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In the mid-1980s, rallying became more popular than Formula 1. | 0:00:11 | 0:00:15 | |
Rules were changed, | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
allowing manufacturers to create ever-more crazy and powerful cars. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
Known as Group B machines, | 0:00:23 | 0:00:24 | |
they unleashed unseen power on the World Rally Championship. | 0:00:24 | 0:00:28 | |
Too much power, too much speed. | 0:00:28 | 0:00:30 | |
It was the fastest rallying there'll ever be. | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
The 1980s would become known as rallying's golden years. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:40 | |
Star drivers, given the extreme challenge of keeping | 0:00:43 | 0:00:47 | |
these cars on the tarmac, gravel, and snow. | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
However, rallying quickly became lethal, | 0:00:51 | 0:00:54 | |
as the race for more power left safety behind. | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
In a Group B car, it was so easy to make mistakes. | 0:01:00 | 0:01:05 | |
And the car was completely destroyed. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
It was crazy. Absolutely crazy. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:14 | |
An accident, or more, was bound to happen. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:17 | |
The unregulated mayhem ended abruptly in 1986, | 0:01:17 | 0:01:22 | |
after a series of tragedies. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:23 | |
The Group B was something quite emotional, | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
but I try always to cancel this period from my mind. | 0:01:28 | 0:01:33 | |
This is the inside story of when rallying went out of control, | 0:01:33 | 0:01:38 | |
the madness that happens | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
when fans, ambition, politics and cars collide. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
Rallying started as a hobby for motor enthusiasts | 0:01:57 | 0:02:01 | |
using their everyday car. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:03 | |
The adventurous and eccentric | 0:02:03 | 0:02:05 | |
competing in a series of road tests against the clock. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:09 | |
It was Grand Prix's scruffy cousin. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:14 | |
Women competed equally alongside men. | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
In the 1960s, the sport was predominantly amateur. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:22 | |
Grand Prix driver Tony Brooks | 0:02:22 | 0:02:24 | |
even entering a taxi in the 1961 Monte Carlo Rally. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:29 | |
It was all part of rallying's non-exclusive joie de vivre. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:33 | |
By the 1980s, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:36 | |
the World Rally Championship consisted of events in 12 countries, | 0:02:36 | 0:02:40 | |
up to 5,000km long, split into day and night stages. | 0:02:40 | 0:02:45 | |
Top car companies and professional teams competed. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:50 | |
It was the ultimate test of speed and endurance | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
for the car, driver and co-driver. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
All these rallies were different. | 0:02:57 | 0:02:58 | |
You know, you had tarmac in Corsica, | 0:02:58 | 0:03:01 | |
rough roads in Greece, | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
African roads in Africa! | 0:03:04 | 0:03:06 | |
It was a hell of a challenge, not only for the drivers and crews | 0:03:06 | 0:03:11 | |
that were actually taking part but also for the engineers, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
because you've got to design a car | 0:03:15 | 0:03:17 | |
which could perform well in all those conditions. | 0:03:17 | 0:03:19 | |
But, I mean, it's madness to go rallying in the first place. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:28 | |
All this was, was a, sort of, refined madness! | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
Go on, keep going. Keep going. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:37 | |
That's it. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
Always follow the arrows, don't I? | 0:03:40 | 0:03:42 | |
This isn't a laughing matter, is it? | 0:03:42 | 0:03:44 | |
Well, you got to laugh, or you'd cry, don't you? | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
And I don't like crying. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
Motorsport's governing body is based in Paris's Place De La Concorde, | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
a long way from the gravel and dirt tracks of rallying. | 0:03:55 | 0:04:00 | |
Its leader in the 1980s was the unpredictable Jean-Marie Balestre. | 0:04:00 | 0:04:06 | |
Balestre invited, for the first time, | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
manufacturers, to help shake up rallying's rules. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:12 | |
I think you're wrong, here, to assume that Mr Balestre | 0:04:12 | 0:04:15 | |
had a very clear view of what the future was going to be. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:20 | |
I don't think he had any idea about cars or anything like that. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
His business was publishing. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
Balestre's dream, if there was one, was that he was going to get | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
a lot of manufacturers in and a lot of people were going to pay fees, | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
or a lot of money, you know, to go rallying. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
The manufacturers wanted it easier to make more powerful rally cars, | 0:04:34 | 0:04:37 | |
to leave behind the need to base them on a road vehicle. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:41 | |
They wanted to showcase their extreme engineering, | 0:04:41 | 0:04:45 | |
because it helped sell cars. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
Balestre agreed, and it would radically transform the sport. | 0:04:52 | 0:04:55 | |
The new Group B rules allowed manufacturers | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
to leave behind the standard public production models | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
and design their rally cars starting from a clean sheet of paper. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:10 | |
Exotic materials, clever aerodynamics, unlimited power | 0:05:10 | 0:05:15 | |
could then be added to the cars that became known as evolutions. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:20 | |
A new breed of monster car had arrived. | 0:05:20 | 0:05:23 | |
FISA didn't necessarily understand | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
what they were creating with Group B. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:29 | |
You can't be surprised that the manufacturers exploit that, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:31 | |
because that's what they're paid to do. That's what they want to do. | 0:05:31 | 0:05:34 | |
And, I mean, engineers | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
and team managers, you know, | 0:05:36 | 0:05:38 | |
they all get a kick out of this. | 0:05:38 | 0:05:40 | |
I mean, you've only got to look at the Group B cars | 0:05:40 | 0:05:42 | |
to understand that there was quite a lot of innovative thinking, | 0:05:42 | 0:05:47 | |
shall we say, during that period. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:50 | |
For sure, you must, if you want to be competitive, | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
the rules, you must use them | 0:05:54 | 0:05:58 | |
very borderline...yes. | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
Rally cars were becoming more visceral and more challenging. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
Drivers loved it. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:13 | |
It felt like those fighter plane pilots who are launched off | 0:06:13 | 0:06:17 | |
the aircraft carrier. | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
Like a catapult, which is pushing you. And, of course, it's..."Oh!" | 0:06:20 | 0:06:26 | |
What I like is, | 0:06:31 | 0:06:32 | |
it's a challenge to try to feel | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
the limit of the car, to feel | 0:06:35 | 0:06:37 | |
