RE: Chris Harris video: Sport Quattro vs. RS200
Discussion
Great video....really enjoyed it. The Sport quattro......don't know why but the Sport Quattro has always caught my imagination and been in my fantasy 5 car garage. Perfect car for parking in London!
The video itself was superb both in quality and content....have always loved Mr Harris's style since the Autocar days but he's getting better and better. I love the look on his face as he starts the engine.....petrol coursing through his veins!
The video itself was superb both in quality and content....have always loved Mr Harris's style since the Autocar days but he's getting better and better. I love the look on his face as he starts the engine.....petrol coursing through his veins!
The Pits said:
This car from the Patrick collection was sold last summer. Someone, somewhere must know where it is!
http://www.bonhams.com/eur/auction/19286/lot/427/
bonkers machine, supercharger and turbo charger. Single coil, but twin damper suspension, gorgeous interior even for a modern car and intercoolers you could land a helicopter on. what a shame rallying didn't continue to produce such fascinating road cars. Bring back homologation specials at once! Imagine road going version of this!!!
Interesting link - a Delta S4 for £100k - seems like the majority of Group B Homologation specials are fetching serious money these days. http://www.bonhams.com/eur/auction/19286/lot/427/
bonkers machine, supercharger and turbo charger. Single coil, but twin damper suspension, gorgeous interior even for a modern car and intercoolers you could land a helicopter on. what a shame rallying didn't continue to produce such fascinating road cars. Bring back homologation specials at once! Imagine road going version of this!!!
Back in the day, the UK based Group B Car Club was full of enthusiasts who'd somehow bought one of the Homologation cars that were rapidly converted to acceptable road cars after the demise of Group B. I remember Ford in 1985/6 trying to sell RS200 road cars for £50k when Ferrari were selling 308's for nearer £25k, so it was a hard sell back then. Road going 6R4's were considerably cheaper. I can remember some dropping to near £15k by the early 90's.
Some members cars were actual competition versions converted to be road legal when it was easier to do so, but most struggled to keep them on the road due to fearsome parts / fabrication costs. The club eventually closed due to dwindling number of owners willing to bring them to a track for a good thrash round. Despite their overall strength, something always broke, cogs would drop out, or oil would burst out of somewhere. I suspect most are now in cotton wool.
As far as I can recall there were at least 3 Lancia Delta S4's in the club, all red, but I do not know how many road going S4's made it into the UK - probably no more than half a dozen.
Below I've included a screen grab from the link you've posted above, along with a pic of one of the clubs regular S4's.
s m said:
Thanks for scanning that in, makes for a fascinating review !
<... goes off to look on ebay, and finds a hard copy !>
Carparticus said:
Just been looking back through some Group B car vids on youtube. They all have high hit counts, but worth seeing again.
Heres an amazing film of Ari Vatanen breaking the Pikes Peak Record in a fairly awe inspiring way. The clips at 3m00s and 3:50 are enough to make your balls shrink :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKgeCQGu_ug
ON this clip you can see why group B got banned. Shows Walter Röhrl from 1985 in a Quattro, and the total lack of crowd control from 20secs in, mixed with amazing footwork. After watching this you have to wonder if Röhrl ever had nightmares.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyVHj3sHVHQ
And finally, an excellent compilation of Group B at its best, with full on sound and no silly music. Features Quattro's, 037's, T5's. 205T16s et al.
The cars in this vid clearly have immense power, are mostly in mid air, between trees, or on mud. Makes you wonder why F1 drivers get paid so much for taking part in a precession every 2 weeks. The first 30 seconds is just mental ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA4jqpgBnAM
Love the Quattro echoing through the mountains in the last oneHeres an amazing film of Ari Vatanen breaking the Pikes Peak Record in a fairly awe inspiring way. The clips at 3m00s and 3:50 are enough to make your balls shrink :-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKgeCQGu_ug
ON this clip you can see why group B got banned. Shows Walter Röhrl from 1985 in a Quattro, and the total lack of crowd control from 20secs in, mixed with amazing footwork. After watching this you have to wonder if Röhrl ever had nightmares.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyVHj3sHVHQ
And finally, an excellent compilation of Group B at its best, with full on sound and no silly music. Features Quattro's, 037's, T5's. 205T16s et al.
The cars in this vid clearly have immense power, are mostly in mid air, between trees, or on mud. Makes you wonder why F1 drivers get paid so much for taking part in a precession every 2 weeks. The first 30 seconds is just mental ..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA4jqpgBnAM
Carparticus said:
Interesting link - a Delta S4 for £100k - seems like the majority of Group B Homologation specials are fetching serious money these days.
Back in the day, the UK based Group B Car Club was full of enthusiasts who'd somehow bought one of the Homologation cars that were rapidly converted to acceptable road cars after the demise of Group B. I remember Ford in 1985/6 trying to sell RS200 road cars for £50k when Ferrari were selling 308's for nearer £25k, so it was a hard sell back then. Road going 6R4's were considerably cheaper. I can remember some dropping to near £15k by the early 90's.
