Bbc Show About Group B Rally

[DanteICE 72]

The show is called Madness on Wheels: Rallying's Craziest Years. Certainly worth a watch.

 

iPlayer

 

Geoff

[Rich705 3]

Saw this last night, what an amazing programme about the Group B era.

[BlueBolt 156]

My brother text me to say it was on, was mid ikea building at the time but really enjoyed it!!

[Cameron 16]

Watched it on iPlayer last night, awesome programme!

[Sinbad 16]

Great watch,albeit a little bit negative.

[matt.f 16]

Very good programme,awesome cars.

Completely dissagree with the bloke who was at the accident where santos killed people in the RS,he swerved because some idiot was in the middle of the road end of!stand in the road like nobs and you will get hit/killed!

[Rich705 3]

This is repeated tonight at 8pm on BBC4 for anybody without the internet.

[Sinbad 16]

This is repeated tonight at 8pm on BBC4 for anybody without the internet.

But people without the internet will not see this post lol

[Rich705 3]

Mobile phone?

[BenC 6]

Very good programme,awesome cars.

Completely dissagree with the bloke who was at the accident where santos killed people in the RS,he swerved because some idiot was in the middle of the road end of!stand in the road like nobs and you will get hit/killed!

 

Completely agree with you. He tried to compare it with somone crashing into a house by the side of the road - is it the fault of the driver or the house for being there? In this scenario yes obviously it's the car/driver's fault but he wasn't stood on a 'road', when he was there it was a racetrack. You don't see the spectators at the Grand Prix trying to touch the cars as they go past!

[Pileopants 0]

What a crazy time that was... if ever the saying "Accident waiting to happen" applied to anything Group B was it.

 

But thought it said it all that the drivers said at the end it was the time of their careers that meant most to them. And what fantastic cars we are left with to enjoy at Goodwood etc.

[Sinbad 16]

Way i see it is this,yes the cars were incredibly quick,in some opinions dangerous.But what made them more dangerous is the ding fans who got in the way,having to concentrate twice as much imo,which leads to fatigue-resulting in mistakes.

They cant blame the cars,the organisers must accept part responsibilty for being unable to control the spectators.

Christ,you would get arrested for stuff like what they did these days!

[lemmingzappa 75 1 Cars]

Loved this program, stupid spectators >.<

[laldy875 6 1 Cars]

I really enjoyed this program. I never realised how much the 205 t16 dominated audi. (the parts where rohrl and stig are interviewed)

 

Those clips of Vatanen are just crazy, by far my favourite driver.

 

It's hard to see rally ever regaining the same following, although more manufacturers are taking part this year

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

A lot of well used clips rohrl/Quattro especially but ultimately a good show. Very enjoyable and a trip down memory lane with Steve rider commentary, saturday grandstand when I was about 11 years old!!

[205007 12]

Just shows the sheep mentality of people - all those p stood lining that stage and not one of them thought they might get hit by a car?

 

I guess they all thought "if they are doing it it must be ok"

 

Either that or they all thought it was worth the risk of death to see a grp b up close?!

[happygoron 2]

Enjoyed the show, but hated the narrator. One bit when discussing the first death someone says something like "it was a sad rallying accident, nothing to do with it being group b". Que narrator saying "and so groub b claimed its first victim". Very negative narrative.

[matt.f 16]

Also RS200 "ugly duckling",don't think so they are awesome!

Looking foreward to the Michelin rallye GP-B this year,based around Cheshire area using Oulten park and some stately homes,think it's August 25/26th,also open class for cars upto 1987

[McDude 33]

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon - really good watch this. I think it is by the same guy who did a similar job on the 1955 Le Mans crash and F1 Killer Years - both good shows as well.

 

Like others I remember watching Group B cars scare the trees on the telly box as an 11 yr old thinking that rallying was the most awesome spectacle ever. Interestingly a modern WRC car (don't know about the really modern 1.6ls but the 2.0ls) will do a stage more quickly than a Group B; not becasue they are more powerful, just that they have far better handling and traction. My point here is two-fold, one Group B still looked better because they were so out of shape and on the edge all the time and two that the speed of the cars isn't really the dangerous part. It was the lack of safety regs in terms of crash structure for the car and total and utter lack of crowd control.

 

Banning Group B was a knee jerk reaction to the problem of an over popular sport; the solution = make it less popular!

 

While I'm still in empassioned, semi-rant mode - Ari Vatinen is mental (in a good way). A T16 tried to kill him, he suffered massive depression including convincing himself he had caught AIDS. But he STILL thinks Group B cars were the best time of his life.

 

Still in Group B mode - did Toivenen not do a lap of the San Marino GP track in a Lancia S4 setting a time that would have put him second row on the grid for F1? I know the story is right but the details could be way off.

[jeremy_spoke_in 2]

Great program, modern rallying just doesn't compare to group B. Totally disagree with the guy who said it was the drivers fault for that big accident. If you go to watch a rally stage and stand on the road/right beside the road you have to have accept there is a chance you'll die/get injured.

[S@m 156]

Great program, cheers for the heads up - would've passed me by otherwise.

 

Sam

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

I think the story is toivenen could have got 6th place on the grid in his S4 for the Portuguese GP. it is however an urban myth.

[matt.f 16]

Was gravel road that followed perimeter of track and he set time that would have put him 7th on grid in quattro(mikkola)Delta S4 also recorded 2.7s 0-60 on gravel!

[DanteICE 72]

Completely agree with you. He tried to compare it with somone crashing into a house by the side of the road - is it the fault of the driver or the house for being there? In this scenario yes obviously it's the car/driver's fault but he wasn't stood on a 'road', when he was there it was a racetrack. You don't see the spectators at the Grand Prix trying to touch the cars as they go past!

 

Couldn't agree more!

 

Geoff

[kyepan 291]

good film, agree about that particular spectators point of view. Sounds like those guys lived in the golden age of rallying.