the limit of yourself, | 0:06:37 | 0:06:39 | |
and in rallying, it's the team, because you're not alone, | 0:06:39 | 0:06:43 | |
you're with your co-driver. | 0:06:43 | 0:06:44 | |
And then, to play with the limits of everything. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:49 | |
It's this adrenaline that will give you the limit of the car | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
and yourself. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:54 | |
I don't do this sport to earn money. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
I do it just for fun. I want to know | 0:07:03 | 0:07:05 | |
if I'm a dreamer or not. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
That was the reason I have done it. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
In front of the rally car, | 0:07:09 | 0:07:13 | |
the race car, you must dream. | 0:07:13 | 0:07:14 | |
And you are dreaming, with those cars. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:16 | |
If I was able to play piano like a maestro, I mean, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
I would play with my eyes closed, and I would just, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:28 | |
with the goose pimples on my skin. And driving is like that. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:34 | |
It's like music. It takes you. But you need a good piano - | 0:07:34 | 0:07:39 | |
and Group B was a fantastic piano. | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
70, absolute right, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
150, unseen easy right, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:49 | |
50, easy left, 50 grid, 100. Oh! | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
Dear God! | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
Despite the manufacturers' and drivers' enthusiasm for more speed, | 0:07:56 | 0:08:00 | |
the omens were not good. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:02 | |
Rallying had a recent history of fatal accidents in much slower cars. | 0:08:02 | 0:08:07 | |
In the 1981 Finnish Rally, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
Franz Wittmann failed to see the stop sign, | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
driving into official Raul Falin, who died later from his injuries. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:17 | |
In the 1982 Rally of Brazil, amateur Thomas Fuchs' | 0:08:17 | 0:08:22 | |
tiny Fiat disappeared off the road into a lake. | 0:08:22 | 0:08:25 | |
He drowned, and was left in his car. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:29 | |
In 1983, Reijo Nygren was killed at the Thousand Lakes Rally. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:34 | |
These accidents showed that event | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
and car safety were already often inadequate. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
Group B was taking speed | 0:08:40 | 0:08:42 | |
and the consequences of an accident to another level. | 0:08:42 | 0:08:47 | |
Clearly, to produce ever-more powerful cars was going to | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
cause a lot of problems. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:53 | |
That was...that was the nature | 0:08:53 | 0:08:55 | |
of the sport at that time. | 0:08:55 | 0:08:56 | |
We were pushing the envelope | 0:08:56 | 0:08:58 | |
with those cars, | 0:08:58 | 0:08:59 | |
there's no question about it. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:00 | |
There was little time | 0:09:03 | 0:09:04 | |
between the rule change | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
and the first Group B rally at Monte Carlo in 1983. | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
Cesare Fiorio and his Lancia team were one of only four manufacturers | 0:09:10 | 0:09:15 | |
to have a car ready. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
Their new car, named the Lancia Rally, | 0:09:17 | 0:09:19 | |
is a supercharged, tubular-framed, lightweight racer, | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
designed for just one purpose. In these dry conditions | 0:09:22 | 0:09:24 | |
and on the twisting, cambered roads of the Alps, | 0:09:24 | 0:09:26 | |
it's utterly without equal. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
Making a car 600 pounds lighter had massively improved acceleration. | 0:09:29 | 0:09:34 | |
It suited their driver, double world champion, Walter Rohrl. | 0:09:34 | 0:09:39 | |
Before the start of last year, | 0:09:39 | 0:09:40 | |
this rally, my tactic was the same | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
like this year. | 0:09:42 | 0:09:43 | |
Attack. And I have done it last year and I've been doing it this year. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
Last year's winner, Walter Rohrl, is as good as his word. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
The Lancia Rally may be new to him, but you wouldn't know. | 0:09:50 | 0:09:54 | |
With little snow, the Lancia's prowess on tarmac led to an easy win | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
for Rohrl and his co-driver, Christian Geistdorfer. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:01 | |
A superbly-professional drive from the world champion. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:05 | |
His second successive Monte Carlo Rally victory | 0:10:05 | 0:10:07 | |
and the third of his career. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
Lancia for the world championship? | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
Well, the Italian team is certainly looking very impressive. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
Winning Monte Carlo, | 0:10:14 | 0:10:16 | |
it's the greatest thing | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
you can achieve, | 0:10:18 | 0:10:19 | |
because driving down | 0:10:19 | 0:10:21 | |
in the morning light | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
to Monte Carlo, from La Turbie, it's so emotional. | 0:10:23 | 0:10:29 | |
Unbelievable. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
Lancia, though, had backed the wrong technology. | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
A small German company was about to make two-wheel-drive obsolete. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:44 | |
Manufacturers knew that fast rally cars winning on the track | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
sold more cars in the showroom. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
The Audi Quattro became such a car. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
After test driving the Iltis, an army jeep on snow, | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
Audi development engineer, Roland Gumpert, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
realised he had seen the future of rallying. | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
It was obvious to Gumpert that four-wheel-drive would give | 0:11:08 | 0:11:11 | |
twice the traction of two-wheel-drive, | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
turbocharging enabling much more power from | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
a relatively-small engine. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:18 | |
They were putting their hands over their head | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
and saying, "How you think to sell four-wheel-driven | 0:11:22 | 0:11:26 | |
"stupid cars to the public?"! | 0:11:26 | 0:11:28 | |
So, everybody at this time, has a problem, | 0:11:28 | 0:11:33 | |
couldn't believe that it would be a success in the future. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
All the technical people, or leading technical people, in Mercedes said, | 0:11:36 | 0:11:42 | |
"This thing will never work, so, don't worry about it. | 0:11:42 | 0:11:46 | |
"We're doing the right thing. Forget about Audi." | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
And we were laughing, saying, "These stupid guys, | 0:11:49 | 0:11:54 | |
"they do not understand physics." | 0:11:54 | 0:11:56 | |
It was a fantastic feeling. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:58 | |
I remember the first time | 0:11:58 | 0:12:00 | |
I went down to Ingolstadt, | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
and get to drive in the car and I couldn't believe | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
the difference between | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:09 | |
Because that's like day and night. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:11 | |
