Rally Discussion and Bar Talk Thread

**J4MIE** · 5th May 2023, 11:23

Originally Posted by Jarek Z

Does anybody remember former WRC driver Urmo Aava? After a long break from rallying he is back on the entry list of Rapla Ralli in Estonia (look at #12):
https://www.ewrc-results.com/entries...la-ralli-2023/

It is really really difficult to escape from rallying completely and never do it again. He has been organising Rally Estonia though, right?

**Fast Eddie WRC** · 5th May 2023, 15:34

That car was a Talbot Horizon LOTUS

As they hatched plans for the Sunbeam’s successor they rejected its upcoming replacement, the French-made Samba, and decided to base their next-generation col conqueror on the larger Horizon hatchback, re-engineered to take the Sunbeam Lotus engine mounted longways behind the front seats and driving the rear wheels.

As installed in the first prototype it ran the same output as the Sunbeam competition cars, around 250bhp, but Lotus engineers had an ace to play. Like Renault, they’d been early adopters of turbocharging and by fitting a second Horizon prototype with a tweaked-up engine from an Esprit Turbo they had a 300-horsepower rally fighter on their hands.

https://www.evo.co.uk/features/20586...ead-on-arrival

**Norm75** · 5th May 2023, 21:56

Yes Eddie, I had a bit of a look this afternoon and read that David Lapworth was one of the test drivers, apparently it wasn’t so good on corners. I also found a few interesting cars that were being trialled by the psa group. Plenty of visa prototypes were made in 4wd form for group b (found one that looked interesting with quite aggressive aero bodywork on and known as a visa lotus) and also a group b Peugeot 305 v6 rear wheel drive that looked interesting.

4BEC6E1A-ACD7-491D-A9EA-EC8984206A61.jpeg

**Jarek Z** · 6th May 2023, 22:31

Originally Posted by Rallyest

yes that should be very interesting to see how he can keep up with new guns

Originally Posted by J4MIE

It is really really difficult to escape from rallying completely and never do it again. He has been organising Rally Estonia though, right?

It seems Aava has rusted a bit. He finished the rally down in the 6th position:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results...la-ralli-2023/

**bandit12** · 7th May 2023, 06:18

Originally Posted by Jarek Z

It seems Aava has rusted a bit. He finished the rally down in the 6th position:
https://www.ewrc-results.com/results...la-ralli-2023/

Puncture from ss8. Was on second place till then

**cali** · 7th May 2023, 09:43

Originally Posted by bandit12

Puncture from ss8. Was on second place till then

Yeah you got to look the whole picture incl. driving in a old Gr. N Impreza against newer Rally2 machinery + time penalty + puncture. Tells a bigger story than just looking at the overall results. And yes, he definitely is rusty as well.

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**Fast Eddie WRC** · 8th May 2023, 12:31

This is a brilliant resource on Group B cars and especially the fascinating prototypes that never came to fruition.

https://rallygroupbshrine.org/the-gr...-b-prototypes/

**becher** · 11th May 2023, 10:57

So I looked at the FIA database and couldn't find anything, but I seem to remember two door GC8 Group A Imprezas (so not the WRC cars from 97 onwards). Where these a thing (obviously not works cars) or is my memory tricking me? Anybody got any insight?

**Norm75** · 11th May 2023, 19:19

Originally Posted by becher

So I looked at the FIA database and couldn't find anything, but I seem to remember two door GC8 Group A Imprezas (so not the WRC cars from 97 onwards). Where these a thing (obviously not works cars) or is my memory tricking me? Anybody got any insight?

I’m not so sure there are any/many group A 2 door gc8 imprezas. Might be a few group n but think all the grp a impreza were built from type ra base cars (thinner lighter glass etc) which were pretty much built to use as the base for rally cars, and they were only made in 4 door shells.
I could be wrong but I think that is why all grp a imprezas were 4 door.