Bad German rally for Lancia and Toyota : Rallye-Info.com

http://www.rallye-info.com/article.asp?sid=0&stid=4914

Tho quickly what was different in 2006:

First the entry field is getting better every year. This year especially we found a large increase in groupB Audis. There were 4 of them, all of them original ex-works cars, all of them in HB colours.

It was a bad rally for Lancia. Udo Sparwald from Saarlouis runs the www.lancia-stratos.de club. Before Roger Albert Clark Rally last year he sold his original blue Stratos to Steve Perez from UK (who also owns a couple Ford Focus WRC) and he built himself a 1974 Marlboro Stratos. The car was finished just in time for this event, and he then crashed it 7km into SS1! This was a scene we did not want to see on this fun event. The crash into a tree reminded strongly of the Märtin/Park crash of Rally GB 2005 and while we have decided not to show our photos of the crash, we are glad to report that the navigator is out of hospital and fine while Udo is indeed planning to rebuild the car.

SS2 and the next Lancia was out, a black Tabaton/Grifone Esso one, however a replica. This car retired with a blown engine.

And after SS3 it was already Armin Schwarz’s turn to park his Lancia Rally 037 Evo with a suspected crankshaft bearing failure.

Toyotas didn’t even make it that far this year. It was no surprise Björn Waldegaard did not drive the 1986 Bandama winning groupB Celica “K-AM 5660” after the damage he gave to this car last year. The sole Toyota at the start was a Celica ST185 “K-AM 9821”, the car Carlos Sainz used on the 1992 Acropolis. Already on the way to SS1 this car blew its turbo.

Björn Waldegaard meanwhile drove a selection of cars, as did Walter Röhrl. Björn was mainly seen in his 1973 Safari car, the Porsche 911 RS 2.7 “S-AR 7909”, however the car displayed names and numbers from its 1974 Safari entry with Edgar Herrmann.

There was a huge selection of further ex-works cars:

“S-DP 1910”, Björn Waldegaard’s Mercedes 450SLC, 6th on Safari 1979

“415 BHH 75”, Timo Mäkinen’s 1977 Tour de Corse Peugeot 104 ZS

“SJN 830R”, Hannu Mikkola’s RAC 1978 winning Ford Escort RS1800
“STW 203R”, Vic Preston’s Safari 1977 Ford Escort RS1800

“TKS33 SA 4150”, Rauno Aaltonen’s Monte 1972 Datsun Fairlady 240Z

“TO 31587R”, Didier Auriol’s Delta in which he came 2nd in Tour de Corse 1991 – depsite the owner insisting it’s the real thing and despite the car carrying the correct reg-plates and rallye plates, this car has swapped the original Fina colours for the famous Martini ones. Strange that!

“GG-CK 188”, in the version of Röhrl winning Monte 1982 – the car also competed Safari 1981 with Anders Kulläng and in the hands of Walter Röhrl in 1982 Sweden, Portugal, San Remo and eventually with Ari Vatanen Monte 1983.

And eventually the impressive Audi selection:
“IN-ND 29”, Quattro A2 that won Acropolis 1984 with Blomqvist and was rolled by Mikkola in NZ 1984.
“IN-NL 8”, Sport Quattro of Röhrl in Monte and Sweden 1985
“IN-NP 61”, Sport Quattro of Röhrl in Tour de Corse 1985, however with engine and gearbox replaced by something closer to road version
“IN-NE 7”, Quattro S1 of Blomqvist in Argentina 1985

Nice to see so many famous cars at once. And that sound, so many different concepts and noises at once. And I remain after that Audi show: nothing beats the orchestra of chirping, whistling, popping, banging and fire spitting of a turbo!

Er, enjoy the photos!

First photos by Mike Biehl.

Audi Quattro A2 - M2 - IN-YD 29