skirts, but apparently, Peugeot found a loophole and gave that rule the middle finger. This reached a head at that year’s Rally San Remo in Italy, where the Peugeots were disqualified for still running the side skirts. Peugeot accused the rally organizers of favoring Lancia, the home brand. They appealed the disqualification, which was initially upheld until the FIA annulled the results altogether. Lancia accused the FIA, a French organization headed by a Frenchman, of favoring Peugeot, a French manufacturer. Baelestre had a notorious history of favoring French drivers and teams, which reached its climax at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix. While the WRC currently has no rally in the USA 🇺🇸, there is Rally America, which has three regional championships. So you can still get your rally fix if you live in the States.

Fun Fact: Group actually did have rules on engine size limits that are many confusing, and might have been how the F.I.A somehow, someway, and likely after many lines of Miami White Powder, decided that the 2.6L "R26B" 4-Rotor that powered the Le Mans winning 787B Group C car somehow was equal to something like a 6.5L V12 and thus was bigger than the coming 3.5L F1 style engine size limits that effectively killed Group C. This is why even though the Lamborghini Countach is "Technically" listed as Homologated for Group B, it ever raced as it never managed to get through all the paper work for Engine Size and exemptions for such as within Group B the max allowable Non-Super/Turbo-charged engine allowed was like 4000cc or about 4.0L. The Countach at the time had something like a 4.7L V12. Even just look at the Group B Homologation list on the Wikipedia page, some of them are "Take with a grain of salt" levels of baffling such as a FSO Polonez and even at least at one "Pickup truck" in the form of a Peugeot 504. With it being very hard to verify if many actually did race, some did, some were leftovers from Group 4, such as the Ferrari 308GTS, some were Group A cars so OP the F.I.A bumped them into Group B such as the Alfa GTV6. Group B was insane for it's mostly lack of rules, but doubly more insane given it still had way more rules than even Group C did at the same time period, which was effectively damn near enough just Can-Am levels of "The only rule is your fuel tank must be this big, no smaller, no bigger than this" and literally everything else was allowed. Group B managed to get more insane than Group C and Can-Am in spite of the fact it actually had some basic rules that were "Supposed" just keep it from getting that insane in literally less than half a decade as a group.

One of the biggest reason why modern Rally1 cars (heck, even the lower Rally2 class, WR, & old Group A cars) are faster than Group B is basically the advancement of engine, suspension, & tyre technology. A Group B car may have all the horsepower number but they are very peaky with tons of turbo lag making those power only useful on the straights, while a modern rally car basically balances out those powerband, having super quick acceleration but still with a pretty good top speed (200kph/120mph) coupled with its sheer agility on corners, and suspension system that can handle jumps like nobody's business.

Rally is my favorite Motorsport. The current Rally1 cars are actually faster than group B. Just safer. But the drivers and co-drivers are just a different breed of racer.

The severed finger story was 2 severed fingers found lying on top of a Peugeot 205 GTI's intercooler when the mechanics removed the rear engine clamshell after rally stage. .

In 86 Audi Evo 2 put out over 500bhps as did T 16, and Lancia S 4 did almost 600, but Alen said raicing setup was close to 500. Thanks for including Attilio and Aris crashes, most tubers dont mention those horrific crashes at all, tho the crash vid is not from Argentina, but Tour De Corse 1985 from which him and Terry walked away. In Argentina he barrel rolled from 120 mph, his seat broke, and he was thrown around inside the car, suffering severe injuries to his legs and torso and life-threatening internal bleeding. He spent 18 months recovering first from his physical injuries, and then from severe depression. He went on to make a complete recovery and his return to motorsport in 1987 saw him go on to win the Paris-Dakar Rally four times; with Peugeot in 1987, 1989 and 1990, and with Citroën in 1991, he also drove Subaru WRC and Ford WRC. During the 80`s 10% ( 500 000 )of our population were around the forests to watch 1000 Lakes Rally Finland, and we had the best drivers, Salonen,Mikkola,Alen,Kankkunen,Toivonen.... I saw these cars live when I was a teen.

