Favourite Rallycross cars

[GOLDFINGER]

Didnt Wahlunds Escort use the 1800 rs200 engine ?

[chunder]

Yes it did, so was probably lightweight. Hence its speed, thought I doubt that motor was more powerful than a Zakker

[GOLDFINGER]

Originally Posted by chunder

Yes it did, so was probably lightweight. Hence its speed, thought I doubt that motor was more powerful than a Zakker

Probably 100 horse down ? & a basic 4x4 setup ?

Another car i liked was a mid engined Renault 5 Vauxhall 16v powered ? used to run @ Lydden winter series someone Thomas ?

[chunder]

Gareth Thomas, former autograsser raced for the same club as Steve mundy or nearby anyway.

I think Ian Evans built it first, used a Chevette engine as I recall.

Another car I always liked was Ross Perkins Fiesta, lovely prepped car, very Pritchard like, immaculate.

[Graz]

Originally Posted by chunder

Long whit quattro? Could be loads of people, and if it had lights on the spoiler would be eitehr Sven or Olle, someone put a pic up....

Apologies in advance for any misspelling of the scandanavian names, I'm typing from memory...

Had to be Arnesson . His was white with Grimstaad written into the grille. Lestanders was silver. Arnesson had the best, most developed Quattro in rallycross ever I'd say. Such as Dimi's etc. weren't a patch on it.

Btw, my fave cars were Schanche's RS200 and first Escort under the new regs in the video link mentioned elsewhere. Hunsdbedt won in Mondello in 97 in that car as Schanche concentrated on his newest Escort. Schanche's cars had a very distinctive raspy sound. Who was yer man with the 1,000bhp BMW M3 in the late 80's? That was mental too. I loved the sound of Kristoffersons last Audi in the mid 90's, it was like a jet.

[GOLDFINGER]

What about Andy Bentzas Audi 80? the four door saloon model ,wicked paint scheme and pretty rapid on its day

[chunder]

Right then, when it coems to Quattro's, its tough to see past Olle, he was by far the best in the A2, but there were times when guys llike Wurz and Mayer were as quick.

In the S1 E2, Olle was again very good, but I would argue Herbie got more out of his car! He certainly drove it hard! And now and then Lestander was super quick! But as always with him, only now and then!!

The BMW was Arild Martinsen, was an M3 with an Xtrac gearbox and a sort of IMSA based motor that was super powerful. He never seemed to get it sorted though and it rarely went that well! I think he had stayed with it he may have got it better.

[rx-guru]

Sven Lestander had two of the 20 genuine factory S1s (Herbert Breiteneder had another genuine one), no long quattro. He raced a Saab 99 Turbo 4x4 before the S1s. Dunno what colour fits to which of the two, but he drove a white livery, a red livery and a silver livery. One of the two went to Bert Brodin and had black livery then.

The best long quattro by its engine was the one of Olle Arnesson, but the best long one by chassis was the one Andy Bentza used in 1986, completely built up by Matter in Germany. The car went to Terje Sauthon later, the brother of Vidar. Andy's Audi 80 quattro, body also done by Matter, was sold to his compatriot Reneé Vontsina. The Wurz quattro went to Dimi, the Mayer quattro to Timo Virtanen.

Arild Martinsen had in his Xtrac BMW M3 a very powerful (800+bhp) IMSA engine by Heini Mader, but the car became useless on the tracks with more than 650bhp.

[Thundersports]

Olle Arnesson thats the car thanks chaps!!!!
The M3 of Martinson was truly mental off the line; my God I miss those days we really didn't realise at the time how lucky we were to see that era......

[tbtstt]

Pretty much all the Group B cars rank amongst my favourites, but its the RS200 that tops my list. Of those I would say either Schanches classic RS200 or the Doran car in the Hydrex livery. Some of the spoiler combinations on the RS200's looked a bit too mad for my liking (yeah, I know its about performance, not looks! ), but I thought the F1 spoiler fitted the car perfectly.

Have to say I have a bit of a thing for the modern Fiesta as well. I thought the Mk.6 Fiesta was an awesome looking car but, having seen the Mk.7 in action a few times now, thats topping my list of the modern cars.

[GOLDFINGER]

The Volvo does it for me really love the shape

[gas305]

How about Dave Wards 8 port Metro, proper little giant killer especially at brands GP meets, always had a thing for the underdogs. That car was always immaculate too.

Wish also i had more footage of Trevor Reeves` works Metro in the early days, think he was more than capable of making up for the cars lack of development compared to the fiesta`s etc.

Another curve ball, Per Inge Walfridson`s Volvo. To think that Granny Chariot took it to Schanche et all was a miracle.

Gollops Saab in its last guise was also amazing.

As per previous post, think we had it pretty lucky back then, especially to see such ingenuity from some great car builders often with small budgets.

[MiniMadness]

What about Martinson's Lotus. Now was that 4WD ?

Wahlund, a good choice. Both the Escort run brilliantly at one of the GP's and his Beetle were fab.
I also liked another ex-Bettle racer, Nordstrom. Surely one of the best GP's ever. The car looked great in black.

Sorry guys never like Bentza's Audi 80's horrid, but the Stratos definately one of my favourites.

Then Kristoffersons Quattro in BP colours.
Great to see someone take a step backwards in time and run the E2.

[GOLDFINGER]

, the Mayer quattro to Timo Virtanen.

was that the one he rolled @ Lydden in 84 ?

