The Swedish Rally

STIG BLOMQVIST made a brilliant switch from f.w.d Saab to 4.w.d. Audi (above left) mastering the different technique in a remarkably short time, and scored a comfortable win, although he was helped by the in-house nudge between the Quattros of Mikkola (below right) and Mouton when the latter pushed the former off the road again just as he was about to regain it after going off the road and through a snowbank. Eklund was back in a Saab Turbo (above right) and took fourth place, whilst Röhrl drove his Opel Ascona 400 (left) sensibly in his first Swedish event to take third place, keeping his world championship lead. Vatanen drove a privately financed Escort (below left and bottom far right) to a fine second place against strong opposition from tractionally superior Audis, whilst Nilsson, not embarrassed by too much power in his Datsun 160J (right), made seventh. Snow banks were substantial, but roads were of hard ice sometimes covered by slush and pools of water created by a sudden rise in temperature a few days before the start.