the 80s were the golden era of motor sports. group B in rallying, group C at le mans, massive turbos in F1 and nascars going 220mph. the top guys in the WRC are insane they have to be completely fearless ive played a good amount of DIRT rally and my brain can barely keep up with the the group A cars

1:15 that POV left front tire/wheel shot is crazy dawg

You know it's a good day when SlapShoes uploadeds

The spectators are almost as insane as the drivers

The best overall summary of rally I've ever witnessed. Your description of the origin of rally is *unbeatable*. If I ever have trouble describing my favorite sport, this video will be the one I recommend. The horseracing track analogy with F1, NASCAR, Sprintcar makes it obvious why rally is so attractive to us lifelong fans. Maybe as a non-European you understand the broad overview?

"As long as it has 4 wheels and it breaths air , them are the rules" 😂 yeah that was exiting !

What perfect timing, I JUST started looking into WRC for the first time a couple days ago, and here one of my fave RU-vidrs decides to cover it.

I would love to see you do a video on Jalopy Racing from the mid 1930s - early 1940s. It was a HUGE thing in the North East (specifically NY) and some the track names were absolutely wild. Satans Bowl of Death, Devil's Death Bowl, Devil Speedway, and so on. This racing was like a mix of early dirt track endurance racing, rally cross racing, and demo derby racing. The tracks themelves were either dirt circles/ovals or rally cross circuits with multiple turns, elevation changes, and even water traps, all this with with upwards of 20 cars on the field at the same time. It was so popular that in a span of only 3 years, the number of Jalopy race tracks in NY went from less than 10 to more than 30! Lawmakers actually tried to outlaw it several times because of how dangerous it was. The first place to actually coin the term "Jalopy Racing" was Satans Bowl of Death. Its a very interesting chapter in early auto racing history that could make for a very cool video.

Team Audi's Michèle Mouton and the Audi Quattro were an awesome pairing.

Bojack Horseman’s theme song playing in the background is amazing ❤

No tickets being sold, that's the case only if a stage is run inside a circuit. Stages are free to watch 👍 Ahh, and there's actual footage of fingers beings removed from the top of the radiator of the T16, cut off by the intake. Met 2 guys that were at the worst crashes of the Group B. Silvio Malvar, rally driver well known around here was at the '86 Rally Portugal just 2 corners away from where Santos went off the road. Then my driving school teacher, he was at Corsica that fateful day, waiting for the cars at the town where the stage ended, he told how much time took to know what actually happened as cars stopped coming. As he told, until they found one marshall with a radio they didn't got any info on what had happened.

that percise moment when Slapshoes says its spirit has never gone away couldn't have chosen a better series of clips

This sums up the sheer insanity of Group B cars. In 1986, Henri Toivonen, driving a Lancia Delta S4 at the Estoril track in Portugal, set a lap time that would have not just qualified for the F1 race that year, but 8th quickest. The head curator of the university I attended between 2017-21 knew and worked with Henri Toivonen, so you can imagine how he felt when Toivonen lost his life

Just imagine what Group B would look like with 40 years of advancements in automotive technology.

the ford rs200, audi quattro s1 and the porsche 959 rally raid are some of the coolest cars ever built

Best explanation of what Group B rally was and how it evolved. Loved that ending as well. Well said! You had me hooked .

Great video, hope one day you will cover Isle of Man TT

Group B really showed what automotive engeneering was capable of.

The people who made the Group B and Super Modified rulesets should shake hands, have a seat, smoke on something and work together on creating some abomination of a motorsport league, and with track records like that who knows what that'll be..

The end of group B seems to be a key point in when governing bodies started actually addressing safety seriously

S1ap's use of the FFX soundtrack always gets me.

I never forget when I lived in Paris, my friend had a Lancia Delta Integrale and took me for I ride. As we were drifting through the streets of paris, He kept saying in his heavy French action. Eeet eez just too fast. Eet eez just too fast. Legendary.

I know WRC has tried to make inroads here in the States, but they've pushed the possible next Rally U.S.A. until 2026, citing concerns around insurance.

a dirt sprint car is pretty crazy to witness but a mad man flying through the woods at 175mph is just insane lmao

Michele Mouton is such a badass. She fought so hard to compete against her peers and came out on top. They should make an anime about her and the group B saga.

