Friday 8th June 2018

Metro 6R4 Rallycross: Time For Tea?

With the engines going from WRX, time to turn the speakers up on that fabulous V6 Metro

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So, it's official: World Rallycross will be an EV sport from 2020. Predictable, if still rather a shame. Because, let's be honest, a huge part of the appeal of motorsport is in the noises made by engines. While the short, intense racing of rallycross arguably suits electric propulsion better than most other series, it will certainly be eerie to hear more noise from screeching tyres and gravel flung up into cars.

While we're not ones to stand in the way of progress - many probably felt putting a car message board on the internet was a silly idea once - now does seem like the perfect moment to celebrate the legendary combustion engined Rallycross cars. And while there's no shortage of contenders, if there's any excuse to feature a Metro 6R4 on PistonHeads then we're going to jump at the chance.

The 6R4 became popular in British Rallycross immediately after Group B's demise, the compact dimensions and punchy V6 making it ideal for the sprint races. No doubt Austin Rover reputedly selling 6R4s off very cheaply when it left motorsport will have helped, too...

The video featured today comes from the British Rallycross Grand Prix of 1990, where three 6R4s are doing battle against a bonkers Mk2 Astra. Not only do you get the furious howl of those 3.5-litre Metros, but the racing is truly spectacular, the top three as dramatic as you would hope from top level rallycross. And the Astra shoots huge flames.

While of course we're not advocating a return to V6 Metros, the move to electric cars will hopefully mean more attention focuses on the classic competitors. And if that can mean more 6R4s are preserved, driven and enjoyed, then that sounds like great news to us - enjoy the vid.

 

[adyfc]

No sound, no smell, no motorsport. Everyone will be attending retro events.

[Steamer]

Turbo flashes, bangs and crackles... fantastic childhood rally memories

[jbforce10]

That's the first time ever I've cheered-on an Astra.

[DP1]

This kind of news saddens me, those responsible should be taken to one side and beaten soundly with a wet haddock until we run out of haddock.

If my numbers ever come up a 6R4 is on the list.

Agree with the previous chap, retro and historic events will be the way to go in future

[Ltjonmclane]

As above really, think retro events are going to be the future for most. Certainly for attending live. A huge part of the appeal of attending motorsports events is the noise and the smell. That makes up for the fact that you can't see what's going on for 90% of the track. Watching electric cars go past sounding like washing machines and smelling like scaletrix for ten seconds every minute or two sounds like my idea of hell. Watching on the telly though is passable.

[Johnnybee]

I used to watch this era rallycross at Cadwell, it was immense.

[coppice]

It was the best era of rallycross in spectacle and soundtrack. Somebody will come along soon and tell me I am mistaken , rose tinted specs etc because he is 17 , doesn't get out much but watches lots of TV and thus knows that current tonka toy WRC cars are faster .

But motor sport is a broad church and leccy stuff doesn't bring me out in spots. Soundtrack is important, yes , which is why the 6R4 was so memorable but most modern race cars don't actually sound that good . I grew up listening to Matra and BRM V12s and the racket made by current BTCC cars is just an awful row , and spec formulae such as F4 are equally tiresome .

[RobXjcoupe]

Electric racing just sounds like my old Tamiya remote control cars from 30 years ago. Motorsport is about the noise of unsilenced exhaust pipes, induction noise, turbos spooling up. Flames and crackles from exhaust pipes.
A high power electric car with its high capacity battery doesn’t really create that race car image. Not unless it’s a 1/10 scale tamiya grasshopper with a 7 cell ni-cad and a k-stock motor lol
Never thought one day the world would ride around in full size battery operated cars.

[Baron Greenback]

jbforce10 said:

That's the first time ever I've cheered-on an Astra.

^^ Dont know if I could!

[HardMiles]

Ltjonmclane said:

As above really, think retro events are going to be the future for most. Certainly for attending live. A huge part of the appeal of attending motorsports events is the noise and the smell. That makes up for the fact that you can't see what's going on for 90% of the track. Watching electric cars go past sounding like washing machines and smelling like scaletrix for ten seconds every minute or two sounds like my idea of hell. Watching on the telly though is passable.

I doubt even that. I can’t bring myself to watch formula E. If you had mates over for beer and had the sound off it’d be the same! Whereas in classic racing the thunder of a Bizzarini slaying past you is all it take to give me such excitement I have trouser accidents. :-) long live the old guard.

[coppice]

RobXjcoupe said:

. Motorsport is about the noise of unsilenced exhaust pipes, induction noise, turbos spooling up. Flames and crackles from exhaust pipes.

It can be , and it's nice when it is but there is far more too it than that. . I don't know how much live stuff you attend in person but it is many , many years since most racing cars competed without some form of silencing. Stuff like British GTs sound , if anything , less noisy than their roadgoing counterparts . Flames and crackles - nice but it is incidental, peripheral . I get my big noise hits at the Pod (if you haven't been and you like noise nowhere better) and from Historic F1 at Silverstone Classic etc.

But here's the thing - in common with lots of others I think the purest and best racing of all comes from Historic Formula Ford 1600 - and the soundtrack comes from the wheezy bark of a Ford Crossflow . ..

And one of the best burnouts I saw last time I went drag racing was from a VW Beetle - with battery power..

[RobXjcoupe]

coppice said:

RobXjcoupe said:

. Motorsport is about the noise of unsilenced exhaust pipes, induction noise, turbos spooling up. Flames and crackles from exhaust pipes.

