Group A Rallying

[racer69]

The first couple of years of full-on Group A rallying as the World Championship class had normally aspirated cars like the Nissan, Toyota Supra, BMW M3, Opel Monza in Austin McHale's case eligible for the World Championship. After a few years these cars disappeared and i was told recently that a rule was brought in after a few years of Group A that demanded 4WD and 2 litre turbo engines. Why was this rule brought in and what year was it brought in. I thought that it removed some variety from the series.

[SJ Spode]

Good question. The only thing I can think is that the authorities realised that 4WD was the way to go and so started to standardise the rules along the current lines (Group A, N etc) then along came the WRC class.

Anyone else know?

[Alpina]

Gp A rules do not demand any set type of cars but are a way of fixing the specification. The manufacturer sets the parameters of any car it wants in a homologation document that the scrutineers use to check all cars of that type. When GpA began the cars that dominated were lancia Integrales because lancia saw the advantages of 4WD and turbocharging. There have been GP A cars of many types but for the events that the WRC has and because of the market for building and selling cars 4WD and 2lTs are the cars we have now.

[SJ Spode]

That's interesting Alpina. When did GpA begin? Around the same time as the Group B supercars?

[chunder]

Group A has been around for a long time.Like BpB it was a relic from the old Gp4 era. The original Quattro was a Group 4 car just like an Escort or a Sunbeam.
Group A was around in the eighties but only in places like France where the R5 GT wsa a class winner. Cars like Subaru XT and Alfa GTV6 were only really bit players.

[Alpina]

I think it was 81 or 82 that rallying changed from Gp 4 to Gps A B and N.

[Speedworx]

The only Gp A car that I liked was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

The WRC rules are good. I just wish more cars where in it. Come back Toyota and SEAT. How about Nissan (they built a car) and Audi?

[Alpina]

Neither Nissan nor Audi have built WRCs but like you I think it would be great to see them back.

[Amaroo Park]

There wasw never a rule that that stipulated 2lt turbo 4wd cars. Ther rules were changed in about 1989 to keep the cars to around 300bhp. The changes where made after the manufactures got together to complain Mitsubishi's VR4 was to powerful. FISA at the time bowed to the pressure and introduce restrictior plates for turboed cars. Once a car is Homologated though there is only about 5 years on the homologation of that car. Manufacturers are the only ones who can resubmit Homologation papers on cars. Toyota for instnace for many years resubmitted the Homologation on the Corolla Sprinter in Group A Touring cars. The reason BMW fell off the world rally stage was that the team running there effort got a better offer from a Japanese Manufacturer. The team was Prodrive.

[Alpina]

It should also be pointed out that a rear-wheel drive M3 was never going to win a gravel rally against 4WDs. It was great on dry or damp asphalt though.

[imull]

I think that the Escort WRC (not RS Cossie with teh whale tail - the last scrote) wasthe first full on WRC ever. McRaes scoobies were Gp A.

They came in about teh time that Gp B was banned, officially, I think. They were around for a while before but farely unknown as Gp B was obviously the way to go...

Gp A does not demand 4WD etc. It lists out certain modifications that can be done to road going cars. There must be a high volume production car with a turbo for them to enter a Gp A turbo car (eg Lancer).

Gp N is 'standard' (although hugely stretched form of standard these days). 5 speed dog 'box is allowed rather than synchro but sequential is not allowed. electrohydraulic diffs are illeagal. Bigger turbo, wheels and uprated suspension is also allowed.

WRC allows any high volume car that fits the box rule (max height, track and length) may be altered to compete. eg, there is not 4WD 2.0T Focus but they can alter theirs to fit the maximum spec. Tilting engines etc (not allowed in GP A)

For WRC they must use the same block. There is not Ally 2.0l for engine so they have to use a steel lump in the focus whereas when Mitsubishi came in they were allowed to make an alloy version of thier steel lump as it was a year or so down the line if I remember right...

F2 cars (306maxi etc) were all Gp A


However, we cal always trust teh French Motorsport powers to "help" their national teams by introducing FRC where the rules were designed for prototype WRC cars and were worded so that only the Xsara WRC was eligable...

After all that babling I still cant remember the date the Gp A came into existence properly...