My daughter did not initially believe me when I told her that, for a few years, people were so obsessed with Group B rally cars that they’d climb to the sides of roads just to get close enough to touch one, even at the risk of losing a finger.
Some of the photography from the era looks more like war paintings than anything having to do with sports. It’s as if, having gone through generations of bloody and mechanized warfare, Europeans in the ’80s settled for the next closest thing.
This all came up a couple of weeks ago when I was playing the game Art of Rally, which is a highly stylized recreation of the golden era of rally. We were driving through Finland or Japan or somewhere, and when you come to certain intersections, there are little eraser-shaped people who dodge in and out of the road. It seemed absurd to her, even though it was very real, as you can see in this video simply called “Rally Group B – Crazy Spectators.” This led me down a rabbit hole of watching rally videos with her.
I got the top photo from the press release site Newspress, though I can’t find the original press release. It shows Miki Biasion in the Group B Lancia Delta S4 from 1986. It looks more like John Singleton Copley’s “The Death of Major Pierson.” A truly amazing photo that captures the closeness of it all. That same year, Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto died in the S4 they were driving.
Just look at this. Truly bonkers.
This moment in the World Rally Championship is probably the last mainstream racing season that was somehow too dangerous for the drivers and the competitors. The only modern equivalent is the Isle of Man TT, which saw five fatalities in 2022. While the risk exists at any racing event, no one throws themselves in front of cars like rally nerds in the ’80s. That’s probably a good thing.
Group B produced some of the greatest and most desirable cars ever. That’s the appeal to me of Art of Rally. I love the romantic version of this period when the cars were almost always faster than the drivers.
I think there’s also an appeal because so many modern F1 tracks have started to feel like every other F1 track. The race could be in Miami and still sort of look like Bahrain or Abu Dhabi. I think that’s part of the reason why I love Monaco, even if it’s the least exciting race on the F1 calendar. It looks like Monaco.
WRC in the Group B era had the magic of the wildest cars, the best drivers, the craziest fans, and tracks that represented the extremes of planet earth. I miss it in the same way some of the people in those videos miss their pinkies.
Photo: Newspress
Matt, props for calling out the painting-like nature of that photo – and The Death of Major Pierson was an excellent illustration.
Art of Rally is a wonderful little title. It’s rare to call a racing game chill, but AoR and the studio’s previous title, Absolute Drift, are just that, with their low-poly, zoomed-out overhead view that just oozes vibes. AoR makes it even better with its sprawling, impressionist almost, scenery rather than AD’s more abstract look.
The developers have a new game coming:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2929250/over_the_hill/
Looks like they really ramped the chill up.
Ooooh, like one of the spintires games but it’s Funselektor. I will have to wishlist that.
Michelle Mouton talks about having to pretend to herself that the spectators were trees so she could focus on driving. 120mph on gravel farm tracks with 400bhp, and you visualize a thick forest inches from the car to ignore danger.
As someone who is probably as big a fan of rallying that you will find in the US, I concur with your daughter. I can’t believe how close they got. I mean in Group B of all things, too!?
Pike’s Peak Int’l Hillclimb felt like a similar experience when the track was still at least partially dirt.
Here you are hanging out on the side of a mountain around some blind curve, and at some point in time somebody’s going to be coming around that corner sideways in a huge spray of gravel. You have to think to yourself:
Self, is this boulder you’re set up behind solid enough to stop/deflect somebody who loses it entirely?
…and…
Self, you really need to pee. Do you think it’s safe to sprint across the road to the port-a-potty on the other side given that you can’t see if anybody’s coming up on your corner?
Group B spectatorship is Exhibit A on why Europeans can be as stupid as Americans.
Football (soccer) Hooligans are Exhibit B.
I was going to say it’s a lot better these days compared to the 19080’s, but then…
(but then Rangers vs Celtic is literally a religious conflict)
I have gone to a few rallies starting in the 00s, but would have loved to have seen the monsters. That was peak rallying.
Not just Group B. Fools were doing this at the Maine Forest Rallies I attended in the not THAT distant past. Group B made it worse because the crowds were bigger and the cars were SO MUCH faster.
I’m chicken-shit – I made sure there were some sturdy trees between me and the oncoming metal missiles.
Rally fan for years, started w/ my dad doing SCCA stage rally in the late 70s/80s. I love Group B videos. Might have to look up this Art of Rally game.
It’s my favorite modern racing game! What did you dad drive? A Datsun?
I have been bit of a rally fan since the 1980s mostly becasue the cars looked like cars you could drive and the dirt roads were often public roads when not being raced on and the race was not making a left turn for 4 hours.
I loved the video where Hammond took his teen daughter to rally school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWmIt2dIE4k&pp=ygUecmljaGFyZCBoYW1tb25kIGRhdWdodGVyIHJhbGx5
Thank you for that link, now I got to to show it to Dear Spouse.