Quattro Group S

[TheFlyingTuga]

Anyone else got the French language book Groupe B Les Voitures Interdites? Lots of interesting Citroens including a twin engined 4wd Visa!

You got that book sal? Could you post some pics of the interdite ones? Or at least say what cars are?Pleaseeeeeeee :P

[Mirek]

BDunnell: Little offtopic but if You want to see Johny Haugland in action again, come to rally Bohemia. He will be driving Škoda 130 RS there as a part of so called historic show ( provisional list of historics here, a lot of them from Germany: http://www.rallybohemia.cz/www/Prihl...8_historic.pdf ).

[rx-guru]

In 1983 Norwegian Martin "Mister Rallycross" Schanche wanted a 4WD Ford Escort Mk3 to become European Rallycross Champion again, after claiming the title already in 1978, 1979 and 1981. From 1982 the sport of Rallycross was re-opened (!) for four-wheel drive cars and Austrian Franz Wurz (father of Alexander Wurz) claimed the 1982 title with an ex-Mikkola factory Audi quattro while the 1983 title went to Swede Olle Arnesson with a "homebrew" Audi quattro. In the by then for Hewland working British engineer Mike Endean that man Schanche found somebody capable to realise his own idea, a 4WD that could be changed by hand while competing from 28:72 (front:rear) drive stepless to 50:50 by a hydraulic system. The resulting 4WD was called Xtrac (not X-Trac nor X-trac as often seen) system. The car was ready for the British Rallycross Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in December 1983, where Martin used it with an 1860cc 560bhp Zakspeed turbo engine. Mike Endean was there as well as Erich Zakowski (Mister Zakspeed) and Peter Ashcroft of Ford to witness the Norwegian. In 1984 Schanche won "his" title back and all other cars were looking like wheelbarrows against the XR3 that we used to call "Thor’s Hammer". (The Swedish mag 'Teknikens Värld' conducted a car test in 1984 to find out that the XR3 did the 0 to 100km/h [or 0 to about 61mph] sprint in 2.5 seconds.) BTW, that first Xtrac XR3 was later used for Rallycross by the Britons John Smith and Barry Squibb and is nowadays owned by Mike Endean himself. It is rebuilt to Brands Hatch 1983 specs and was used by Endean, who lives as pensioner on one of the Channel Islands, for many a year in hill-climbs.

Schanche and Endean in 1984 were trying to sell their brainchild to Ford (working on the stillborn Escort RS1700T RWD by then) or other manufacturers. While being at the Zakspeed workshops one day Schanche was visited by Rauno Aaltonen who did a test drive with the Xtrac Escort on a car park. Aaltonen was very impressed and told Opel about Schanche’s beast. Opel’s Karl-Heinz Goldstein encouraged Endean soon to work for the German factory team, while Schanche found himself somewhat out-booted. However, Endean left Hewland to set up his own company Xtrac and started to work with Opel on their Group S project, the Opel Kadett 4x4 (not a Group B car and not a Vauxhall Astra 4S or whatever). When the car was ready the drivetrain was the same as in the Schanche XR3 and when it was presented to the press the bonnet was safely locked. Why? Because there was a FORD engine underneath it, a 1860cc Zakspeed turbo mill, and it was all but in the interest of the Opel factory team that the World or even their own GM bosses should know anything about that fact.

However, when the Group S was aborted by the FIA Opel had two 4x4 Kadetts ready, equipped them with normally aspirated 2.4 litre Opel engines of the Ascona 400 and used them for Paris–Dakar, where they went into utter chaos, as Opel was not able to carry enough shock absorbers to Africa to replace the broken ones. Both these cars later went to Endean’s buddy-buddy Briton John Welch who used them in the British and European Rallycross Championships. One of these cars was later bought by Swede Tommy Kristoffersson, as an Xtrac system donor for his own Rallycross Audi Coupé S2. If the other one is now property of Vauxhall in the UK – I do not know.

[RallyCat909]

Man this thread rules, I hope more pics crawl out of the gravel.

[Leon]

Thanks to all for this excellent thread.

I´ m in the process of buying the Group B book by Davenport and Klein. Anyone having this book? s it worth the cost?

[jiipee64]

>>I´ m in the process of buying the Group B book by Davenport and Klein.
>>Anyone having this book? s it worth the cost?

