There have been many fabulous and interesting motorsport rivalries, but the one I am going to talk about is quite unique. You see, the rivalries we usually talk about are between drivers or car manufacturers. Well, this article is about a rivalry between a car manufacturers, but most importantly between two systems, four-wheel drive and rear-wheel drive, to be more precise between Audi quattro and Lancia 037.
Firstly, a bit of history. In 1977 Audi was working on a new four-wheel drive SUV, which they wanted to sell to the German army. Then they had a brilliant idea, and put the four-wheel drive system from “the army SUV” into a family car. A car which uses a four-wheel drive system has enormous amounts of grip, because all of the wheels are provided with torque at the same time, and this means that, on lose surfaces, it corners much better than a two-wheel drive. The engineers from Audi were certain that the Audi quattro will be great at rallying. There was a little problem with that idea. In the 1979 rally rules the four-wheel drive system was forbidden. That is why a special man from Audi was sent to Paris, to go to a meeting with the ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) on that meeting the rules of rallying could be changed. He asked to erase the "four-wheel drive system ban" and everyone agreed, because at that time the only cars using four-wheel drive were big lorries. Three years later, in 1982, Audi won the Rally Championship, beating the runners-up by 12 points. After that everyone knew that to win the World Championship you had to have a four-wheel drive car, everyone except from Lancia, the last bastion of two-wheel drive. Lancia’s answer to the famous quattro was the beautiful 037, a rear-wheel drive. That was the beginning of the rivalry that not everybody seems to remember.
We can’t talk about this rivalry without mentioning the teams, because they were really different. Audi was supported by Volkswagen; the team was well organized and the team boss was a doctor of engineering, so he knew a little bit about how their cars work. The main drivers: Hannu Mikkola, Michèle Mouton and Stig Blomqvist were the best of the best. Lancia’s team was essentially Italian. The team boss - Cesare Fiorio, liked powerboat racing and was kind of a playboy, his team included only Italians, and I think we all know how consistent and organized Italians are. As to the main drivers, Lancia had Walter Röhrl and Markku Alén, they were great, but there was one drawback with the German motorist. Walter Röhrl did not want to be the world champion, he said that he did not want to be famous and to have crowds in front of his house. He also did not want to participate in every race, because he did not like the bumpy and snowy tracks, which there are a few in the rallycross schedule.
We can finally talk about the races. Of course, I am not going to talk about all of them, because nobody likes to read that much, but the interesting ones will be here. The first race took place in the punishing and snowy mountains of Monte Carlo. The odds were against Lancia, because a two-wheel drive car on snow is not only hard to drive, but also sometimes dangerous. Now, we can compare the teams and say that Audi had a better car, a well-organized team, determined drivers, and Lancia had a two-wheel drive, worse system for rallying, an Italian team and a driver, who did not want to win, but they had one thing that Audi could only dream about. You see, Lancia had a great history with rallying, before 1983 they’d won the championship four times. Cesare Fiorio, who on paper did not look like the best captain for the Lancia’s team, knew all the tricks. Before the Monte Carlo race, when every team was preparing its cars, Lancia’s team had gone to a shop and bought all the salt from it. Then they sprinkled it on the hard corners to get rid of the ice. They also had pushed the authorities, who were taking care of the track to clean some routes, justifying it with the routes being dangerous for the spectators, and they listened and cleaned them. The outcomes of this race were unexpected, Lancia won, beating Audi by more than 10 minutes, which is quite a lot.
Next on the schedule there was Sweden, and that has to be my favorite paragraph of this article, because this race can be described shortly. Sweden was a paradise for Audi, so they easily won, but that’s not what’s interesting about this race, the interesting part is that Lancia did not show up in Sweden at all. Why didn’t they show up? Well, the Swedish track is known for being completely covered by snow and as I’ve previously said snow wasn’t the best condition for Lancia’s team. I suppose, that even if Lancia had gone to Sweden, Walter Röhrl would probably just say no to the race.
Next few races took place in Portugal and East Africa. Sadly for Lancia, Audi won all of them. The German team had a huge advantage in points, but then there was Corsica, where the track is almost only tarmac. Everybody knew that here, Lancia is going to pick up some points, but I think nobody had expected the number of points they actually got. Normally Lancia would race with two maybe three cars, but in Corsica, Lancia showed up with four. The Italian team’s ran was perfect, and because Audi had some mechanical problems, they didn’t even get the fifth place. With that win the Italians were back on top of the leader board.
After Corsica, the automotive circus moved to Greece and that was the toughest event in Europe. Nobody believed that Lancia’s light weight cars could pass the finish line in one piece. I believe that the Italians had a huge party after what happened there. All of the mechanical failures happened to the German cars, so Lancia won again.
After races in New Zealand and Argentina both of the teams were really close to each other. The drivers came back to Europe for the race in Finland. There, Lancia had another problem, this time it wasn’t the snow, or dangerous roads, but their driver, who did not like the bumpy routes there. Walter Röhrl refused to start in that race, because as he said: “If I wanted to fly, I would be a pilot”. With him missing ,Lancia did not have any chances to win, so the Audi drivers lifted up the champagne bottle.
Only three rounds were left and with that, it was possible for Lancia to win the World Championship in San Remo. Lancia’s team wanted that really much. Why? Well, because everybody wants to win in their homeland. The dust was the main feature of this race. Of course, the Italians thought of some new tricks to deal with that, but none of them worked. Without using any tricks, all of the pressure was put on the driver. Fortunately, Walter Röhrl rose to the occasion and had one of the best races of his career. He drove perfectly and combined with the great 037, they won The Rally Championship. Our Italian protagonist, like the main character of a romantic work, won over the modern four-wheel drive antagonist, and none two-wheel drive car would ever do that again.
Antoni Michiewicz
Inspired by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lo4dGTrzr8
Other sources:
J, Chauhan (21.05.2021). “The Rivalry Between Audi And Lancia In 1983 Group B Rally”. Hotcars. Retrieved from: https://www.hotcars.com/the-rivalry-between-audi-and-lancia-in-1983-group-b-rally/
P, Gareffa (9.04.2021). „AWD vs. 4WD: What's the Difference?”. Edmunds. Retrieved from: https://www.edmunds.com/car-buying/awd-vs-4wd-whats-the-difference-and-which-to-choose.html
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