Lancia Group B warriors remember rallying's darkest hour

The brilliant yet brief Group B era is viewed by many as rallying's golden age – however, protagonists of the time recall its dark reality

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Lancia Delta S4 of Miki Biasion blasts through the loose stuff on the 1986 Sanremo Rally

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It’s an era of rallying recalled equally with fondness and fear – the Group B monsters of Lancia, Audi, Peugeot and more driven by heroes such as Henri Toivonen, Walter Rohrl, and Ari Vatanen.

In this month’s magazine, some of Lancia’s key players recall what drivers feel in some senses was the discipline’s golden age, but also a tainted time which ended in almost inevitable tragedy – WRC legend Markku Alén himself says: “the warning signs were always there – [but] it was a beautiful adventure.”

Though beasts such as the Peugeot 206 and later iterations of the Audi Quattro show the might of Group B at full strength too, many view Lancia’s 037  and Delta S4 – driven by the charismatic quartet of Toivonen, Alén, Miki Biasion, and Attilio Bettega – as the ultimate expression of all that was sublime, beautiful and terrible in the category.

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Alén was a driver at one with the 037

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The incredible 037 was the first rocketship which took drivers on journey to triumph and eventual tragedy.

Alén also recalls what it was like to harness the huge power of such a machine.

“It was mighty on asphalt,” he tells Anthony Peacock. “It was a proper racing car, and I was able to win Corsica twice with it; the first Finn to do that – back when the rally was 13 hours of driving. It was also a nice and easy car to drive. I never had an accident in an 037 and in fact I never even rolled one.”

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Not all were so fortunate in the sleek, low-slung 037 though, as Alessandro Bettega, son of Lancia’s late “quiet man” Attillio, explains. The Italian had already broken both his legs in a 037 Corsica crash in ’82, then lost his life at the same rally three years later when a tree ruptured the driver’s seat, killing instantly.

“Group B was the biggest expression of rallying but there were a lot of risks to put on the show, and some people, such as my father, paid the price,” Alessandro says.

“I think it also took rallying away from its roots, in the sense that the history of the sport is based on cars that were derived from production cars – and Group B is about as far away from regular production as you can get.

“Still, these cars were truly spectacular. I never drove an 037 myself but I rode in one a few times: when my dad was testing, he sometimes used to strap me in and take me with him. Whenever I see an 037 I always associate it with him: it was my dad’s car.”

Despite the immense emotional pain associated with that an era, Alessandro takes some solace in his father’s achievements.

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Alén, seen here in the Delta S4 at the 1985 RAC Rally, says the car was much more of a gravel machine

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“It’s a shame he didn’t have more time on this earth; I think the next generation of Group A cars would have suited him better,” he says. “But of course he’ll always be part of the Group B story and I’m proud of that too.”

After the 037 came the S4, perhaps the ultimate Group B machine, never more so than in the hands of the first rallying rockstar, Henri Toivonen.

“The S4 was a direct descendant of the 037: the groundbreaking turbocharged and supercharged Abarth engine was first run in the back of a modified 037 as a prototype,” explains Peacock. “But the insane power meant that a four-wheel drive system was necessary, to finally give Lancia a contender capable of taking on the Audi Quattro and Peugeot 205 T16.”

“The Delta S4 is where it really reached the peak,” adds Lancia team manager Ninni Russo. “In the end, we were asking cars that had the same horsepower as the Formula 1 cars of only a couple of years earlier to go down the gravel tracks of the Acropolis, or the mountain roads of Corsica. It was something I felt uneasy about, so for me, there was always a certain anxiety.”

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“The S4 was much more of a gravel car than the 037,” adds Alén. “Although they were different animals, you actually had to drive them in pretty much the same way; keeping very clean and leading from the nose. The S4 never had fantastic torque from the start, so it was important to keep the momentum, and that was basically the driving style, which was not so easy. But the 037 and the S4 were two of the very best.”

It was at Corsica again, but one year later in ’86, that Group B witnessed its most horrifying act, ultimately leading to its rapid demise. Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresta speared off the mountainside whilst leading, the pair almost instantly killed with the car bursting into flames after impact – Alén was first on the scene, with the harrowing mental scars still there almost four decades later.

“Henri and Sergio’s accident is the most horrible memory of my life,” says Alén. “I got there around two minutes after it happened and it was obvious there was nothing I could do. I felt powerless. For about a month afterwards I went home and didn’t drive. Then we had the Acropolis Rally and I was straight back into it after one test session in Italy at La Mandria.”

Though he carried on competing, Alén emphasises the profound effect those events had – nothing was ever the same again.

“Nothing had changed really, but also everything had changed,” he says. “I love Group B and I always will; the problem is that with the deaths of Attilio, Henri and Sergio, the era was tainted. Fear is a difficult thing to talk about because it was always there. But it never really affected my attitude to risk. No risk means no gain.

“I guess the warning signs were always there. You can’t take responsibility for everything that happens. It was a beautiful adventure.”

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