Imagine one of these storming through a forest in Wales or through the mountains of Monte-Carlo in the snow… - Image: Lamborghini
Words by Marcus Boothby
Back in the 1980s, there was a class of rally cars classified as Group B and this class gave us some wonderfully powerful machines which occasionally liked to crash and consume their drivers. Thanks to too many fatal accidents, Group B quickly disappeared…which is kinda sad.
Sure, modern WRC cars are as fast as the old Group B racers but they’re just not as cool. Things like the new Yaris and Fiesta rally cars seem to dominate WRC at the moment but it would be sweet if cars in the same vein as Group B make a welcomed return. Think of it as Group B 2: Supercar Boogaloo.
To make things clear, supercars do compete in some rally events but they’re mainly restricted to tarmac stages. Things like Porsche 911 GT3 RS’s do see the dirt but it would be sweet to see the likes of the McLaren 570S, Ferrari F8 Tributo and other supercars make their way to the mucky stuff.
This does mean that there would be some form of specification involved to prevent overly powerful stuff making their way into this new class. Thankfully, we have thought of this and we propose that this class should have a 600bhp power cap, a maximum weight of say, 1300kg and exclusively RWD. This is expensive just thinking about it but imagine a rally stage being filled with the noise of flat-6’s, V8’s, V10’s and even V12’s…it would be wonderful.
Ferrari’s aren’t just limited to the tarmac you know. - Image: Source Unknown
Going back to the 1980s, supercars were entered into rally events back then, with the likes of the Ferrari 308 GTB, Lancia 037, Porsche 911 and so on. Fast forward to 2020, you would have everything from an Aston Martin V8 Vantage on the same stage as a Lamborghini Huracan, whilst in being as entertaining (if not more) as the current WRC cars.
However, how would the FIA categorise such a varied class? We have to admit, we haven’t too much into it but, it would probably be a class below the proper WRC stuff, like how GTE racers are a class below the LMP1/2 cars as seen in the circuit-based WEC league. Some of the modern supercars could keep up with say, a Yaris WRC but without AWD, they would not be as fast across a stage.
Basically, if you’ve only taken in one thing from this article, we want Group B to return but with GT3-spec race cars competing on tarmac, dirt and snow stages. Are we mad? Most probably but, we just love the idea of expensive and fast supercars dance about on something that isn’t a perfectly maintained world-class circuit. Frankly, you should be as excited as we are.