When I started with Audi, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:17 | |
they did a survey in France | 0:12:17 | 0:12:19 | |
to know about what people think | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
about Audi. | 0:12:21 | 0:12:23 | |
7% of the French people | 0:12:23 | 0:12:25 | |
were answering, "It's a washing machine." | 0:12:25 | 0:12:27 | |
I tell you, after one year, nobody would say that in France, for sure. | 0:12:27 | 0:12:32 | |
With the promise of 370-brake horsepower | 0:12:47 | 0:12:50 | |
and four-wheel-drive technology, Audi wooed the best drivers. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:54 | |
Hannu Mikkola, Stig Blomqvist, Michele Mouton | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
were a formidable team. | 0:12:58 | 0:12:59 | |
And Audi claimed the drivers' world titles | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
in the first two years of Group B. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
They blitzed the opposition. There was no way the rest could keep up. | 0:13:08 | 0:13:11 | |
So, Audi against Lancia. The scene set for a terrific battle. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:15 | |
Audi had outsmarted the opposition. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:20 | |
The Audi Quattro revolutionised the sport, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:28 | |
because they were winning everything. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:30 | |
I mean, they were completely dominant of the sport. | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
The team was really strong | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
and they knew what to do. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
So, it was | 0:13:37 | 0:13:38 | |
a very, very good time. | 0:13:38 | 0:13:40 | |
We were very hard to beat. | 0:13:40 | 0:13:43 | |
And winning the championship was a nice feeling. | 0:13:43 | 0:13:47 | |
The Audi Quattro would become the iconic car of the 1980s, | 0:13:47 | 0:13:52 | |
entirely due to its rallying success. | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
With the commercial rivalry and the drama of the cars, came huge crowds. | 0:14:01 | 0:14:06 | |
In 1984, over one million people would go to the RAC Rally. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:16 | |
The people loved the sport. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:19 | |
Every year, more people showed up to see the stages | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
and, in those years, rallying was much more famous than Formula 1. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:29 | |
The sport was growing into a dimension | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
which was just unbelievable. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
We had hundreds of thousands of spectators on the stages. | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
There's different attitudes to spectating in some places. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
Some of the Portuguese guys used to touch the cars, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
as the cars went by down the stages. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:50 | |
So, drivers were faced with going down an avenue of fans | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
with hands reaching out, trying to touch the cars. | 0:14:53 | 0:14:55 | |
And that's not fair on the drivers. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:59 | |
Driving rallies in Italy or Portugal or Spain, | 0:15:03 | 0:15:07 | |
the spectators are on the road | 0:15:07 | 0:15:08 | |
and you couldn't see, even, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:12 | |
where is the road going on, and the car is coming, | 0:15:12 | 0:15:16 | |
the driver through the crowd, | 0:15:16 | 0:15:19 | |
and the crowd opening, and behind the car, closing again. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:24 | |
If a guy got to touch a car, he was, kind of, a hero. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:32 | |
He did some dangerous thing. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:34 | |
There was a guy in San Remo, for example, | 0:15:34 | 0:15:37 | |
when Rohrl went off a little bit, he broke his leg, | 0:15:37 | 0:15:40 | |
and he was happy like hell to have his leg broken by Walter Rohrl. | 0:15:40 | 0:15:44 | |
So, some of the fans are really, really keen about things. | 0:15:44 | 0:15:48 | |
It was too dangerous, you know, these people, the spectators, | 0:15:56 | 0:16:01 | |
they wasn't used that the Group B car was so fast. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:04 | |
People didn't move backwards, putting the car sideways, | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
and you could hear "bum, bum, bum", where you were hitting people. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:14 | |
There is a point where you have to drive thinking like, you know, | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
they are part of the game. | 0:16:20 | 0:16:21 | |
You try to consider that they are like trees. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:27 | |
You don't want to hit trees or anything. It's difficult. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:30 | |
Very difficult. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
So, we could not stop this. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
And, for these people, even if you hurt someone, | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
then that's their mistake. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
If you look in the FIA Yellow Book of the period, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:48 | |
there isn't one single page on how to run a rally safely, | 0:16:48 | 0:16:53 | |
but the problem is, you're so busy competing and organising your team | 0:16:53 | 0:16:57 | |
and everything like that | 0:16:57 | 0:16:58 | |
that that sort of thing rather goes past you. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
I think everyone knew | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
that it was all getting too quick. | 0:17:08 | 0:17:10 | |
I think the drivers were scared, | 0:17:10 | 0:17:12 | |
I think the co-drivers were more scared, | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
but there was a momentum with these things. | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
I think it takes... It would have taken a very brave person to cancel | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
a round of the World Rally Championship. | 0:17:22 | 0:17:24 | |
It seemed crowds were already too big to deal with, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:28 | |
but an incredible new car was about to make the sport even more popular. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:32 | |
In a run-down suburb on the outskirts of Paris, | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
Peugeot were out to save their floundering company | 0:17:37 | 0:17:41 | |
with a secret project in development. | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
Going against convention, they hired an experienced rally co-driver, | 0:17:44 | 0:17:48 | |
Jean Todt, to oversee the task. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
He was always a very strong personality. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:53 | |
He knew the sport inside out | 0:17:53 | 0:17:55 | |
and he knew what was required to make a very successful team. | 0:17:55 | 0:18:00 | |
It's all about human management, | 0:18:00 | 0:18:02 | |
running a team. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:04 | |
Technical side is there, engineers take care of it. | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
The rest is human management. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:08 | |
How to bring the best out of human beings. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:13 | |
And people must have a feeling that they have a boss who cares, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
and Jean, he cared for people, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:18 | |
and that's why our team was so successful. | 0:18:18 | 0:18:22 | |
Hiring Jean Todt was to prove a masterstroke, | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
as he would oversee the design of the Peugeot 205 T16, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
choosing to put the engine in the middle of the car | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
for lightness and balance. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