Bought it a few months ago. Exellent book. Lot's of politics behind the scenes that time (Like there isn't today)

[Leon]

>>I´ m in the process of buying the Group B book by Davenport and Klein.
>>Anyone having this book? s it worth the cost?

Bought it a few months ago. Exellent book. Lot's of politics behind the scenes that time (Like there isn't today)

Thanks

[Viking]

In 1983 Norwegian Martin "Mister Rallycross" Schanche wanted a 4WD Ford Escort Mk3 to become European Rallycross Champion again, after claiming the title already in 1978, 1979 and 1981. From 1982 the sport of Rallycross was re-opened (!) for four-wheel drive cars and Austrian Franz Wurz (father of Alexander Wurz) claimed the 1982 title with an ex-Mikkola factory Audi quattro while the 1983 title went to Swede Olle Arnesson with a "homebrew" Audi quattro. In the by then for Hewland working British engineer Mike Endean that man Schanche found somebody capable to realise his own idea, a 4WD that could be changed by hand while competing from 28:72 (front:rear) drive stepless to 50:50 by a hydraulic system. The resulting 4WD was called Xtrac (not X-Trac nor X-trac as often seen) system. The car was ready for the British Rallycross Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in December 1983, where Martin used it with an 1860cc 560bhp Zakspeed turbo engine. Mike Endean was there as well as Erich Zakowski (Mister Zakspeed) and Peter Ashcroft of Ford to witness the Norwegian. In 1984 Schanche won "his" title back and all other cars were looking like wheelbarrows against the XR3 that we used to call "Thor’s Hammer". (The Swedish mag 'Teknikens Värld' conducted a car test in 1984 to find out that the XR3 did the 0 to 100km/h [or 0 to about 61mph] sprint in 2.5 seconds.) BTW, that first Xtrac XR3 was later used for Rallycross by the Britons John Smith and Barry Squibb and is nowadays owned by Mike Endean himself. It is rebuilt to Brands Hatch 1983 specs and was used by Endean, who lives as pensioner on one of the Channel Islands, for many a year in hill-climbs.

Video here from what should have been Fords Gr.B car. Wow it was fast! Also Schanche just being himself, furious on strange rules, organisers and so on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3YKz...eature=related

[rx-guru]

Video here from what should have been Fords Gr.B car. Wow it was fast! Also Schanche just being himself, furious on strange rules, organisers and so on

Yeah, the "villmannen fra Tana" (the wild man from the Tana region) again… But can one imagine that "Mister Ford Motorsport" himself, the late Peter Ashcroft, after that weekend kept on to belief that RWD (for the Ford RS1700T, that was later aborted and replaced by the Ford RS200) was still the way to go in rallying and also that Ford Boreham, as the motorsport branch of the World concern, should not cooperate with a lunatic from Norway and a handicrafter in England. This by then "Hewland gofer" Mike Endean and his Xtrac Ltd. went on to become the transmission BIG SHOT for the World Rally Championship as well as for Formula One…

[rx-guru]

A twin engined Golf ran at Pikes Peak in the early 80s, also a husband and wife team ran a twin engined Scirocco on Uk national rounds in the early 80s, but I have no recollection of any twin engined Audis

I have never heart about any twin engined Audis either but there were a total of at least five twin engined VWs, all built by Kurt Bergmann from Vienna, the Austrian Formula V wizzard (Kaimann). In 1981 he produced "das doppelte Jettchen" [nicknamed after the famous German childrens book "Das doppelte Lottchen" by Erich Kästner http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lottie_and_Lisa ], a Jetta with two Golf GTI engines (2x 110bhp = 220bhp). In 1982 there was his "Twin-Scirocco" with 360bhp. For 1985 (390bhp) and 1986 (500bhp) he had build two VW Golf, driven by German rally ace Jochi Kleint for VW Motorsport at the 'Pikes Peak International Hill Climb'. And at the 1987 'Race To The Clouds' Jochi Kleint drove the "BiMotor-Golf" that produced 652bhp (two Golf GTI 16V engines with KKK turbocharger) – to retire due to suspension damage (front, right) just a stone throw away from the Pikes Peak summit. All five were prototypes and had nothing to do with neither Group B nor Group S.