[MiniMadness]

Was Mayer's the A1 Quattro ?

Apologises for my previous post, just realised the glaring mistake, Kristofferson's Quattro was an A2. Ops. As on the bottom of my posts, 1 Donkey.

[rx-guru]

Mayer was really fast in his, yep, A1. But he crashed the car several times. Yep, the one he rolled during the 1984 British ERC round at Lydden after crashing Mabbs' Bank. In Finland he smashed it into the banking the same year to shorten it a lot.

[Lyddan1]

How about...

Ray Morgan's Escort

Luc Maris Volvo 242

The 306 of Gollop, Holfeld Mccluskey, Tracey, O'Donovan, Scott... what a car!

[KA]

Originally Posted by schanche

Willy Veevers Beatle was in fact Red/ Burgandy a self built dub always mixing it in the classes. Arthur Debenham used to work for Willy on his farm for a number of years, A.D had great delight in slipping that in over the P.A.

Yes, I remember the Beetle being red- think it was still around into at least the early 90's, and was still pretty quick then

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Some of the spoiler combinations on the RS200's looked a bit too mad for my liking (yeah, I know its about performance, not looks! ),

The Iversens come to mind here....



Funny thing is, if you think back to the various RS200s in the ERC, everyone seemed to be experimenting with extra aero aids (IIRC both the Thor Holm and Pekka Rantanen cars sprouted rear wings as well, though not on the Iversen scale), but whose RS was usually fastest? Schanche's, which was aerodynamically pretty much as Ford intended it...

Originally Posted by gas305

How about Dave Wards 8 port Metro, proper little giant killer especially at brands GP meets, always had a thing for the underdogs. That car was always immaculate too.

In the orange/black/white J.E. White Motors colours? as you say, always beautifully presented.

Another car I remember for always being immaculate- Brian Betteridge's rwd Mk3 Escort.

Some great cars mentioned so far- I always had a soft spot for anything big and rwd with more horsepower than was strictly neccessary, and the more sideways the better...Wayne O'Connor's Rover or Tony Proctor's GA-engined Sierra come to mind.
Anyone remember the Eivind Rosnaes Chevy Monza at and early 90's Brands GP?- that was a beast of a car...

A couple more favourite 2wd cars, Tony Bardy's Astra and the Jonny Milner 205.

It was always good to see somebody thinking outside the box and running something unusual. Who was it that ran a Lada Samara in British Rallycross in the early 90's?

[chunder]

It was Richard Watts from the North, and he was running one for a few years, it ran a Longman tuned motor too, damn quick, though not quick enough to beat that rocket 205 of Milner or the Baryd Nova's of Haffey/Richardson.

Holm rarely ran the daft bodywork, as rallycross is a bit to slow for it! Loved the Iversen cars.

Arnesson initially ran an S1 E2 with no front spoiler before running one later on.

Schanche did try things, but mainly engines. He was sort of backed by Ford, so maybe had to keep the car looking standard. He did try a few different engine types as I recall.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by KA

The Iversens come to mind here....

Exactly my point! As you say - and I know there were other factors (as Chunder has mentioned) - but Schanche had the most stock looking RS200 and his was often the quickest.

The Doran RS200 spoiler was one of the more subtle attempts at added downforce, but I think it doesn't look too OTT. It was because of the Doran RS200 that I went to my first RX meet as well, so it tops my fave car list for a couple of reasons.

I'm unsure of the driver, but I saw a couple of pictures on the various rallycross Facebook pages of a Stratos in use in rallycross. I imagine that must have been quite a sight (and sound) on track! Speaking of Lancia, has anyone ever taken an 037 rallycrossing?

[kurski]

Originally Posted by MiniMadness

What is your favourite Rallycross car ?

My best Rallycross car is this Ford Fiesta.

[chunder]

Regarding Lanica 037, I doubt anyone used one in European rallycross. as by that time the Zakker Escorts and Quattro were around meaning a 2wd car was largely pointless.

A Belgian guy called Eddy Colanbeen used a Lancia 037 based car in a modified class in the Benelux countries,.

And cmon, Schanche was the quickest coz he was the best and had the most money!

I would suggest a Rennison, Nordstrom or Nilsson was perhaps as quick but not as well funded. They often got good results on some tracks.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by chunder

Regarding Lanica 037, I doubt anyone used one in European rallycross. as by that time the Zakker Escorts and Quattro were around meaning a 2wd car was largely pointless.

I daresay the 037 wasn't the most suitable car for rallycross, but "not very suitable" doesn't always apply in rallycross, does it? There will always be some loony who wants to put an unsuited car on track!

Originally Posted by chunder

And cmon, Schanche was the quickest coz he was the best and had the most money!

Yeah, fair point. Obviously he thought that the money was better put into engines rather than trick aero? Or, as you said earlier, with the "factory" backing, was asked to leave his car relatively stock looking?

[rx-guru]

Eddy Colanbeen's Lancia 037 had a normally aspirated 1600cc engine for the -1600 class in Belgium.

Chunder, there was an Audi Sport quattro and 20 genuine evolution cars named Audi Sport quattro S1. I dunno who made up this E2 (used by Peugeot) tag for Audi...
I have also pics that Olle used his to S1 specs converted short quattro without the big rear wing.

[rx-guru]

My tuppence: On par with the Daewoo Nubira of Guttorm Lindefjell I myself rate the wing monster RS200 of the late Jan Arthur Iversen the most ugly RX car over the last 25 years.