10 Street-Legal Group B Rally Heroes You Want To Own

Image source: Ford

So you enjoyed our video of Group B rally sounds on Monday, and you’ve got a hankering for a Group B car of your very own. Welcome to the club. Fortunately, one of the joys of Group B was the requirement for each manufacturer to produce at least 200 road-going examples of its monster rally model – and with most of those cars well-preserved today, you can buy, own and even pop down to the chippy in one if the mood takes you. So get your life savings out and be prepared to spend them, because here come our Top 10 road-going rally monsters for your delectation.

10. Citroen BX 4TC

Image source: Citroen

The rally version of the BX 4TC lived a short and fruitless life, competing in just three events before the category was banned in 1986. Powered by a 2.1-litre turbocharged four cylinder, in roadgoing form it produced 197bhp, and retained the competition version’s four-wheel drive and trick hydropneumatic suspension. It also got a longer nose to cope with the longitudinally-mounted engine; it also happens to be one of the cheapest ways into homologation Group B motoring today.

9. MG Metro 6R4

Image source: dave_7 on Flickr

It’s hard to believe that a car this bespoilered could spawn a road-going version, but it did. The  6R4 Clubman was true to its motorsport counterpart, too, retaining all of its mad wings and arches, as well as a hot, hardcore, stripped-out interior. The 3.0-litre ‘V64V’ (V6, four valves per cylinder) was detuned, albeit to 250bhp, which meant the Clubman still packed a sucker punch. To drive, it was harsh and uncompromising, with no ground given to luxury or comfort. A true rally car for the road, in other words.

8. Porsche 911 SC RS

Image source: porsche.free.fr

Porsche’s first - and as it turned out, only - crack at Group B came  this two-wheel-drive, naturally-aspirated 911. The Touring version was the road car, powered by a 3.0-litre flat six that kicked out 250bhp, though with raised ride height, the famed weight-transfer handling characteristics of the early 911 were even more apparent. The arrival of four-wheel-drive and turbos made it outdated, and it gave way to the 959 – or was supposed to, anyway.

7. Lancia 037

Image source: motorgeek.com

Based – loosely – on the rather comely Monte Carlo, the 037 was Lancia’s big hope for most of the Group B period, and although it won them the manufacturer’s title in 1983, it never quite had the cojones to overcome the might of Audi or Peugeot in the drivers’ standings. Rear-driven and endowed with a supercharged 2.0-litre engine, in road-going Stradale form it packed 205bhp, which was enough to guarantee plenty of tail-out daftness.

6. Ford RS200

Image source: Ford

It might come as a surprise to learn that the RS200 wasn’t all that successful in competition. Although a Group B hero for many, in its day it was too heavy and struggled to match the pace of the leading cars. An horrific accident in which Joaquin Santos’ RS200 plunged into a crowd of spectators in 1986 paved the way for Group B’s demise. Two road-going versions were built, the 180 standard cars getting a 250bhp 1.8-litre ‘BDT’ engine, with a further run of 20 being upgraded to ‘Evolution’ spec with a 2.1-litre ‘BDT-E’ that produced somewhere around 420bhp.

5. Lancia Delta S4

Image source: autozeitung.de

The Delta S4 will always be the most infamous Group B car of all; it was at the helm of one of these that Henri Toivonen lost his life at the Tour de Corse in 1986, the event which caused Group B to be cancelled. Even in road-going form, it was powered by a twin-charged 1.8-litre engine that drove 250bhp through all four wheels, making it as monstrous an experience to drive as it was to look at.

4. Porsche 959

Image source: auto-motor-und-sport.de

That the original concept for the 959 made its debut under the name ‘Gruppe B’ should leave you in no doubt as to Porsche’s intentions for the car. And with four-wheel-drive and a twin-turbocharged, 444bhp 2.8-litre flat six, it sounded like a promising contender. In the end, though, Porsche decided it didn’t want to enter the WRC, preferring instead to demonstrate the 959’s abilities on the Paris-Dakar and later on track, with the 961 racer.

3. Ferrari 288 GTO

Image source: omniauto.it

Such was the hype surrounding Group B that even the Scuderia decided to get involved. The 288 GTO road car was conceived primarily with the idea of homologating the Evoluzione variant for rallying – but the group was killed off before it could do so. Even in road-going form, though, it was a formidable bit of kit, powered by a 2.8-litre V8 fed by two turbos that produced 395bhp. It’s also the best-looking car, ever. Fact.

2. Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

Image source: autoevolution.com

One of the most dominant of all the Group B competitors, the competition version of the Turbo 16 (or T16) claimed both drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles in 1985, as well as in 1986 after the exit of Audi and Ford from the championship. On the road, the T16 was about as far removed from the standard 205 as it was possible to get, with four-wheel-drive and a huge rear clamshell that housed a 1.8-litre turbocharged four-pot with 197bhp. You can keep your GTi; we’ll take our 205 with a side-order of turbo madness.

1. Audi Sport Quattro

It couldn’t really be anything else at the top of our chart, could it? The ‘short Quattro’ was the archetypal Group B car, and won two successive drivers’ championships in 1984 and 1985, taking the constructor’s title in the latter year too. With Kevlar panels and a 306bhp 2.1-litre powerplant, even the road car was storming, and provided enormous grip, excellent balance and serious amount of laggy shove. We want one. Badly.