The thing which was very scaring | 0:18:35 | 0:18:39 | |
is that all the Audi people | 0:18:39 | 0:18:43 | |
were saying a four-wheel-drive car mid-engine can never work. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:48 | |
Putting the engine behind the driver was common in racing cars, | 0:18:49 | 0:18:54 | |
but nobody had built a transverse, mid-engined, | 0:18:54 | 0:18:56 | |
four-wheel-drive rally car before. | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
The fear was that it would be unstable when it left the ground. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:03 | |
In 1984, after extensive testing, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
they travelled to the Corsican Rally, with high hopes. | 0:19:06 | 0:19:09 | |
Their number one driver | 0:19:10 | 0:19:11 | |
was former world champion and flying Finn, Ari Vatanen. | 0:19:11 | 0:19:16 | |
I remember when I tested in Corsica, | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
and I stopped after a few accelerations | 0:19:19 | 0:19:21 | |
and looked at Terry Harryman, | 0:19:21 | 0:19:23 | |
and I said, "Look at this car! It's fast." | 0:19:23 | 0:19:25 | |
It just felt so good, it rendered me confident in that car. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
It just felt like a glove on my hand. Not only confidence, | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
it put a smile on my face when I was driving. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
Vatanen's optimism was borne out. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
After the first few stages, Peugeot were in front. | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
Rally history was rewritten | 0:19:42 | 0:19:43 | |
and the pressure was now on Lancia, Audi and the other teams. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:49 | |
When you do something, you are always under pressure to deliver. | 0:19:49 | 0:19:51 | |
Of course. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
You know, it's so many people promise, speak, | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
but what is very important, | 0:19:58 | 0:20:00 | |
and it has always been my philosophy in life, is to deliver. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:06 | |
If you commit to something, you have to deliver. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
That was the turnaround in the history of Peugeot. | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
It was the combination of new car and motorsport programme | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
and so, we not just were winning rallies and fighting for victories, | 0:20:16 | 0:20:21 | |
but this programme played, absolutely, a fundamental role | 0:20:21 | 0:20:26 | |
in saving livelihoods of ordinary workers at the Peugeot factory. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:32 | |
The Corsican Rally of 1984 was to sow the seeds for | 0:20:32 | 0:20:34 | |
a fantastic sequence of victories, ultimately saving the company. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:39 | |
In 1984, the Peugeot 205 was named Car Of The Year. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:44 | |
Five races, three victories, this is the 205's score. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:53 | |
In the World Championship there's not a shadow of doubt, | 0:20:53 | 0:20:56 | |
the new challenger's name is Peugeot. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:59 | |
ANNOUNCER: Ari Vatanen and Terry Harryman, | 0:20:59 | 0:21:01 | |
who've won, this year, by 41 seconds. | 0:21:01 | 0:21:03 | |
As the Monte Carlo Rally opened | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
the 1985 season, Audi had little hope of beating Peugeot. | 0:21:07 | 0:21:10 | |
The once-struggling French manufacturer | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
was rubbing salt into the wounds of their German and Italian rivals. | 0:21:13 | 0:21:18 | |
Do you think you can be faster? | 0:21:18 | 0:21:20 | |
With my car, you've seen I am eight minutes slower. | 0:21:20 | 0:21:25 | |
What's your prognostic? Ari will win and I hope I will be second. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:31 | |
Rohrl's prediction was right. Vatanen was untouchable. | 0:21:31 | 0:21:34 | |
But it came at a high price, | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
as he ran over some spectators on his way to victory. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:41 | |
This did not stop Peugeot's marketing execs from lining | 0:21:41 | 0:21:45 | |
the roads of the rally's final stage to celebrate. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:48 | |
Timo Salonen, Peugeot's recent addition, came third. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:56 | |
Peugeot followed Monte Carlo up with another win for Vatanen in Sweden. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:19 | |
I was trying a little bit too hard, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
I got a little bit too enthusiastic. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
I was trying to decide the whole rally on one stage, | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
so I had to pay for it, but, luckily, we got away. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:29 | |
I only lost some 40 seconds, | 0:22:29 | 0:22:31 | |
but, in any case, you know, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:33 | |
that put us back, but we are leading by one minute and 19 seconds, now. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
You made no fault, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:38 | |
but you can't pass Ari. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:40 | |
It's a little bit difficult. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
Why? He is too quick. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
What can you do against Ari now? Nothing, I think. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:49 | |
Thank you. | 0:22:51 | 0:22:52 | |
Audi even thought about quitting, | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
only to plough on with a new evolution of the Quattro. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
By May, 1985, Lancia hadn't won for a year. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:06 | |
So difficult, you know. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
Everybody go like hell. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:13 | |
One time, in Finland, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
we were after one week driving, | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
we finished second, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
with, I think, seven seconds. | 0:23:20 | 0:23:22 | |
So, it was like the first place. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:25 | |
Can you imagine, after one week, seven seconds being the second? | 0:23:25 | 0:23:30 | |
But, no matter, it's second place, and not counting. | 0:23:30 | 0:23:35 | |
So, you have the pressure to win. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
And, the whole team was just, "Win is counting." | 0:23:38 | 0:23:44 | |
So, the victories counting. Nothing else. | 0:23:44 | 0:23:46 | |
The 1985 season rolled on, | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
leading to the high-speed, high-pressure Corsican tarmac rally. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:57 | |
This was one of the most exciting | 0:23:57 | 0:23:59 | |
and most dangerous in the season, with sheer cliffs, | 0:23:59 | 0:24:02 | |
back-to back-corners, | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
and little, if any, protection, when things go wrong. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:06 | |
Former champions Lancia were now relegated to being the also-rans, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
straggling behind Audi and the domineering Peugeots. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:16 | |
Local hero Attilio Bettega | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
had not been on the podium for over eight months | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
and was feeling the strain. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
His Lancia 037 was designed for tarmac | 0:24:25 | 0:24:29 | |
and if he was to steal a victory, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
this would be one of his only chances. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:33 | |
There's a very high-quality entry for the event, with representation | 0:24:33 | 0:24:38 | |
