The 10 best road-going rally cars ever

Argomenti trattatiMini Cooper SAlpine A110 BerlinetteFord escort RS1600Lotus SunbeamAudi QuattroLancia Delta IntegraleFord Escort RS CosworthSubaru ImprezaMitsubishi Lancer EvolutionPeugeot 106 Rallye Rallies have gone on for many years now and despite its age, racing cars still gain new fans even now. That said we are looking at retro vehicles and so here are our top 10 rally cars of all time. Mini Cooper S Roy Salvadori winning an informal road race to the Italian Grand Prix against Reg Parnell in an Aston Martin DB4 with an early Mini Cooper prototype started the legacy. Paddy Hopkirk’s famous win in the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally, and successive ones for Timo Mäkinen and Rauno Aaltonen in 1965 and ’67, cemented its legacy. Mini is also synonymous with Michael Caine and The Italian Job following the infamous movie scene. Alpine A110 Berlinette Alpine enjoyed racing success on track at Le Mans and elsewhere. A110 Berlinettes are always visualised between snow banks in rallies due to the nature of most of the races it competed in. Ford escort RS1600 After creating the Lotus-engined Escort Twin-Cam for racing and rallying, the Cosworth-engined RS1600 followed. With tuneable engines, strengthened shells and built-in sturdiness these cars have been a fixture of the British privateer rally scene ever since. Lotus Sunbeam Escorts and Abarth-tuned Fiats dominated late ‘70s and early ‘80s rallying but the Lotus Sunbeam deserves an honourable mention. Lotus sorted the suspension and therefore became another mainstay of the privateer rally scene. The distinctive pinstriped livery set it apart with great performance, handling and driving experience. Audi Quattro The Audi Quattro’s influence is undeniable, the combination of turbocharging and four-wheel-drive lay the foundation for rally cars that are still around today. The Quattro perfectly embodied Audi’s Vorsprung Durch Technik mantra, as it proved that technology was the route to world domination, as much in marketing as it was in rally racing. Lancia Delta Integrale 46 WRC victories, six consecutive constructor titles and four drivers’ championships, it’s safe to say that the Delta Integrale dominated the early Group A era. It put owners in the shoes of legendary drivers like Juha Kankkunen and Miki Biaision and remains a legendary rally car for the road. Ford Escort RS Cosworth The turbocharged four-wheel-drive was installed in to the Escort Cosworth making it drastically different to the front-wheel-drive set-up in regular Escorts. The road car was a greater success than the rally version which was in the shadow of the Integrale. Subaru Impreza Before McRae drove his blue Impreza to the 1995 World Rally Championship, Subaru had been a small brand building cars for farmers and country folk. The Impreza was the ideal car for a generation of rallying enthusiasts in the ‘90s and early 2000s. Its compact size, four-wheel-drive grip, punchy performance and charismatic sound was successfully brought to the British market. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution The Mitsubishi Lancer won a lot with Tommi Mäkinen yielding four titles on the trot in the late ‘90s and a memorable succession of road cars. Tech like Active Yaw Control the Evo was using 25 years back is only now being adopted by mainstream cars, demonstrating how far ahead of the game it really was. Peugeot 106 Rallye The Peugeot 106 Rallye proves that less really can be more. The Rallye isn’t fast but it makes up for it with its handling, power delivery of its hot cam engine and the way it utilizes the throttle. It is considered by many to be one of the classics.

The 10 best road-going rally cars ever

Lotus Sunbeam

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