remember the old Audo Quattros, and watching them in rally races on TV? That's what I call cool (rally) racing.

I'm interested if anybody knows of any videos that can be bought of the older rallies. I'll check out eBay probably.

thx

Tomohawk,

A couple of months ago I downloaded a really cool video of an Audi Quattro rally car going up Pike's Peak. The file is titled "Course de Pikes Peak (Ari Vatanen).mpeg". I'd post it here but the file is 68 MBs. If you Google the file name you should find it. It's well worth the download time.

Cheers,

thanks. I like the twisty bits and the night racing.

Hey Tomo,

I have spent long and arduous nights searching the web and p2p file sharing programs for similar footage - and so far, not a great deal has come up I do, however, have the same video Sean is speaking of, but it it does not depict an Audi. The video is entitled 'Climb Dance' and is probably one of the most masterful pieces of Automotive footage i have witnessed. Ari Vatanen dancing his Peugeot 405 T16 [producing near 600hp] across the undulations of the pikes peak course, coming within inches of 'sheer-drop' edges, having to drive one handed[!!!! :stupid: ] on several occasions due to his other hand being employed as a sun visor, and concluding in a record time [that was not beaten for many years i understand].

Definitely must-see motorsport footage imo, if anyone could host it, i would be more than happy to upload as i have a fast broadband connection. If you are able to find any footage of the legendary Audi Quattros of the same era, please share it,as i too am dying for more of both group b rallying and late eighties pikes peak. Many regards,

Tom

I mentioned the Audi Quattros because it's the first thing that comes to mind about the rallies from back then. But don't forget to include the Cosworth Ford Escort, and other cars. they were all capable of dancing through the dirt.

http://www.putfile.com/ allows you to upload 10mb worth of video.

There might be other file hosting services out there that support more.

We could possibly host it on VicZcar.com but it wouldn't be something we'd keep on forever since it's not really early Z related.

That video sounds fantastic Tom - I'd like to see it! If it's over 10MB, PM me and I'll give you login details to my little bit of webspace It will have to only be temporary, but enough time for all of us to download it.

Ok guys.. here's a secret...

www.tremek.com

Go under the Rally section and there are hundreds of videos!!

SEARCH for Group B and you will be amazed with the awsome videos!

Okay, thanks to Prolaxamus' excellent site i have found several links [but only this one works] to the above mentioned video :

http://www.kika.ru/video/ClimbDance.mpg

Thanks once again, prolaxamus, and Boyd, the moderator on the Tremek forum for originally posting these links on that site.

{EDIT} Just tested all the links, haha, and only the last one worked....

Very cool video.

Climb Dance is indeed an award winning super spectacular piece of video work and Ari Vatanen would have to be one of the greatest and most spectacular rally drivers ever seen in the past thirty years.

I used to buy a lot of rally videos from Duke Marketing http://www.dukevideo.com/ in the UK and particularly like the stuff from around 1970 to 1985 which featured the Escorts and the awesome purpose built Lancia Stratos before the new age Quattros, Lancia Deltas and the like took over the scene. Regrettably, Datsuns did not feature strongly in much of the footage available from that era. Go to the home page and follow the rally threads to get into rally history etc. They have got a lot of stuff on DVD and video.

Some rally video classics I still enjoy include:

The Flying Finns

The Vatanen Touch and Vatanen Touch Too

the in car Vaatanen footage from a Manx Rally in an Opel Manta (pace noted)

Regards

Dave

TomoHawk's reference to the Audi Quattros of the 80's got me thinking overnight as I remembered that they absolutely blitzed World Rally Championship events early in their existence.

I remember Hannu Mikkola doing some great stuff and also Michelle Mouton and co driver / navigator Fabrizia Pons (both females) performing at the highest level and winning some major events. Then along came former Saab factory driver Stig Blomquist who showed them all how the Quattro needed to be driven to extract the maximum from these cars. My memory of the Quattro was that it was a little front heavy and not as well balanced as it really needed to have been - it won a lot of early events because it lead the way in the revolution in all wheel drive turbo technology, significant factory support, and the outstanding drivers Audi contracted to the factory team. It also coincided with a time when a number of other manufacturers found themselves in a bit of a void - particularly Ford.

I also remember an Audi driven by a Chris Buffham?? from North America entering several WRC events and being one of the few north American drivers to make a mark on the international scene in that era.

The advent of the Quattros was the dawn of a new era in WRC that saw some very potent cars enter the fray - the Lancia S4, Puegot 206, Austin Metro (?) and others that become "too dangerous" for the way they were being driven. The death of Henri Toivenen made a similar impact on WRC to that of the death of Ayrton Senna in formula one, and saw the beginning of the end for the super cars.

I do not want to start anything here, and please excuse my struggle to effectively communicate what I am trying to say, but I could not help thinking of another racing thread as I thought of Michelle Mouton as the first and only female driver that took it up to the guys for a sustained period of time at the top end of the sport. This is definitely not a criticism of the potential or achievements of female drivers but rather should be a commendation for anybody who must have had to make the absolute most of every opportunity in their competition life to get to where she did with a factory drive.

Michelle Mouton became the first female winner of a World Rally Championship event when she won the San Remo in 1981 and followed up with three wins in 1982 in the Rallies of Portugal, Brazil and Greece (Acropolis Rally). She was runner up in the WRC Drivers' Championship in 1982 and was later to hold the Pike's Peak record. The attitude of some to women drivers at the time was expressed by words ascribed to WRC Champion Walter Rohrl when he was supposed to have said "If the World Rally Championship was won by a women it would have no value". Harsh words given that Mouton was renowned for driving to win and had some great results on the board.

I don't have any vids to suggest, but this thread brought back a related experience from 15 years ago. I used to work in an industrial complex and one of the units was rented by a guy who used it to store Killer B rally cars. Every now and then he'd take one out and run it around the parking lot at insane speeds. I remember the Lancia Delta, the Renault R5 Turbo II, and the Ford RS200 Evo. He probably had 50 rally cars, but those were the only ones that I can positively identify as I was only 16 and didn't know anything about cars or rally racing at the time.

He was washing the RS200 one time and a buddy and I went over to talk to him about it. He said that he had a Ferrari F40, but it wasn't fast enough so he bought this car. It kinda looked like a CRX on steroids, and had the biggest intercooler I've ever seen on the top. My memory tells me it was at least 8 inches thick and went all the way across the roof. They were rated at something like 500 hp in Killer B form, but he had "done a little work" on his and he was claiming 800. It also had a small stick shift looking lever next to the actual gear shifter. He said that was for switching from front wheel drive to all wheel drive to rear wheel drive. He claimed 0-60 in 1.8 seconds. The car was Ferrari yellow with black skull and crossbones on the doors and hood.

It's been close to 15 years since I talked to that guy, and I can still achieve wood just thinking about that car.