Some members cars were actual competition versions converted to be road legal when it was easier to do so, but most struggled to keep them on the road due to fearsome parts / fabrication costs. The club eventually closed due to dwindling number of owners willing to bring them to a track for a good thrash round. Despite their overall strength, something always broke, cogs would drop out, or oil would burst out of somewhere. I suspect most are now in cotton wool.
As far as I can recall there were at least 3 Lancia Delta S4's in the club, all red, but I do not know how many road going S4's made it into the UK - probably no more than half a dozen.
I was one of the Group B Car Club members. After it folded the funds were divvied up and paid back to the remaining members. One of the newsletters included a story about a member collecting his S4 from Italy in the mid 1990s. He hadn't even left Italy before he had a problem. A tyre burst (the rubber was already about 10 years old) and he couldnÄt get a replacement. They had a unique asymetric tred pattern and size which no tyre shop in Northern Italy stocked. I think he had to fly home, order a new tyre and come back a second time to collect it.Back in the day, the UK based Group B Car Club was full of enthusiasts who'd somehow bought one of the Homologation cars that were rapidly converted to acceptable road cars after the demise of Group B. I remember Ford in 1985/6 trying to sell RS200 road cars for £50k when Ferrari were selling 308's for nearer £25k, so it was a hard sell back then. Road going 6R4's were considerably cheaper. I can remember some dropping to near £15k by the early 90's.
Some members cars were actual competition versions converted to be road legal when it was easier to do so, but most struggled to keep them on the road due to fearsome parts / fabrication costs. The club eventually closed due to dwindling number of owners willing to bring them to a track for a good thrash round. Despite their overall strength, something always broke, cogs would drop out, or oil would burst out of somewhere. I suspect most are now in cotton wool.
As far as I can recall there were at least 3 Lancia Delta S4's in the club, all red, but I do not know how many road going S4's made it into the UK - probably no more than half a dozen.
I still think the Ford RS200 is a very handsome machine, perhaps not with those decals and the big wing, but its a really timeless bit of design.
Apart from inside which has got the hordid plastic squared off job from a Seirra.
That is a car they should do a remake of, forget the GT!!!
Apart from inside which has got the hordid plastic squared off job from a Seirra.
That is a car they should do a remake of, forget the GT!!!
Been doing some more digging. Below is a series of photos from around about 1994-1996 from a Group B day out to (I think) South Cerney - then a disused airfield in Glos about 2 miles around, with a fairly crap surface. There was also some track filming going on that day for the making of the Duke motorsport video 'Too Fast To Race'. Clips on youtube.
I've dug up an old 1994 scan of the Datron timing printouts for the Guinness Book of records test on a road legal Evo car. Being 4WD, they are not easy to get off the line. One of three things happen if you rev the nuts off them and dump the clutch:- (1) you shoot forward (2) the g-box drops out, or (3) you snap the incredibly small looking UJ linking the transmission. To avoid mechanical carnage, only a few runs were performed that day. The car made it into the records with 0-60mph of 3.06seconds, taking all of about 45m to accomplish. Another factoid is that an RS200E could do 0-100mph-0 again in about 300 yards.
I know my own car could do the standing quarter in 10.8 seconds at 128mph, which would have been quicker if I didnt care less about getting the thing rolling initially, before flooring it. Once rolling it would snap through all 5 gears in seconds, on the way to head butting the horizon, running out of revs at 160mph+ with 9000 rpm showing in 5th. Was ludicrously good fun doing that. When going for a blast on deserted coutry B roads round here, the road behind me would be lit up by all the exhaust flames. Also, I've never known another car which can sit on the drive back home cooling off, at midnight, with a bright red glowing turbo assembly showing through the transparent engine cover ! Wish I'd taken a photo of that.
In the thread opening video, Chris points out the basic nature of the road going cars without things like electric windows, whereas Ford did send them off to Tickford for a luxury makeover that included the proverbial electric windows, half reasonable stereo, leather seats, and even air-con …. which was rarely fitted due to being a bit unreliable !
Somewhere in the archives I've got a 'kind' review by Motor or similar mid 80's car mag that gave them a good write up in an attempt to sell them for £50k a pop … in 1985/6. I'll see if I can find it.
k me i want that sooooo much ....
Cheib said:
The video itself was superb both in quality and content....have always loved Mr Harris's style since the Autocar days but he's getting better and better. I love the look on his face as he starts the engine.....petrol coursing through his veins!
That bit got me too. Ford had a demo RS200 on display at the Harrogate stop-over at the Lombard RAC Rally one year (1986?) and I got to do just that! Sadly I had to turn it off after I blipped the throttle though. I was only a teenager at the time, so even getting to do that was a miracle. The look on Chris' face though - I just know EXACTLY how he felt. Like a little kid that's just got an utterly amazing present for Christmas, one that he has been waiting decades for.Iconic.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff