[mtakala]

Nice pictures on the Lada & Audi Group S cars.

Another forgotten story is the Opel/Vauxhall Groub B cars - there were (I think) 3 of them, with different engines as the real factory engine wasn't ready. One survived and was raced in Sweden in Rallycross events. I wonder if any material survived and if the locations of the cars is known or not.

And also, this thread has not touched the fatal accidents in Paris-Dakar marathon rallies, either in its original form in Africa or the current form in South America....

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by mtakala ↗

Nice pictures on the Lada & Audi Group S cars.

Another forgotten story is the Opel/Vauxhall Groub B cars - there were (I think) 3 of them, with different engines as the real factory engine wasn't ready. One survived and was raced in Sweden in Rallycross events. I wonder if any material survived and if the locations of the cars is known or not.

And also, this thread has not touched the fatal accidents in Paris-Dakar marathon rallies, either in its original form in Africa or the current form in South America....

A car of unfulfilled potential...

The Opel Group S car (or a development of it) had been used on the 1986 Paris-Dakar rally and when Group S was cancelled, British rallycross driver John Welch was sold a large amount of spares for the car he was already running in the British and European Rallycross Championships.

Swede Tommy Kristoffersson also used the running gear of one of the cars in his Rallycross Audi Coupe S2. Andrew Wood drove a Vauxhall Astra 4S on the 1986 Audi Sport Rally but retired.

A Zakspeed, Ford based 1860cc turbo unit was fitted at first, the Dakar cars were then fitted with 2.4 litre Opel engines. The cars were mid-engined but behind the front axle rather than just in front of the rear.

I remember John racing the beast during the British Rallycross Championship, the car was swift but unreliable...
He did manage to win three rounds of the Championship, the first round of 1988 at Brands Hatch and two in 1990 at Croft and Knockhill, the car never did manage to win in Europe.

Apparently Opel may have one of the cars locked away, at least one other is believed destroyed in an accident and any others were stripped for parts...

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by windowlicker ↗

A few photos of the burnt out wreckage of Henri Toivonen's Lancia Delta S4 at the 1986 Corsican Rally that I haven't seen posted before.

Henri and his co-driver, Sergio Cresto were leading the rally when the car left the road and crashed down a ravine, bursting into flames, neither stood any chance of survival.

Some photo's that are new to this thread of the aftermath of the Henri Toivonen, Sergio Cresto fatal crash at the Corsican Rally 1986.

[windowlicker]

Fatal crash for co-driver Jose Arnaud during the first special stage of the 1972 TAP Rally of Portugal. The driver of the Alpine Renault A110, Vítor Colaço Marques, crashed the car against a wall and then it fell into a ravine, believed due to a gearbox problem. The driver was thrown clear while Jose was trapped in the wreckage.

[Buford61]

Scrapbook 10

[windowlicker]

Chris Threlfall's fatal accident during the Formula Junior race at the Circuit d'Aix-les-Bains, a French street circuit, in 1960.

A wooden bridge spanning the track which was overloaded with spectators collapsed onto the track on lap three and Chris Threlfall who was travelling along at around eighty mph was unable to stop in time and collided with the wooded structure and a number of spectators on the track.

Another four cars crashed into the wreckage and as well as Threlfall, six spectators also died.

[Buford61]

Scrapbook 11. This was another accident I witnessed in person. The car flew higher than any racing crash I ever saw.

[Buford61]

I was 16 years old and it was the first time my parents let me take a car out on a road trip down to Springfield about four hours from where I lived in the Chicago area. I went with a high school friend and we got tickets at the box office just before the race low down in turn one.

We couldn't see much down the main straightaway due to the heads of other spectators and being down low. Early in the race I caught a glimpse of movement above the crowd and I spotted this car flipping violently, flying as high as the tops of the light poles and crashing down on the track and bouncing back up again over and over before landing upside down in flames near where we were in turn one.

It was clear the accident was not survivable. I had never heard of the driver who had recently purchased the car and this was his first champ car race with USAC. I don't know if I got these photos on this thread or somewhere else related to the articles above. Bill Horstmeyer was the third driver I saw die in a flaming crash in three months in 1964. Sometimes I hated racing as much as I loved it.

[DeeXBizzle]

Originally Posted by mansonsturtle ↗

Found this while searching for and reading backstories on all your awesome posts...Original site is in Portuguese.

This most certainly isn't Koenig. The helmet in this picture is a modern day Arai.

This is either another legitimate crash or is a scene that was created and then possibly deleted for the film Rush.

[windowlicker]

Originally Posted by DeeXBizzle ↗

This most certainly isn't Koenig. The helmet in this picture is a modern day Arai.

This is either another legitimate crash or is a scene that was created and then possibly deleted for the film Rush.

There's been a number of websites showing the image as part of the film Rush, don't know if it was used in it as I haven't watched the film yet...