from Lancia, Peugeot, Renault, Audi, Opel and Rothmans Porsche. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:44 | |
Waving the competitors away, | 0:24:44 | 0:24:46 | |
the rather-controversial president of FISA, | 0:24:46 | 0:24:48 | |
Jean-Marie Balestre. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
At number four, Attilio Bettega, | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
with the second of the two works Lancias. | 0:24:54 | 0:24:58 | |
The Italian, who went well in the early stages of the safari, | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
gets away from the ramp. | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
Bettega was a very serious driver | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
coming from the mountain. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:09 | |
You know, people from the mountain | 0:25:09 | 0:25:12 | |
are very serious and very motivated. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
They don't talk too much, but he drove very, very good. | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
Very good driver. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:20 | |
Standing in Bettega's way was Audi's Walter Rohrl. | 0:25:22 | 0:25:26 | |
He was also feeling the strain of a losing streak | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
and had been on the island practising for six weeks. | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
If I say I was good or I was the best, then it was on tarmac. | 0:25:33 | 0:25:38 | |
You say, of course, I have to win Corsica, because Corsica was, | 0:25:38 | 0:25:42 | |
at this time, it was the most famous | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
and the best tarmac rally in the world. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:48 | |
But I never won it, because always, I had some technical problems. | 0:25:48 | 0:25:52 | |
I was sure we can win it. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:54 | |
The Audi went quite well in the early stages of the Portuguese Rally | 0:25:55 | 0:25:58 | |
which was held on tarmac stages, as well, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:00 | |
so things should be fairly good for the German driver. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
However, Rohrl's car had terminal brake failure on the first stage, | 0:26:05 | 0:26:09 | |
only a few kilometres into the 1,600km event. | 0:26:09 | 0:26:15 | |
And, that was, | 0:26:16 | 0:26:18 | |
that was really hard for me. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
I remember, I was completely destroyed. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
I had me under control. Even if my father or my mother has died, | 0:26:23 | 0:26:28 | |
I was not crying. | 0:26:28 | 0:26:30 | |
But in this time, I was absolutely... | 0:26:30 | 0:26:34 | |
I was completely destroyed. | 0:26:34 | 0:26:36 | |
Ideal conditions on this first leg | 0:26:38 | 0:26:40 | |
and the first stage threw up a few surprises. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:43 | |
Competition is often cruel, but as Rohrl got on his aeroplane home, | 0:26:43 | 0:26:48 | |
his failure became a golden opportunity for others | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
down the ranks to take advantage and make their name. | 0:26:51 | 0:26:53 | |
Could Attilio Bettega be one of those to upset the form book? | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
Pushing hard, he was lying in second, after the first stage. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
Three stages later, it would end in tragedy. | 0:27:07 | 0:27:10 | |
Bettega went off the road. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
He was too much over the limit and... | 0:27:20 | 0:27:22 | |
...this sport is still too dangerous to play around | 0:27:22 | 0:27:29 | |
with high-risk things. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
It was a bumpy place, where everybody was lifting. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:37 | |
And he was the only one who was putting the foot down | 0:27:37 | 0:27:39 | |
and trying to do it flat out. | 0:27:39 | 0:27:42 | |
Bettega was an accident that, I think, | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
had nothing to do with Group Bs or whatever. | 0:27:46 | 0:27:50 | |
It was a normal rally accident, which turned bad | 0:27:50 | 0:27:55 | |
because he hit a tree in the front. | 0:27:55 | 0:27:57 | |
With Bettega's death, Group B had claimed its first victim. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
The 037, if you have an accident, | 0:28:05 | 0:28:09 | |
the front was nothing, it was just five tubes like this. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
There are all the drivers who are a category lower, | 0:28:17 | 0:28:21 | |
and they have to risk much more to achieve what those boys, | 0:28:21 | 0:28:26 | |
who were world-class drivers, are doing in a very simple way, | 0:28:26 | 0:28:30 | |
just naturally. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
Bettega was this kind of second-category drivers. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:36 | |
Good, very good, in some events, | 0:28:36 | 0:28:40 | |
but he was not at the class of a Rohrl, Alen, a Mikkola. | 0:28:40 | 0:28:45 | |
Up to this time, he was the fastest driver in Italy | 0:28:49 | 0:28:53 | |
and then Biasion was coming and he put a lot of pressure on him. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:57 | |
That was the reason he was killed. He was so under pressure. | 0:28:57 | 0:29:01 | |
In rally driving, in race driving, | 0:29:05 | 0:29:07 | |
you have only one person who is interesting for you, | 0:29:07 | 0:29:11 | |
that's your team-mate. | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
The rest has better cars. That's the reason they go faster than you. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:17 | |
But if your team-mate is faster than you, what do you tell? | 0:29:17 | 0:29:22 | |
What do you do? You go to Corsica, you know, where you're rallying, | 0:29:22 | 0:29:25 | |
you know what's going on. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:27 | |
I think in any sport, | 0:29:27 | 0:29:28 | |
it doesn't matter what you're doing, | 0:29:28 | 0:29:30 | |
the participant knows what he's taking on. | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
There were no thoughts of grieving or stopping. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:36 | |
The rally had to continue. | 0:29:36 | 0:29:39 | |
With Lancia withdrawn and five other cars broken down, | 0:29:39 | 0:29:43 | |
Ari Vatanen could snatch victory. | 0:29:43 | 0:29:45 | |
An earlier puncture, however, forced him to drive beyond his limits. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:50 | |
In second place on the road, but seventh overall, is Ari Vatanen, | 0:29:50 | 0:29:55 | |
and he's going as quick as ever. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:58 | |
Vatanen is flying. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
Although, anything can happen when Vatanen is going quick. | 0:30:06 | 0:30:09 | |
I forgot, | 0:30:34 | 0:30:35 | |
I just got myself so enthusiastic, | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
I went to the floor. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:44 | |
I just... But I enjoyed it. | 0:30:44 | 0:30:47 | |
And, also, those setbacks, | 0:30:47 | 0:30:49 | |
when you drive every corner as if it was your last corner. | 0:30:49 | 0:30:53 | |
Then, yes, you win less, but you gain a lot. | 0:30:53 | 0:30:58 | |
Miraculously, Ari Vatanen and his co-driver escaped serious injury. | 0:30:58 | 0:31:03 | |
But, if it's not dangerous, they're not going to do it. | 0:31:06 | 0:31:08 | |
They don't want to play with tiddlywinks. | 0:31:08 | 0:31:10 | |
They want to be challenged. | 0:31:10 | 0:31:11 | |
They want to do things that are dangerous. | 0:31:11 | 0:31:13 | |
They want to go faster than others. That's what motorsport's about. | 0:31:13 | 0:31:16 | |
And if you took today's rally drivers or today's Formula 1 drivers | 0:31:16 | 0:31:20 | |
and took away the risk, they wouldn't get a kick out of it. | 0:31:20 | 0:31:23 | |
Everybody starts to laugh at you, | 0:31:23 | 0:31:26 | |
"You are crazy, you are going so fast," but I was always, | 0:31:26 | 0:31:32 | |
always behind, I said, "You must be careful. | 0:31:32 | 0:31:35 | |
"Don't overturn it." And I always realised, also, the dangers. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:41 | |
Walter's a real gentleman | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
and his driving style also was very clean, like a professor. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:49 | |
