The Crash That Ended Group B- The Story of the 1986 Tour de Corse [V2.0] 

I misread the specs. The 205 was a 1.8 but becuase of weight was allowed into the 2-2.5l class. Y rally?

I still go through the turn of the Rally Portugal where Joaquim Santos crashed, sends shivers through my spine all the time

It says a lot about Group B that modern WRC/GR1 cars are only marginally faster, with the help of ABS, traction control, semi-auto gearboxes and the rest. It says even more that the driver/co-driver's blood type is printed next to their names. It's all gone horribly wrong when you're assuming one or more of those crews is going to need blood transfusions before the event gets started..

The main reason for Henry's crash was at the Lancia's team management. The team leader demanded Henry to continue, despite him being totally unfit to drive. His injured neck caused issues throughout the rally, and just before the stage they mangled his neck trying to give "fysio therapy" to leviate the pain, stuffed even more painkillers into him and sent him off. The flu was a symptom of long lasting pain medication destroying his immune system. Lancia killed their star driver with the rally group tailor made for them, all by themselves.

A couple of things to note: 1. People close to Lancia during that time have speculated that it was a stuck throttle that led to the crash of Toivonen, as it had happened in testing some four months earlier. I'd say that's highly likely due to the sources, but of course no certain cause can never be identified. 2. The 1986 season was controversial in another way. If someone thinks that 2021 F1 championship decider was controversial, wait until you hear about the WRC crown of 1986.

Group B can best be summed up as "Build your Frankenstein monster rally car and let rip". 1980s excess taken to Spinal Tap 11 and then ignited with rocket fuel. You were left with the suspicion that if someone figured out how to build a nuclear powered rally car, the Group B teams would all have jumped on that scary bandwagon.

I nearly cried when I learnt of this many years ago. They passed on my 2nd birthday, and in such a horrific way. Toivonen is a personal all-time favourite, along with Stefan Bellof. To learn of the circumstances, seeing the limited footage, and hearing the despair over the radio when they realized what had happened. RIP Henri and Sergio, what could have been!!!!

So many possibilities with this case. Passed out from neck injury issues, passed out from the flu, passed out from general exhaustion, passed out from the fuel fumes (that was common to happen with that car as the fuel tanks were under the seats and because they used special fuels, Markku Alén said about this somewhere), gas pedal possibly went thru floor, brakes may have failed, tyre may have failed, misheard pacenote. Anyway, it's just amazing that rallying wasn't looked after safety-wise despite being way more dangerous for drivers and general public compared to many other racing serieses back in the day.

Group B was as insane as the fans. It took a great deal of skill and courage to navigate through a sea of people all wanting to touch the car as it was driven past at 100mph plus.

Im from Finland, Toivonen is still a legend and an icon. There was a huge story about him in the news when 30 years was passed since the crash, we remember our heroes.

Then in the US at the time this took place, NASCAR was going 215 mph at Talladega (thanks to Bill Elliot) before the restrictor plates were brought in after Bobby Allison's terrifying crash in 1987 that took out the catch fencing. Before this incident, there were even talks that NASCAR were thinking about allowing turbos in the series (imagine what would have happened if that had actually taken place) This development while reducing the speeds also had the effect of creating "The Big One" at Daytona & Talladega that still happens today due to the cars not being able to spread out on the track.

I remember my dad showing me group b on old VHS he had them recorded on. Rally is still my favorite form of motorsport.

I forgot about the length of those rallies them, but I can remember how brutal those cars were. It's fun to watch those old videos, but it's clear that the drivers were pushed to their limit.

So the story I heard about this one, from a Czech guy that was there at the time, is that Cesare Fiorio (Lancia team boss) sent Toivonen out despite not having fresh tires for him. Back then, there were no service parks like we have now, so service was simply some plot of land where you could set up your 2 vans with spare parts and work on the cars next to traffic and spectators. This meant, that if a van with tires lost his way (no GPS, no cellphones even, maybe some basic radio within the team - that's it for the communication!), then nope - no tires available. And those cars chewed up their rubber quite fast. The rallying in the 80's was so amateur in comparison to today's WRC. I talked a couple of hours to David Llewellin and he told me that when he drove Rally Sweden, his tires would basically be the ones thrown away as "used" by the guys at the front (Blomqvist, Mikkola, Röhrl). So when they had no more spikes left in them, they'd land on Llewellin's car ;) And Llewellin was driving a group B Audi in the top 8!