It can be , and it's nice when it is but there is far more too it than that. . I don't know how much live stuff you attend in person but it is many , many years since most racing cars competed without some form of silencing. Stuff like British GTs sound , if anything , less noisy than their roadgoing counterparts . Flames and crackles - nice but it is incidental, peripheral . I get my big noise hits at the Pod (if you haven't been and you like noise nowhere better) and from Historic F1 at Silverstone Classic etc.

But here's the thing - in common with lots of others I think the purest and best racing of all comes from Historic Formula Ford 1600 - and the soundtrack comes from the wheezy bark of a Ford Crossflow . ..

And one of the best burnouts I saw last time I went drag racing was from a VW Beetle - with battery power..

Like most things once it’s the norm I won’t think anything of it. My dad used to bore me to death about possible electric cars, armatures and windings, stators etc and that was a good 35 years ago. He always said it’s the battery technology that is lacking and preventing production electric cars.
I know an electric motor size for size against internal combustion is far more powerful and only one moving part (not including bearings). On paper it’s the definite way forward. In reality I think hydrogen should have been pushed as it’s a zero emission fuel that doesn’t require huge power stations and re-charge points everywhere. People forget that electric cars although zero emission when driving does require constantly running power stations to generate electricity for charging via coal, wood, gas oil and nuclear which all produce emissions we don’t want.
Battery powered jumbo jet aircraft and battery powered container ships is what is needed as they use huge amounts of fuel. I wonder if that will ever happen?

[Colonel D]

coppice said:

RobXjcoupe said:

. Motorsport is about the noise of unsilenced exhaust pipes, induction noise, turbos spooling up. Flames and crackles from exhaust pipes.

It can be , and it's nice when it is but there is far more too it than that. . I don't know how much live stuff you attend in person but it is many , many years since most racing cars competed without some form of silencing. Stuff like British GTs sound , if anything , less noisy than their roadgoing counterparts . Flames and crackles - nice but it is incidental, peripheral . I get my big noise hits at the Pod (if you haven't been and you like noise nowhere better) and from Historic F1 at Silverstone Classic etc.

But here's the thing - in common with lots of others I think the purest and best racing of all comes from Historic Formula Ford 1600 - and the soundtrack comes from the wheezy bark of a Ford Crossflow . ..

And one of the best burnouts I saw last time I went drag racing was from a VW Beetle - with battery power..

I kind of agree with you but there`s nothing quite like a car or 2 lifting off as they blow past you, with the bangs, pops and flames. It`s what I love most when spectating a rally stage, even though this is only RX for now

[mebe]

RobXjcoupe said:

In reality I think hydrogen should have been pushed as it’s a zero emission fuel that doesn’t require huge power stations and re-charge points everywhere. People forget that electric cars although zero emission when driving does require constantly running power stations to generate electricity for charging via coal, wood, gas oil and nuclear which all produce emissions we don’t want.

You've still got to make the hydrogen which takes ... electricity and powerplants.

[Mr2Mike]

Proper racing, in proper cars. Makes the 'drifters' mincing around a circuit look even sillier.

[Tony1963]

First point for the OP, the 6R4 was a three litre, not a three point five. And then, once some rallycrossers started to add turbochargers, they reduced the engine capacity.

I followed rallycross from 1987 to 1991, travelling as far as Naas, Nutts Corner and Newtonards over the Irish Sea with Tony Bardy's team. Amazing days, with lots of sponsorship money floating around. Making a cuppa for Martin Schanche remains a minor highlight

I'm with most people here in that electric cars hold little to no interest for me, but I also understand that many kids will soon see polluting internal combustion engines as quite simply old fashioned. Before we know it, there'll be no case for them in top flight racing, and then they'll be reduced to, say, ten or so classic festivals throughout the year.

I used to love hearing the odd flat 12 engined Ferrari F1 car, especially on the over-run into Paddock, but I can't remember the last time that happened. So, like the migration of historic aircraft from the UK to Europe and the USA, quite soon we will see our stock of useable classic race cars disappearing.

Enjoy it all now, while you can.

[goonery]

I helped build these, all 200 (and 7 I think) , put together on a special line at the Longbridge plant, quite badly it should be said, then shipped down to what is now the BMW MINI plant in Oxford, loads of them painstakingly rebuilt ready for ... the WRC ban, so about 90% of them sat in a compound with nothing to do, a few were kept active as demonstrators for people that might need a road legal rally car. I drove a black one to the Park Lane showroom via the back roads from Oxford. Still love the sound and sheer bonkersness of the engineering, often wonder what might have been ....

[grumpy52]

The Astra was affectionately known as "The Shed" by its team .
The Metro 6R4 had one of the most distinctive sounds in motorsports , a sort of flat gutterall bark that improved with pops and bangs when turbos were added .
I had the joy of being asked by one of the drivers to bring his 6R4 back to the paddock from parc ferme at the end of a Lydden rallycross meeting , the joy turned to frustration then disappointment when my size 11 boots wouldn't fit onto the pedals .

[aeropilot]

Tony1963 said:

First point for the OP, the 6R4 was a three litre, not a three point five.

And second point for the OP.....

That's not the British Rallycross Grand Prix either, despite what it says on Yooftube.
The British RallyCross Grand Prix was held in December at Brands Hatch circuit, and that's Lydden Hill in Kent, so with dear old Arthur D commentating, its likely a British Championship round, or more likely given his all British drivers comment at one point, a heat during the British round of the European Championship, which back then was held in September at Lydden Hill.

[rallycross]

grumpy52 said:

T
The Metro 6R4 had one of the most distinctive sounds in motorsports , a sort of flat gutterall bark that improved with pops and bangs when turbos were added .

Its the most amazing sound up close it genuinely makes the hairs on the back of the neck stand up, I have been out in practice sessions at Lydden with 6R4's on track with us and the noise as they blast past is incredible.