Stradale
Group B required manufacturers to build two hundred road-legal examples of any car they intended to race. The rule existed to maintain a connection between competition machinery and production vehicles. In practice it produced something else entirely. Five manufacturers built two hundred of the most extraordinary road cars ever offered for sale. Not because customers demanded them. Because the regulations required their existence.
These were not sports cars refined for daily use. They were competition machines made barely civil enough to carry a number plate. Most were sold quietly. Many were never driven on public roads at all. They remain among the rarest and most significant homologation specials in automotive history.
Lancia 037
The 037 was the first purpose-built Group B homologation car to reach production. Lancia developed it in collaboration with Pininfarina, Abarth, and Dallara, under the direction of engineer Sergio Limone. The architecture followed the philosophy that had won Lancia championships before. Mid-engine. Rear-wheel drive. No compromise toward all-wheel-drive traction. The conviction was that balance and precision would be enough.
The road car carried an Abarth-developed 2.0-litre sixteen-valve four-cylinder engine with a Roots-type supercharger producing 205 horsepower. The supercharger gave the 037 something most turbocharged rivals lacked. Immediate throttle response. No waiting for boost. The power was modest but it arrived exactly when the driver asked for it.
Pininfarina styled the body. The result was striking. Low, wide, and unmistakably Italian. The rear clamshell opened to reveal the engine bay. Two hundred Stradale road cars were built between 1982 and 1984, presented publicly for the first time at the Turin Motor Show in April 1982. It was the last rear-wheel-drive car to win the World Rally Championship manufacturers' title.
Audi Sport Quattro
Audi needed a shorter, lighter platform. The standard quattro's long wheelbase had become a liability against the purpose-built mid-engine machines arriving from France and Italy. The answer was the Sport Quattro. Engineers removed 320 millimetres from the wheelbase and replaced steel body panels with Kevlar wherever possible. The turbocharged five-cylinder gained an aluminium block and four valves per cylinder.
In road trim the Sport Quattro produced 306 horsepower. It reached 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds and carried on to 250 km/h. Two hundred and fourteen examples were built between February 1984 and January 1986. Most were Tornado Red. A handful were Alpine White, Copenhagen Blue, or Malachite Green.
The engine still sat ahead of the front axle. The car still looked like an Audi. But the proportions had changed. Shorter, wider, more aggressive. It was the only Group B homologation car that resembled, however distantly, the saloon it had evolved from.
Peugeot 205 Turbo 16
Peugeot began with standard 205 three-door bodyshells from the Poissy production line and sent them to coachbuilder Heuliez. There, the entire rear section was cut away. A transverse firewall was welded between the B-pillars. A new rear subframe was fabricated from steel tube and sheet. Into this went a 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, mounted transversely behind the driver, driving all four wheels.
From the outside the 205 T16 looked almost ordinary. The wheel arches were wider. The rear was subtly different. The whole rear clamshell lifted to reveal the engine bay. But parked next to a standard 205, casual observers could miss it entirely. That was part of the deception. Beneath the familiar silhouette sat an entirely different car.
The road version produced 200 horsepower. Modest by the standards of what the competition car would eventually achieve. Two hundred examples were completed. Homologation was granted on the first of April, 1984.
Lancia Delta S4
Lancia called their road car the Stradale. It shared the competition car's defining innovation. A 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine driven by both a supercharger and a turbocharger working in sequence. At low revs the supercharger delivered immediate throttle response. As engine speed climbed the turbo took over. The transition between the two was the engineering challenge. In the road car, with 250 horsepower, the effect was a smoothness that turbocharged rivals could not match.
The Stradale carried the same three-differential all-wheel-drive system as the rally car, sending thirty per cent of torque to the front and seventy per cent to the rear. Lancia claimed a top speed of 225 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of six seconds. Two hundred were built, most finished in red, assembled by coachbuilder Savio in Turin from autumn 1985.
Whether Lancia had truly completed all two hundred examples before homologation was granted on the first of November 1985 remains a matter of quiet debate.
Ford RS200
Ford's approach was different. Rather than adapting an existing production car, they commissioned an entirely new chassis. Tony Southgate, a former Formula One engineer, designed a honeycomb aluminium and composite structure. Ghia styled the fibreglass body. Reliant Motors in Shenstone assembled the cars. The engine was a 1.8-litre turbocharged Cosworth BDT four-cylinder, mounted behind the driver, with the five-speed gearbox positioned behind the front axle for better weight distribution.
The RS200 looked like nothing else Ford had ever produced. Low, wide, purposeful. The rear bodywork hinged upward to expose the engine. In road trim it produced 250 horsepower. Upgrade kits were later offered that pushed output beyond 300. The twenty-four Evolution models, converted from standard production cars, eventually reached 600 horsepower.
Two hundred examples were completed. Homologation was granted on the second of February 1986. It was too late. Group B would be cancelled before the end of that season. The RS200 barely competed in the championship it had been designed to win.
MG Metro 6R4
Austin Rover enlisted Williams Grand Prix Engineering to build a Group B car from the Metro. The result bore almost no resemblance to the shopping car it claimed to be. The front-wheel-drive hatchback layout was abandoned entirely. A 3.0-litre V6 engine, designated V64V and designed by David Wood, was mounted behind the driver. Power went to all four wheels. The bodywork retained a few Metro panels. Everything else was new.
The 6R4 was the only Group B homologation car without a turbocharger. The naturally aspirated V6 produced 250 horsepower in Clubman road specification and over 400 in full international trim. Austin Rover believed that throttle response and drivability would offset the power deficit against turbocharged rivals. On some stages the theory held. On others the lack of outright power was decisive.
Two hundred Clubman models were built to satisfy homologation. The car competed in the 1986 World Rally Championship season but never achieved the results its engineering deserved. When Group B ended, the Metro 6R4 disappeared from competition almost immediately.
The V64V engine did not. Tom Walkinshaw Racing acquired the rights to the design, developed it into a twin-turbocharged unit, and installed it in the Jaguar XJ220. A V6 conceived for a Metro ended up powering what was briefly the fastest production car in the world.