This was excellent Aidan. Throughly enjoyed it mate, great video.

When I grew up here in Canada during the 50s/60s I was a rabid F1 fan. I cut up my father's magazines and papered my walls with them. One day, while taking down the photos of yet another lost driver I realized that F1 in those times was, at its core, a blood sport. I took all the photos down and walked away for many years. I came back gradually, as the casualty lists started to shorten, and I'm once again fully committed. I think all types of motor sport owe a great debt to Sir Jackie and his peers. I don't believe that society today would accept the deadliness of motor racing in those days, and it might have gone extinct.

I was looking for a video about this yesterday and you delivered. Thank you Aidan!

We all know this story but it was refreshing seeing some details you presented to us (and the presentation/narrative as well). Great great video!

I had forgotten they put driver and navigator blood types on outside of car, I think Jackie Stewart put his blood type on overalls.

Calling Group B the Attitude Era of rallying is a great comparison. The most mental period of the sport with the biggest stars where people are still buzzing talking about it today

I was waiting eagerly for you to do a video about this! Loved it!

Loved this video, loving the coverage as of late

I still think about Henri Toivonen every now and then and what he could have achieved had he lived just like Stefan Bellof.

The woeful BX 4TC mentioned in the same breath as the 205 T16 and RS200?! Nice one man, that made me chuckle. Great video as always.

Dubbing Group B the Attitude Era of rally is such a criminally underrated comparison.

Technically it killed off TWO rules etc. Grp B and Grp S. Grp S was an even more insane set of even fast regs due out in 87/88. And there a fleet of stillborn cars for that set of regs that were built.... but never saw true deployment

Very well done, thanks!

Good documentary, thanks!

I’m a simple man. I see Aidan post a video, I watch it and like it.

Original video was deleted along with my comments. But here is what happened after they disappeared from the WRC Another excellent piece, thanks Aidan Rally's loss was Rallycross' gain. All of those fire breathing (literally) monsters turned up from 86 onward. The very clever engineers / drivers developed these cars even further. The European Rallycross championship was shared around via the manufacturers during this period. Olle Arnesson in an S1 Quattro, Seppo Niittymäki (as in your picture) as well as his brother-in-law Matti Alamäki both in T16's. Martin Schanche RS200, Will Gollop in a Metro 6R4 (Bi-Turbo) all developed these to the max. They were all European champions as well. Not forgetting everyone else who raced in Group B. John Welch in his Astra was Opel's mothballed Group B project, Jean-Luc Pailler in Citroen's BX version. Gollop said he had to wear a full face helmet in the 3.8 normally aspirated 6R4 as the torque was so great, it could give you a blackout if wearing an open face version. He also said he could have run the bi-turbo (engine built by Julian Godfrey from memory that was a 3.0l de-stroked to 2.3l) with 800 BHP weighing 800KG. This was unmanageable so it would produce about 650 BHP. This engine would rev to around 11,000 too! This was the heyday for Rallycross in my opinion. At Brands Hatch at the only Grand Prix in the sport, you would have 10 of these coming off the line at once, totalling around 8000 BHP collectively, trying to be in the lead at the first corner. Run over 2 days, you could see why it would attract over 80,000 spectators. These cars would get to 60 mph in under 2.5 seconds and to 100 in less than 6. All with manual gear boxes. Any film makers out there, this era of Rallycross would make an excellent documentary movie, I'm open to be an adviser

8:46 saying the cars got hot is a massive understatement, Toivonen’s Delta regularly sat at over 50 degrees Celsius during the Corsica rally

Kodos to you that you have re-uploaded the video with the adaptation of the Safari rally.

God that group b footage is crazy when fans would go onto the track only to just get out of the way at the last second is just mind blowing and can't believe they'd even let them get that close

Gotta hand it to you: your pronunciation of Toivonen is weirdly spot on.