Opposite to mine, I suppose. | 0:31:49 | 0:31:51 | |
Don't tell him tomorrow. Ari was just starting to fly. | 0:31:53 | 0:32:00 | |
I play music with my eyes closed, but heart open. | 0:32:09 | 0:32:13 | |
It's up to you to decide what's the definition of that. | 0:32:15 | 0:32:18 | |
Is it a crazy or what else? | 0:32:18 | 0:32:20 | |
Driving is, in a way, an extension of your personality. | 0:32:25 | 0:32:29 | |
He was quite dangerous, too. | 0:32:34 | 0:32:37 | |
I think if people are not able to be afraid for something, | 0:32:37 | 0:32:43 | |
then it's dangerous. | 0:32:43 | 0:32:45 | |
OK, people tell, "This is a hero". But most heroes are died. | 0:32:45 | 0:32:51 | |
Ari Vatanen's luck ran out in Argentina. | 0:32:55 | 0:32:58 | |
A crashed turned serious when his seat snapped. | 0:32:58 | 0:33:02 | |
I remember those bends, the ones I did not make. | 0:33:04 | 0:33:09 | |
And there are many, | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
but maybe it's that dip on the road on that long straight in Argentina | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
where I nearly died. | 0:33:15 | 0:33:16 | |
And my life very, very nearly ended there. | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
I hit the dip and the car went end-over-end | 0:33:22 | 0:33:26 | |
and my seat broke down, entirely. And that's why I wasn't harnessed | 0:33:26 | 0:33:31 | |
any more by seatbelts, | 0:33:31 | 0:33:33 | |
I got all these multiple injuries. And if it wasn't for the helicopter | 0:33:33 | 0:33:38 | |
which came to look for me, I wouldn't be here today. | 0:33:38 | 0:33:43 | |
I mean, I was not in this world any more. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
All I had kept, apparently, saying - "No more rallies. No more rallies." | 0:33:45 | 0:33:50 | |
Ari Vatanen almost died. His knees were crushed flat. | 0:33:52 | 0:33:55 | |
He had eight broken ribs, | 0:33:55 | 0:33:57 | |
a broken leg, a broken back and a punctured lung. | 0:33:57 | 0:34:01 | |
He would spend the next 18 months in a deep depression | 0:34:01 | 0:34:04 | |
and he would never race a competitive Group B rally again. | 0:34:04 | 0:34:08 | |
That's all part of life. | 0:34:12 | 0:34:14 | |
I can't see my life without those bends and without those dips. | 0:34:14 | 0:34:18 | |
Life is full of setbacks, it's full of tragedy. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:24 | |
I mean, the banana skin is waiting for you around the corner, anyway, | 0:34:24 | 0:34:28 | |
and you don't know where it is. | 0:34:28 | 0:34:30 | |
With Bettega dead and Vatanen seriously ill, | 0:34:34 | 0:34:38 | |
a cloud began to form over Group B. | 0:34:38 | 0:34:40 | |
Peugeot's second driver, Salonen, | 0:34:42 | 0:34:44 | |
went on to secure the 1985 championship - | 0:34:44 | 0:34:48 | |
his conservative and controlled approach | 0:34:48 | 0:34:51 | |
countering the fiery nature of his 205 T16. | 0:34:51 | 0:34:54 | |
What are you going to do tomorrow? Same speed. | 0:34:54 | 0:34:57 | |
I try to maybe a little bit faster, if Stig start pushing. | 0:34:57 | 0:35:01 | |
1986 would be a critical year. Other manufacturers | 0:35:09 | 0:35:13 | |
were desperately trying to exploit FISA's relaxed rules, | 0:35:13 | 0:35:17 | |
hoping to use rallying's new-found fame to sell more cars. | 0:35:17 | 0:35:21 | |
Austin Rover launched its ?10 million Metro 6R4, | 0:35:21 | 0:35:25 | |
a shopping car on steroids. | 0:35:25 | 0:35:27 | |
Ford weighed in with its ugly duckling, the RS200. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
Porsche, its ever-delayed 939. | 0:35:32 | 0:35:35 | |
Audi, their new E2 and S1, set to take power | 0:35:35 | 0:35:38 | |
through the magical 500-brake horsepower ceiling. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:43 | |
No-one, though, was prepared for the unveiling in Italy | 0:35:44 | 0:35:47 | |
of Lancia's brutal, mid-engined, supercharged, turbocharged, | 0:35:47 | 0:35:51 | |
four-wheel-drive Delta S4. | 0:35:51 | 0:35:54 | |
It would render all their efforts a waste of time. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:59 | |
It was almost like a caricature of a Delta. | 0:36:00 | 0:36:04 | |
You could see Delta bits on it. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:06 | |
You could see the likeness, | 0:36:06 | 0:36:07 | |
but under the skin the car was quite, quite different. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:11 | |
You know, it was like a Formula 1 car for the forest. | 0:36:11 | 0:36:14 | |
It was so exotic. | 0:36:14 | 0:36:15 | |
I suppose the Delta S4 was the ultimate Group B rally car. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:20 | |
It had turbocharger, supercharger, four-wheel-drive, | 0:36:20 | 0:36:23 | |
all the tricks they could find and a few more they couldn't find. | 0:36:23 | 0:36:27 | |
And the aerodynamics were outrageous. | 0:36:27 | 0:36:30 | |
The designers chose to cram all the technology | 0:36:30 | 0:36:33 | |
in the back of the car | 0:36:33 | 0:36:35 | |
and to place the driver and co-driver on top of the fuel tanks. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:39 | |
Couple this machine with one of rallying's hot young talents, | 0:36:39 | 0:36:43 | |
Henri Toivonen, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:45 | |
and Lancia were once again primed to win the 1986 championship. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:51 | |
I knew him since he was seven years old. | 0:36:51 | 0:36:53 | |
And he was a little boy coming to see his father, Paoli, | 0:36:53 | 0:36:58 | |
that was driving, already, for me. | 0:36:58 | 0:36:59 | |
So his story and his relationship | 0:36:59 | 0:37:02 | |
with our team was quite strong. | 0:37:02 | 0:37:06 | |
We have the drivers, we have the know-how | 0:37:06 | 0:37:09 | |
of how to organise the team. | 0:37:09 | 0:37:12 | |
And we must do it better than the others. And that's what we did. | 0:37:12 | 0:37:16 | |
Everybody was trying to outdo each other, whether it was in terms of | 0:37:16 | 0:37:20 | |
facilities, number of personnel, | 0:37:20 | 0:37:23 | |
number of service vehicles, tyre choice, the drivers, you know, | 0:37:23 | 0:37:26 | |
everything was just ratcheted up event by event. | 0:37:26 | 0:37:30 | |
I think when you know that you are not as strong as your competition, | 0:37:30 | 0:37:36 | |
you must be more clever, to beat them. | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
Members of the board expected from me to win. | 0:37:41 | 0:37:45 | |
They're looking at rallying as a means of selling their products, | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
so that the pressure | 0:37:48 | 0:37:50 | |
is coming from that side, to say, "OK, we're investing | 0:37:50 | 0:37:53 | |
"all these millions in your rally team. | 0:37:53 | 0:37:55 | |
"You must deliver us victories." | 0:37:55 | 0:37:57 | |
When you are engaged with a factory team, | 0:37:57 | 0:37:59 | |
you have to... the responsibility to try to win. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
I always felt that I had two personality in myself. | 0:38:04 | 0:38:09 | |
You know, the one who was in rallying - very egoistic - | 0:38:09 | 0:38:12 | |
and then, out of the car, I was like another person, you know. | 0:38:12 | 0:38:16 | |
Helmet and gloves change a lot on a rally driver. | 0:38:16 | 0:38:20 | |
When I was winning the championship, I think, we stayed | 0:38:21 | 0:38:24 | |
about 290 days at hotel. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
He was never at home, actually. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
You know, I can remember drivers coming to the end of the stage | 0:38:31 | 0:38:34 | |
and they're absolutely physically drained. | 0:38:34 | 0:38:36 | |
Of course, it was a big, big challenge. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:45 | |
Yeah, because you get this, kind of, adrenaline, | 0:38:45 | 0:38:47 | |
which makes you so enthusiastic | 0:38:47 | 0:38:49 | |
about what you're doing. | 0:38:49 | 0:38:51 | |
And it's just over-revving yourself, going into the red, | 0:38:51 | 0:38:56 | |
then suddenly, you haven't got the reaction any more, | 0:38:56 | 0:38:59 | |
because you're too tired. | 0:38:59 | 0:39:00 | |
Group B was pushing drivers to the edge. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:05 | |
Henri Toivonen, works Lancia. Off! | 0:39:05 | 0:39:08 | |
Deep in the ditch. | 0:39:08 | 0:39:10 | |
Try reverse. | 0:39:10 | 0:39:12 | |
No good. | 0:39:12 | 0:39:13 | |
The start of the 1986 season | 0:39:18 | 0:39:21 | |
showed just how much rallying had grown in the last four years. | 0:39:21 | 0:39:24 | |
