85 Lombard RAC Rally - Your Story
As i was only 1 at the time lol i was just wondering if people would like to share with us all their memories from the event which was obviously the wrc debut of the 6R4. Got pretty much everything i can get hold of the event on video and dvd (also the event programme and autosport special) But it still doesnt beat people talking about it.

I was not born but if it was the 6R4 debut it would have been good

I was there - but not being old enough to drive at 15 I was with the old man. Went to one of the spectator stages but no idea which ? Could have been Chatsworth ??????? Nicky - what were the Sunday stages, might help me to remember ? Having just had a go at that Nintendo brain game thing at work apparently I have the mind of a 70 year old so not really surprising I've forgotten ! Garreth

ill have a look through the programme for the event and ill post the stages up mate.

I remember watching it on Top Gear Rally Reports as there was so much hype about the car it made your hairs stand on end listening to it on tv God knows what it done to the spectators on the stages The Sunday live stages where the best

Hello peeps. Think its time for me to ramble on a bit, muttering, chuntering and chuddering. one of my favourite pastimes. As you know i am new to this site, and ive been slowly (i am new to computors as well) going through your different threads and found this one. And decided you guys certainley know how to make somone feel welcome.....and old......!!!! Yes i do remember the 6R4 "on stage", I must admitt that i am bad at remembering names and places, (i think nicky has worked that one out). Its an age thing you know, long live "Victor Meldrew". But alas (not poor yoric) i do remember the "good old days", not dates, or places. But i do remember the cars. From 1980 to about 1987 (it got tame once they banned group B) me and my brother used to follow the Lombard RAC, taking loads of flasks, butties etc and spend 2 or 3 days following it, depending how long we could last, sleeping in the car at night isnt the most comfortable thing to do, especialy when you wake up and there is 3" of snow on the windscreen. i did the bulk of the driving even though he is older than me (or was it pulling senior status), but these are some of the things that i will never forget. The best stages for atmosphere are the night stages, (they used to do them in those days), proper drivers, The sound of a 6R4 on full chat, in the middle of the night in a welsh forest, screaming like a deamon, Lights come towards you and you hide behind a tree as it howls past spitting gravel everywhere and you nearly get sucked along in the vacum it creates, then seconds later all is quite around you but you can here a faint howling in the distance, You keep on walking by torch lite towards the start line (still 3 miles away) and you can see some more lights in the distance, then you hear the popping and banging, yes it must be a Quattro, You hide as before in readiness, then it flashes past, front 2 wheels of the ground as if it was trying to take off, then you see the back of it and you think He must be trying to fly coz he has got the "afterburners" on. You keep walking and eventually you reach the start line, just in time to see a Lancia Rallye sat on the line ready to go, he had problems and dropped back in the field (i am thinking "thats good or i would have missed it") They counted him down, the revs went through the roof, he dropped the clutch and it was a lesson in how to shift 2 ton of gravel in 1 second, it flew off the line, the noise was unbelievable, i thought my eardrums where going to burst, then it dissapeared into the night like a monster going back into the murky gloom. Its 2 tail lights looking like angry demons eyes, then the eyes dissapear and the wailing banshee was eaten by the night. All these are memories i am glad i have, i know i am privaleged to have seen the real group B cars being used as they was intended by the special people that could control all that raw power, but also means i am getting old, and that is deppressing. But i am still here, racing my replica, to the best i can and enjoy every second of it. and i wouldnt have it any other way. bye for now

Now thats a fantastic story Phil, a great read :D Thanks for sharing your memories :)

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Ive got lots of memories and tales like that, a lot of other people will have too. Being chased across a field after watching a nite stage because we where lost and ended up in the middle of a field, pitch black of course, just torch light. And a friend of mine shouted "them bulls are running towards us" so obviously we run and run and run for what seemed forever to get to the dry stone wall at the edge of the field, fell over the wall, full of mud and cow shit, looks over the wall only to realise that we had wandered into a field full of harmless cows, and now we was more lost and didnt have a clue where we had left the car as we never used official car parks. we used to get a stage map and sneak down the back roads and abandone the car on a grass verge near the start as we could get, It took us a good 2hrs to find the car after that. But it was all worth while because we had seen our favourite group B cars in action. The things you do sometimes. Oh to be young and stupid.