Henri Toivonen was a wild talent, a bit like Gilles Villeneuve or Stefan Bellof.

Good video ya did there 👍 very informative for sure.. i love how you guys in the uk are so big into rally, its my favorite form of racing 100PERCENT now thats operating yourself and this machine (thats trying its damn'dest at all times to kill you) to its absolute limits ON SNOW,ICE,MUD,SAND,TARMAC,PEOPLE and everything else that'll fit under the car... group b... balls out 80s turbo madness

I was in All Rally of Portugal editions since 1975 till 1986, as a spectator. Those are the days where there where true fans and drivers. We all knew the risks and we dare to defy them every time. It easy now to criticize that era but remember, we had gone from 48 Years of Dictatorship and conscript war service to a full democracy where all was allowed and the freedom we felt with that was worth all the risks. Being a free sport event, The all Country stood to watch the cars, at any place, no matter how dangerous it could be. Sintra at night; watching Sandro Monari lancia Stratos or the fiat 131xford escort rs battles where the most impressive and wonderful memories of a time long gone an d that sadly will never be replicated. But the Group B era, at the same spot, during the Late morning, was where one could feel the danger all where exposed;: cause at night all seems much more vague. And the contests to see who would be the last to get out when a car passed on those roads where really remarkable to All; despite the age or sex ar the danger involved to spectators and drivers alike. All that ended with Joaquim Santos accident, then we did realize the party was over and we needed to get real. Almost 40 Years later i still think that we are all crazy but in a way that only those that lived through a dictatorship and all that come with it and the freedom that was revealed after, can fully understand.

Woohoo, get to watch it again :D

Remember going with my dad as a kid to Buxton in the mid 80s to see these beasts. I've never seen anything before or since like them. They were just unbelievable 😳 so so Fast.

I once read that one of the Privateer cars had a puncture part-way through a stage, when they removed the wheel they found lots of hair wrapped around the Driveshaft. As they untangled it, they realised that there was also a scalp. Whether it is true or not, I can't be sure. But Group B was so mental, you can't say that it definitely DIDN'T happen

great video, very respectful

excellent commentary..

Great video as always Aiden, one question I've got is would you have enough information to talk about the Group S ruleset that could have potentially happened but was cancelled by the FIA? Also another question is if you could do a video talking about what you think might have happened had Group B been calmed down or less tragic, I don't know if it would be doable or not but would be really interesting to hear your thoughts on it :) Cheers 😁👍

I attended the Shell Welsh Rally in 1985. I witnessed the most dangerous thing at the race. The cars? No. The track? No. My drunk Scottish friends I traveled with from Glasgow….YES! And yes we tried to touch the cars as they went by. (Hey it seemed like a good idea at the time) It was an Audi 1-2 finish. Malcolm Wilson won that day

I really like your stories. Hopefully the younger generation will appreciate them. The old performance cars were fun but the tires, brakes, and suspension wasn't. You flew by the seat of your pants in the old cars. I'm old school but I like the technology of today. Old cars were noisy monsters and hard to handle but fun. I rode a Norton bike and it was noisy and a blast.

Gwar video keep up group be is great

12:05 The fact that they list the driver’s blood type on the side of the actual car is EXTREMELY concerning

There is a good story written about this same subject in finnish racing magazine called Vauhdin Maailma. It details the crash told by that time finnish rallydrivers and Henris brother Harri. Also it contains more info about possible causes of that crash.

Sergio the best American/Italian rally co-driver or driver us in the USA have ever gotten. R.I.P. HENRI & SERGIO absolute legends

That 1985 car in the photos dominated the RAC rally that year; Tony Pond finished an excellent third in the debut of the Metro 6R4

the radio transmission of, if I remember correctly, another driver calling the fire fighters saying that toivonen car was burning is very very haunting

afaiu it was Bruno Saby that spotted the smoke and actually turned around on the stage! So he was there when the other Lancias arrived and they called the team to tell them about the crash

There's a great documentary on Daily motion about Group B called Madness on Wheels. It's one of the best on the subject I've ever seen.

