Audi holds exhibition of Group B's most famous rally cars

Audi will be celebrating the skill and bravado of its Group B rally drivers - and the cars they used - in an upcoming special exhibition entitled "The Cornering Wizards: Group B Rally Cars". Held at the Audi museum in Ingolstadt until October 31st, Audi will be showing off 12 rally cars from the 1983 to 1986 period, and according to the German automaker the cars’ collective power output exceeds 5,000 hp.

The reason Group B rally cars were chosen was simple - the 1980's experienced some of the most spectacular rallying in the history of the sport thanks to the introduction of rule changes that led to a downright explosion in Group B cars’ power outputs. The new ruling allowed manufacturers of these rally cars more design freedom than ever before, and they didn’t need asking twice: highly tuned engines developing well over 500 hp soon appeared, and were capable of accelerating the cars from a standing start to 62 mph in scarcely three seconds.

Additionally, Audi's Quattro cars became the first in rallying to take advantage of four-wheel-drive. In fact, the progenitor of four-wheel rallying, the original 'Ur-Quattro' A1 will be in the exhibit - the same car that once cradled rallying's most well known female-driver Michèle Mouton. Hannu Mikkola, or the “Flying Finn”, took the world rally champion’s title in the same year with this car.

Also on display is the 360 hp Audi quattro Rallye A2 Group B from 1984. In this car it was the Swedish driver Stig Blomqvist’s turn to take the world championship in 1984, with the manufacturer’s title going to Audi. Then there is also the 420 hp Audi Sport quattro Rallye Group B from 1984, a car that rally star Walter Röhrl drove. Finally, the exhibition also features the legendary 476 hp Audi Sport quattro S1 Group B, the rally car that Audi calls "the ultimate evolutionary version in this group". Eight competitors’ cars round off the special exhibition, including the Peugeot 205 Turbo and Renault R5 Turbo, an MG Metro 6R4 and Lancia’s Delta S4 and 037 Rallye.