SlapShoes covering one of, if not the MOST, notorious era's of Rally racing... Holy shit, yes please.

The amount of winding tight country back roads that are in North Carolina you would think rally racing would come here😢

As someone who grew up in TN, its amazing to see someone of circle track culture cover my all time favorite racing division

In Hillsborough north Carolina there is what's left of the first Nascar race track, up until the 1960s it was in use and one could buy a huge fried baloney sandwich and sit on the cement grand stand and watch the races, the track center had a sort of midway with lots of attractions. Now the track center is overgrown with pines and the track itself has narrowed to a walking trail. Still a historic place to visit if you're into racing and want to see where bootleggers became motorsports heros.

Love how the Bojack Horseman intro music played during the section explaining the usage of horse racing tracks.

While the US doesn't have any WRC events, we do have the American Rally Association. They run from February through October, and every event is completely free to spectate! It's also much more low-budget compared to WRC, but that also means that it's incredibly easy to enter a grassroots team. I hope you make more rally videos, and look to see if there's a rally near you!

I wasn’t expecting Slapshoes to cover my favorite era of racing… nice 👍

Group B be like: *IF YOU HAVE 4 WHEELS AND AN ENGINE, YOU'RE GOOD*

That intro was well done and executed. Gave me chills with that build up. So very cool!

Everyone wake up, s1ap uploaded

Despite how badass the cars and drivers were, the lack of rules and multiple spectator deaths and injuries makes me glad that the FIA was forced to change things when they wouldn't do it on their own.

How fuckin hard would it have been to just have better crowd control and better emergency services.

I’m a simple man. I see this guy post a new mini documentary and I watch it.

S1ap is finally taking about rally

Great job. The transition to the main story is fantastic.

Jean Marie Balestre makes my blood boil just looking at him. Nothing but scummy stories and dictator like acts from that man.

I don't care how many group b videos have already been made. I will always watch a new one. That's my word.

Group B: where a rave meets a race.

Thank you for this video! So much great info and in a fantastically streamlined video. Well done!

Rally and Final Fantasy X music in the same video 😁 @9:05

Absolutely elite documentary making 👏🏾 well done Slapshoes 👏🏾

The fans ruined it

THANK YOU for making a video about this. Can't think of anyone who could do it better.

So you just copied Albon's video? Some slight changes, but beat for beat, the same video and structure.

The safety concerns are even worse than what you described. Lancia actively made their cars more dangerous in the pursuit of weight savings and balance. The fuel cell of the Delta S4 was plastic and sat directly under the driver's seat and they made special cars for the Italian events (both the 037 and the S4) where certain "non-essential" cage segments were made of painted cardboard. Each event used local scrutineers back then and the Italians would pass damn near anything if it meant allowing the home team to be faster. The 1986 Portuguese Rally was Santos' _first ever event_ in an RS200. His team owner turned up to the rally with a brand new RS200 and said "You're driving this or you're not driving at all." IIRC he had like 45 minutes of seat time in the car before lining up to start Stage 1. Also, there was a halfway point between the Quattro A1/A2 and the S1 and that was the Sport Quattro of 1984 seen at 3:36, 3:42, 4:09 (the audio from this one is my ringtone). It had the shorter wheelbase and power of the S1 with none of the aero and drivers universally agreed it was an absolute nightmare to keep on the road. AWD was actually legalized for competition back in 1979 but nobody wanted to touch it until Audi showcased a relatively stock Quattro as a course opening vehicle in 1980 (I've never been able to find which rally it was). If the Audi was competing, it would've won by 9 whole minutes. That's why you don't see a competing AWD car until the T16 in 1984, Audi had a 3 year head start on development. It's funny how the FIA is slowly circling back to the '80s. We got turbo F1 back a few years ago and the current Rally 1 spec is basically Group B what with the cars cranking out 500hp and needing ridiculous aero packages to keep them from going to space every time the crest a hill. The world is healing.