There is a documentary about Group B called I think, Death on 4 Wheels, (it has other titles as well) If you can find it.

Love it, the Gti as a streetcar would be mental 😂

That McLaren Merch is just perfect!

BTW that rally course is still run in "Rallye das Camélias" part of the portuguese rally championship and almost everyone slowsdown in that corner

11:05 there were very faint skid marks at the scene of the crash, Henri did make an attempt at avoiding the crash.

Agree but it was incredibly exciting. I was addicted to viewing it.

Even before this crash, there was a proposed Group S in the works that would have addressed the speed concerns, and taken technology to the next level. The engines would be limited to 300 hp, but the car design was opened up, and minimum number required for homologation was dropped from 200 to 10 or 20. It was going to be a rally version of LeMans prototypes. Several cars were already built, and survive in historic rally events. The Group S concept actually morphed into the World Rally Car rules 10 years later. High quota for road cars, but really all that stays from the road cars is the basic shell and body design. Teams were allowed to add 2L turbocharged engines and 4WD to cars that didn’t have it, and to keeps speeds manageable, horsepower was limited to 300 (in theory).

Group B was insane. Almost in a good way. If you ever doubt how quick the cars were, check out Martin Schanche's Xtrac Escort from period. Lots of footage on YT. It was a weapon.

Group B stories are only just in second place to BTCC stories. More of both 🙏

"Power to Weight Ratio: Yes" That about sums it up.

A pro rally in 84 or 85 in Tumwater Washington was unbelievable. I'll always remember the acceleration of the turbo Quattros, Lancia etc About the same time I saw the 85 Ford GTP car. Crazy fast!

I would love to see a return to longer 'marathon' rallies, with the right safety stuff in place. I can't help but see the old footage of the Safari and Ivory Coast rallies and imagine how amazing it would be to see that now

there's a video that shows his crash right after he's left the road. but it doesnt show anything that could suggest cause. it does how another lancia stops. but there's nothing they can do other than to wave at the oncoming cars to slow down

As dangerous as it was. It was a pleasure to watch. On the edge 100% of the time. There will never be anything like it.

My dad always tells me how many those 205s was wrapped round lampposts was insane

Aye, the 80s... The decade of speed, excess, decadence and bonkers technological exploration.

Lol "Power to weight ratio: Yes!" almost made me die of laughter...

Also, there are some hearsays that the chassis had inside gasoline, and even the chassis had parts of magnesium

I was 15 when this happened,and remember at the time it was announced that it was obvious something big was going to happen,it was getting a bit silly and the writing had been on the wall for a while by then.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I get the feeling Group B was written with GT cars at Le Mans in mind - Ferraris, Porsches, that sort of thing. What was it doing being the ruleset for the WRC in the first place? I've never really understood that.

"Breakdancing in a rally car"... Amazing!

The simple fact that they felt it necessary to note the driver and navigator's blood groups on the side of the car should probably have been a colossal red flag...

Looking sharp in papaya.

These were the most epic cars to ever drive rally. Nothing can rival the days of group B. Drivers who drove and survived group B were simply on another level, maybe the greatest drivers of all time. 5 years of complete insanity

Those are blood types on the side of the car. That's an indication that it was known to be so dangerous that it's comparable to soldiers in combat. Soldiers... in combat... have their blood type visible to others because it can be difficult to communicate that information to the surgeon in a lifesaving timeframe. So, in 1986, the assumption these teams were making is that the sport was so dangerous that random people needed to know blood types to communicate to the surgeons. That is abjectly mental...

like the video , NOt liking the death of group b very much enjoy your content thank you

On the sidebar for YT, is....a whole load of Group B Rallycross from the 80s. It is absolutely amazing. Brands Hatch, ERC, Murray commentating. If you've not seen any of it, grab a chair, grab popcorn, and enjoy what the Group B monsters could do on a circuit. Plus that Brands rallycross layout was absolutely amazing. I thought they ran the modified 6R4s at the Superprix didn't they or am I getting that and rallycross confused? I know they had a 6R4 race at the Superprix but I'm not sure if it was the Group B spec ones or less insane onesone

I'm not sure about the Corsican, but to add to the insanity of the era some of the rallies (in particular the RAC) were run without the drivers/codrivers performing reconnaissance runs.

what happened to the first one? Where did you cut out 5 seconds.?