On the starting line, teams flexed their wallets, | 0:39:26 | 0:39:29 | |
Peugeot trumping everyone, by bringing four works cars. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:33 | |
Michelin arrived with 13,000 tyres - team helicopters | 0:39:33 | 0:39:36 | |
flying them around the 4,000-km Alpine course | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
for mid-stage pit stops. | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
Jean Todt declared his Peugeot evolution | 0:39:42 | 0:39:46 | |
"As good as it needs to be," | 0:39:46 | 0:39:48 | |
only to have to eat his words, as Henri Toivonen | 0:39:48 | 0:39:50 | |
in his Lancia Delta S4, stormed ahead. | 0:39:50 | 0:39:55 | |
This, despite Toivonen crashing into a spectator's car in between stages. | 0:39:55 | 0:39:59 | |
The Italians that had poured over the border were in raptures. | 0:40:03 | 0:40:08 | |
Unfortunately, as the Champagne flowed, | 0:40:09 | 0:40:12 | |
news came through that yet again a spectator had been hospitalised, | 0:40:12 | 0:40:16 | |
this time with a smashed leg. | 0:40:16 | 0:40:18 | |
Questions were asked if rallying was being mismanaged. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:21 | |
Cars had nearly doubled in power in the space of three years, | 0:40:21 | 0:40:25 | |
yet FISA had not changed the crowd management | 0:40:25 | 0:40:27 | |
or structure of the rallies. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:29 | |
They were now more intense than ever. | 0:40:29 | 0:40:33 | |
You know, the Group B's cars were very difficult to drive, | 0:40:33 | 0:40:37 | |
even for the superstars. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:39 | |
I was in '73, Monte Carlo, | 0:40:39 | 0:40:41 | |
with 130 horsebrakes, | 0:40:41 | 0:40:43 | |
and '86, with 530 horsebrakes. | 0:40:43 | 0:40:47 | |
It was the same ditch, the same rock, | 0:40:47 | 0:40:49 | |
it was just me and my head to keep me alive. | 0:40:49 | 0:40:52 | |
Were the rule-makers out of their depth? | 0:40:54 | 0:40:58 | |
Rallying's darkest day was just around the corner. | 0:40:58 | 0:41:00 | |
Drivers already went to the Portuguese Rally with trepidation. | 0:41:03 | 0:41:08 | |
Since the '70s, it had become the most overcrowded of the season. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
Crowd control was an established problem. | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
This year, over 300,000 fans piled into the woods. | 0:41:15 | 0:41:19 | |
Group B was reaching fever pitch. | 0:41:19 | 0:41:22 | |
And the usual question - Portugal, the spectators. | 0:41:22 | 0:41:25 | |
That's the only thing which scared me here, | 0:41:25 | 0:41:29 | |
it is something which I'm really afraid, | 0:41:29 | 0:41:31 | |
if something happens and it's a disaster. | 0:41:31 | 0:41:34 | |
Yeah, I'm sure that's going to be a big problem, | 0:41:34 | 0:41:37 | |
but apparently the Portuguese police | 0:41:37 | 0:41:38 | |
have guaranteed that they will be under a lot more control on Sintra, | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
places like that, which is a critical area. | 0:41:41 | 0:41:43 | |
Hoping to see the new Group B supercars and join in the fun | 0:41:43 | 0:41:48 | |
were local rally fans Helio Tomar and Nuno Sardinha. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:52 | |
Nuno and Helio chose to stand on the popular | 0:42:23 | 0:42:25 | |
and notorious water bend, | 0:42:25 | 0:42:28 | |
a bend that rallying would never forget. | 0:42:28 | 0:42:30 | |
As well as the top names, | 0:42:34 | 0:42:36 | |
Portuguese national champion Joaquim Santos was also competing. | 0:42:36 | 0:42:42 | |
In 1983 he had become a local hero, after pushing his broken | 0:42:42 | 0:42:45 | |
Ford Escort over the finishing line. | 0:42:45 | 0:42:47 | |
In 1986, his flamboyant team manager and co-driver, Miguel D'Oliviera, | 0:42:51 | 0:42:57 | |
secured the latest high-powered RS200 from Ford. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
I was hoping to do well. I had a good driver. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
I was a fairly good co-driver. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:09 | |
You always wanted to have | 0:43:09 | 0:43:11 | |
the best possible weapon to compete. | 0:43:11 | 0:43:14 | |
And it was a chance. | 0:43:14 | 0:43:15 | |
It was a big chance. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:17 | |
I was hoping to mix with the big boys. | 0:43:19 | 0:43:23 | |
When Joaquim came into the curve, | 0:44:02 | 0:44:05 | |
one guy stepped one step into the tarmac, | 0:44:05 | 0:44:09 | |
so he had to make a correction... | 0:44:09 | 0:44:13 | |
..and he lost it. | 0:44:14 | 0:44:15 | |
Joaquim Santos' car had ploughed into the crowd at 135kph. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:27 | |
A mother and her child were instantly killed, | 0:44:29 | 0:44:31 | |
while 32 others were injured. | 0:44:31 | 0:44:34 | |
Helio Tomar and his friend Paoli were rushed to hospital. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:40 | |
Paoli later died. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:42 | |
Joaquim Santos, uninjured, did not move. | 0:45:13 | 0:45:17 | |
He stayed in his car, his head bowed on the steering wheel. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:20 | |
He was completely in shock. | 0:45:22 | 0:45:26 | |
Completely in shock. | 0:45:26 | 0:45:28 | |
He came out of the car, he stayed in the middle of the road | 0:45:28 | 0:45:33 | |
with his eyes glazed... | 0:45:33 | 0:45:35 | |
..and..."What happened? Why?" | 0:45:37 | 0:45:42 | |
The day's racing was cancelled | 0:45:46 | 0:45:49 | |
and down on the nearby Atlantic coast, | 0:45:49 | 0:45:52 | |
the top drivers met, to discuss what to do. | 0:45:52 | 0:45:55 | |
They decided to strike. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:57 | |
First, as a mark of respect for the families | 0:45:59 | 0:46:03 | |
of the dead people and for those injured. | 0:46:03 | 0:46:06 | |
Two, there is a very special situation here in Portugal. | 0:46:06 | 0:46:10 | |
We feel that this impossible for us | 0:46:10 | 0:46:12 | |
to guarantee the safety of the spectators. | 0:46:12 | 0:46:16 | |
Third, the accident on stage one was caused by the driver | 0:46:16 | 0:46:20 | |
having to try to avoid spectators that were in the road. | 0:46:20 | 0:46:24 | |
It was not due to the type of car or the speed of it. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:30 | |
The amateur drivers continued to race, as recriminations began. | 0:46:31 | 0:46:37 | |
That was, for sure, the biggest mistake, | 0:46:37 | 0:46:39 | |
that he has not enough experience. | 0:46:39 | 0:46:41 | |
He was first time in a car like this. And, then, things happen. | 0:46:41 | 0:46:46 | |
It goes so easy that one situation the car is struggling with him | 0:46:47 | 0:46:51 | |
and not he with the car. | 0:46:51 | 0:46:52 | |
It was not my fault, | 0:46:52 | 0:46:55 | |
I strongly believe that it was not my driver's fault. | 0:46:55 | 0:47:01 | |
It happened. | 0:47:01 | 0:47:02 | |
The fault, if there is a fault, is of the organisation. | 0:47:02 | 0:47:08 | |
People should not be on the road. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:11 | |
There was danger involved, but I took it, I accepted that risk. | 0:47:52 | 0:47:57 | |
And, of course, I never thought that | 0:47:59 | 0:48:03 | |
such a carnage would happen | 0:48:03 | 0:48:07 | |
with me in the car. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:08 | |
With my car. With my driver. | 0:48:08 | 0:48:11 | |
The fall-out from the Portugal incident would become | 0:48:27 | 0:48:29 | |
a 20-year dispute for compensation. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:32 | |
However, in the immediate aftermath, | 0:48:32 | 0:48:35 | |
political wheels began to turn in Paris. | 0:48:35 | 0:48:37 | |
In defiance of the works teams that had withdrawn from the event, | 0:48:39 | 0:48:43 | |
FISA boss, Balestre, wrote a letter to the organisers, | 0:48:43 | 0:48:46 | |
praising them for allowing the rally to continue with amateur teams. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:51 | |
This was seen as a direct attack on the drivers | 0:48:53 | 0:48:57 | |
who had gone on strike, an attempt by the FISA leader | 0:48:57 | 0:49:00 | |
to show he was the boss. | 0:49:00 | 0:49:02 | |
FISA took no action against the Portuguese organisers | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
for failing to control the crowds. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:09 | |
The writing was now on the wall for Group B machines. | 0:49:12 | 0:49:15 | |
Rallying had blood on its hands. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:19 | |