Group B rally is by far the best we’ve ever seen.

After the names on the front quarter panel there was an 0- and an 0+ Is that there blood type or something else?

I’d say Tovinone is more Rindt than Clark, Rohl said he pushed too hard, which is how a younger Rindt was

The 205 T16 had a 1.8L engine instead a 2.5L as stated in the video

01:20 Never heard that term, but the most shocking is that at the time, this "technology" was also used in.. the railways. And it was unfortunately a bit more gruesome than racing. 12:05 Even if they managed to make the cars safer, they would have ended up driving Hummers in order to protect them from trees, houses, ravines.. And about the crowd, people watching rally stages are still getting hurt in the 21st century because you can't police a 300km race in the middle of nowhere, imagine a 1000+km Tour de Corse..

I just liked this video before I even watched it.

What is the O+ and O- next to their names on the decal on the car?

As an aside, the Lancia Delta S4 didn't have any turbo lag, because it was twin-charged. It used both a supercharger and a turbocharger, connected with some clever bypass jiggery-pokery so that the turbo was bypassed at low revs and the supercharger was bypassed at high revs. This is one of the reasons the Delta was so fast. I remember Audi driver Michelle Mouton complaining that the Quattro S1 was hard to drive because of the lag. You'd get nothing accelerating out of a corner until the turbo spooled up; but when it did, it gave a serious up the backside. IIUC, the S1 Quattro developed around 550 bhp.

I read in an old style paper magazine that the Lancia had a non-safety fuel tank under the seats. True or not?

Once, when asked about Toivonem, Walter Rohrl said "Henri was a little bit crazy. He was fast, and always getting faster. Like a person in a trance. I could never be as fast." (I'm paraphrasing, from memory, but you get the idea.)

The Killer B's. Amazing stories, horrifying drives. I wonder if taming them was realistic. I feel that it would have created a rule book thicker than F-1's.

I wish they would bring back GROUP B. But with todays safety standards. I think it would be absolutely awesome to bring it back and it can be brought back with safety in mind and the drivers I think would also love to be back in GROUP B. Imagine having those car standards today with today’s technology man that would be amazing.

For those who did not grow up in this era look up on youtube Rallying the killer years. The difference between Group B and prototypes/F1 was the fact the mega crowds of 100,000 per rally could get on the track rather than behind barriers. While Toivenen is always the flag as the end there were other crashes including Surer in a 200RS which killed his co-driver after Toivenen. The deaths in the crowd really was also a major end to Group B. As a kid this was the golden era of Motorsport, 956 Porsche's, over juiced turbo F1 etc. What we have to day is way safer, but less entertaining. It could still be as safe and way more entertaining, i.e. if we still had high revving V8's and V10's in F1. ironic the WRC cars now are much faster than Group B, but this is all largely down to better suspension/tyres etc.

This crash didn't end it, it was an accumulation of events and this crash...A number of spectators died and Henri was considered one of the best drivers so they had to be seen to do something about it.... Group B was a result of giving engineers carte blanche and seeing what madness they could design. Add to that "Special fuels" and you should know to keep spectators far from the tracks and notice when drivers were to unwell to drive a supercharged and turbocharged maniac of a car....Details, details.....

There is a 7th theory also. Sergio Cresto took a million dollar life insurance just before the race and there where no brake marks on that corner. Bad notes?

W8, what Kenya Rally was 4190KM!???? How much time did it take to complete such an event? On Ewrc it says that it was done in 5mins and 6s with the Bi-turbo Celica?!!

I think it was that the Audi team manager in '86 that said that the explosion of the S4 happened because the fuel tank was beneath the codriver's seat, which he called it 'plainly stupid design for a rally car'. Cesare Fiorio was basically Enzo Ferrari of WRC.

group B was amazing. ATM you need proper cohones for Rally, like you needed in F1 50 years ago. but in Group B era? I can’t even imagine.