Audi decided not to rally again, | 0:49:22 | 0:49:25 | |
but the rest of the teams moved on to the Safari Rally in Kenya. | 0:49:25 | 0:49:30 | |
Problems continued, as Markku Alen, one of Lancia's drivers, | 0:49:31 | 0:49:36 | |
accidentally ran over a child. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:38 | |
While the team helicopter took the child to hospital, | 0:49:38 | 0:49:42 | |
the mechanics sorted out the car, so Alen could continue. | 0:49:42 | 0:49:46 | |
Nothing could now stop a World Championship rally. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:50 | |
Toyota won. | 0:49:52 | 0:49:53 | |
For Lancia, the Corsica Rally week began | 0:50:00 | 0:50:03 | |
with them laying flowers at the memorial, | 0:50:03 | 0:50:06 | |
marking the spot where Attilio Bettega died the previous year. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:10 | |
Corsica was France's rally, so naturally, the FISA president, | 0:50:10 | 0:50:14 | |
Balestre, a Frenchman, was there to celebrate. | 0:50:14 | 0:50:18 | |
Except his party was being spoiled. | 0:50:18 | 0:50:21 | |
The top Finnish drivers were rebelling, | 0:50:21 | 0:50:23 | |
demanding shorter stages and fewer, rougher sections. | 0:50:23 | 0:50:26 | |
At a press conference, Balestre became angry, | 0:50:28 | 0:50:31 | |
attacking the manufacturers for creating such high-performance cars | 0:50:31 | 0:50:35 | |
and failing to control their drivers. | 0:50:35 | 0:50:37 | |
Despite the unresolved tension between the drivers and FISA, | 0:50:39 | 0:50:43 | |
the rally went ahead unchanged. | 0:50:43 | 0:50:45 | |
This was Henri Toivonen's chance to show | 0:50:45 | 0:50:48 | |
that the handling of his new S4 | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
was more than a match for this all-tarmac event. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:54 | |
ITALIAN COMMENTARY | 0:50:54 | 0:51:00 | |
Toivonen, who had a reputation for crashing out, | 0:51:04 | 0:51:07 | |
was pushing more than ever. | 0:51:07 | 0:51:10 | |
At the end of day one, Toivonen and Cresto | 0:51:13 | 0:51:15 | |
were leading Bruno Saby by almost two minutes. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
By stage five on the second day, | 0:51:21 | 0:51:24 | |
he was a minute quicker than anyone else. | 0:51:24 | 0:51:26 | |
But there was a problem. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:32 | |
Toivonen had been complaining of flu-like symptoms. | 0:51:32 | 0:51:36 | |
Toivonen was not well. | 0:51:36 | 0:51:38 | |
The stage times Henri was putting in that day were incredible. | 0:51:39 | 0:51:42 | |
He was in a completely different league, | 0:51:42 | 0:51:45 | |
and, therefore, you do wonder | 0:51:45 | 0:51:46 | |
whether he was thinking straight, | 0:51:46 | 0:51:48 | |
you wonder whether Sergio Cresto was strong enough with him that day. | 0:51:48 | 0:51:51 | |
Henri was crazy, I mean, | 0:51:51 | 0:51:53 | |
he was really more a Latin mentality than a Finnish, | 0:51:53 | 0:51:57 | |
a Nordic, mentality. | 0:51:57 | 0:51:59 | |
He was the only driver, | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
in my whole career, who was able to go as fast as me. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:08 | |
But only on one stage. | 0:52:08 | 0:52:10 | |
The next one, BING! | 0:52:10 | 0:52:12 | |
Four minutes left. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:13 | |
He was the only one. And I always said, | 0:52:13 | 0:52:16 | |
"I'm not sure that he stays on life." | 0:52:16 | 0:52:19 | |
On stage 17, he broke the record by an astonishing three minutes. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:25 | |
Then, tragedy struck. | 0:52:43 | 0:52:45 | |
We were all waiting for the end of the stage, | 0:53:04 | 0:53:07 | |
and to see Henri coming and, of course, he didn't come, | 0:53:07 | 0:53:09 | |
and we heard by radio there that an accident happened | 0:53:09 | 0:53:15 | |
and we knew it was Henri, so we had been waiting and waiting | 0:53:15 | 0:53:19 | |
to know, if, you know, if everything was out, the race was stopped. | 0:53:19 | 0:53:24 | |
And, of course, then, we knew afterwards what happened. | 0:53:24 | 0:53:28 | |
With their wrecked car engulfed in flames, | 0:53:33 | 0:53:36 | |
Toivonen and Cresto were burnt alive. | 0:53:36 | 0:53:41 | |
It's a long left corner, which was tightening at the end. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:45 | |
And I think, at the end, maybe, | 0:53:45 | 0:53:47 | |
he didn't tight enough and he went out. | 0:53:47 | 0:53:52 | |
And he was between the tree and the cliff, and of course, | 0:53:52 | 0:53:57 | |
they couldn't go out and the car got fire. | 0:53:57 | 0:54:02 | |
I think, for me, it has been the biggest shock | 0:54:08 | 0:54:12 | |
of the whole of my career, the loss of Henri. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:18 | |
I always think that Henri has been the greatest rally driver | 0:54:25 | 0:54:30 | |
I have ever met. | 0:54:30 | 0:54:31 | |
Yeah. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:36 | |
Amazingly, the rally continued, though there was little doubt | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
the remaining teams were numbed by the bad news. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:58 | |
Peugeot's Bruno Saby won the rally, | 0:55:01 | 0:55:04 | |
but there was little enthusiasm for a Champagne celebration. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:07 | |
Nobody was there for 20 or 30 minutes after he crashed. | 0:55:18 | 0:55:22 | |
And I think he was ill, he had the flu, he had something, | 0:55:22 | 0:55:26 | |
he was taking a treatment for it, | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
and I think that, ultimately, | 0:55:28 | 0:55:31 | |
he lost concentration on the road. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:33 | |
The crew in the Delta S4 sat on the petrol tanks. | 0:55:36 | 0:55:39 | |
They had a petrol tank each. | 0:55:39 | 0:55:40 | |
Neither the roll cage nor the fire extinguisher saved Henri Toivonen. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:44 | |
The car was already alight when it hit the trees. | 0:55:45 | 0:55:49 | |
The Delta S4 was incredibly quick. It was the ultimate | 0:55:52 | 0:55:56 | |
Group B rally car. | 0:55:56 | 0:55:57 | |
But the... It wasn't as safe as it needed to be, obviously. | 0:55:59 | 0:56:04 | |
I have always put the safety | 0:56:04 | 0:56:10 | |
of the driver in one of the first, | 0:56:10 | 0:56:13 | |
the first place of every project we did. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:17 | |
Always knowing that motor racing is, | 0:56:17 | 0:56:20 | |
will be, always, a dangerous sport. | 0:56:20 | 0:56:24 | |
Of course, if it was a Grand Prix, | 0:56:29 | 0:56:30 | |
the fire would have been extinguished in ten seconds. | 0:56:30 | 0:56:33 | |
The same fire in the middle of a rally, you have, finito, eh? | 0:56:33 | 0:56:40 | |
For me, it was a bit of a shock, really, when he disappeared. | 0:56:47 | 0:56:51 | |
As conjecture on the causes of Toivonen's accident continued, | 0:56:53 | 0:56:57 | |
Balestre did a complete U-turn - | 0:56:57 | 0:56:59 | |
announcing a ban. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:02 | |
Group B was dead. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:05 | |
The deregulated competition that made Group B rallying | 0:57:05 | 0:57:08 | |
so strangely addictive had caused its inevitable demise. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:14 | |
It was probably the best part of my life. It was just so intense. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:20 | |
Group B, it was the only time. | 0:57:20 | 0:57:22 | |
It will never come back. I think. | 0:57:22 | 0:57:25 | |
It was, it was a highlight in my career. It was fantastic. I like it. | 0:57:25 | 0:57:31 | |
For me, it was, of course, fantastic period of where you had | 0:57:31 | 0:57:37 | |
the big competition, but also a fantastic life. | 0:57:37 | 0:57:41 | |
It was in your focus for so many years, | 0:57:41 | 0:57:44 | |
and you were putting everything behind the sport to be successful | 0:57:44 | 0:57:48 | |
and you will never forget what you have done. | 0:57:48 | 0:57:51 | |
You enjoyed it so much. | 0:57:51 | 0:57:54 | |
It was a great time. Absolutely gorgeous. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:56 | |
It's like... It's like a pearl in my life. | 0:58:01 | 0:58:05 | |
The 2016 Mercury Prize recognises | 0:58:47 | 0:58:49 | |
the 12 most exceptional UK albums of the last year. | 0:58:49 | 0:58:53 | |
and a man in a cardboard outfit babbling onstage. | 0:58:56 | 0:58:57 |