1985 Lombard RAC Rally (day four)

Action from the fourth day of the final round of the 1985 World Rally Championship. Originally broadcast on BBC Rally Report '85 and presented by William Woollard, with commentary by Brian Jones and additional reporting by Sue Baker. Converted from VHS TV recording. For VHS Rallies' exclusive range of classic rallying t-shirts, hoodies and mugs, visit vhsrallies.teemill.com

[@EleanorPeterson]

This is a Comment for anybody perhaps new to rallying, and wondering how the drivers coped on a brutal, old-school event like this with unseen stages and no pacenotes. What the heck are the navigators doing if there are no turn-by-turn notes for them to read? Well, they're still giving a constant stream of information to their driver about what lies ahead, but it's all improvised and gained from a simple road map. The co-driver follows their progress on the stage on the page (!), constantly looking up and down to check the car's position against recognisable landmarks such as 90° corners, kinks, long straights, hairpins, and even the terrain contours on his (or her) map. On a long stage (and some of these are 25 miles!), measuring distance covered against time is also absolutely vital, so there are basic clocks and counters in use all the time. It's incredibly intense and difficult. Motion sickness can be a problem, and it's also mentally exhausting. But once you're 'in the zone', it's indescribably exhilarating. It's a relationship built entirely on trust. A good navigator will need to develop an almost telepathic link with the driver, because the correct timing of the calls is literally a matter of life and death. My apologies to all experienced rally buffs who already know all this and think I've been stating the obvious. No offence intended - it's just that KZbin has a vast audience of casual motorsport fans, so I thought a bit of extra explanation might be helpful. :-)

[@nigelsmith7366]

Modern rally fans and drivers have no idea how hard the early rallies were

[@justinedwards4938]

Brilliant when rallying was a true spectator sport the night stages used to be awesome thanks for posting these bringing back good memories

[@Joop.23-2-63]

Agree, also have good memories of the 80's dutch rallying.

[@colinstewart1432]

Totally. When it was about the Fans, not the Sponsors. How times change, and not for the better IMHO. Glory days. 👍

[@maybenot6075]

@@colinstewart1432 group B is alive and well, modern wrc cars have way over 500bhp on tap.... just a shame the rallys are 2 and a half days, I'm hoping the new fia president sticks to his word and brings back rallies with atleast 300 stage miles

[@eddiec438]

Good footage and great to hear the cars so well too. In those days you could identify each car just from its engine noise.

[@zbyneknyklicek6934]

Thank you very much for this brilliant recording from the 80s. I love British RAC Rally, and I miss the old days of the group B. When I listening to the commentary, I hear the old good England, which is almost gone these days❤️ Henri’s “Hi” to the camera was a nice bonus 🤩

[@ELUSIVEJIM]

1985 RAC rally 63 stages and 547 stage miles. 2019 Wales rally GB 22 stages and 195 miles stage miles. Is it really the same sport?

[@animalcol1]

Nope! But I still love it. Just not as much as the early to mid 80s!

[@granitebhoy830]

Yes a proper rally. More stages on this one rally than a modern BRC Season!

[@colinstewart7123]

Yes but run by greedy fartheads not by people with a genuine love of the sport. It's refreshing that you even noticed mate. At least you know the real deal when you see it. Most do not. 👍👍

[@ELUSIVEJIM]

@@colinstewart7123 It's just very sad what has happened to rallying. I honestly think the FIA didn't want it being a threat to F1.

[@jussi-pekkaturunen689]

It's not that fair to compare the values. Times are different. I really doubt that WRC teams and supporting groups would want to put money to do that kind of mileage. You also need to find people willing to do marshall stuff. Even that starts to be hard nowadays.

[@stefanopacitti6190]

My cousin and I went to twiglees, standing at the corner after henri s roll, fantastic times!

[@colinstewart1432]

Loving that raspy bark from the 6R4 Metro. 👍👍👍

[@fraserconnell21]

I reckon that Henri bloke could win it,just a hunch..😁. Loving this literall blast from the past. I was 15 in '85 and watched all these at the time (including hitting up ceefax at daft o clock,just to see what was happening). Group B...what can I say... the noise the S4 made shook my lungs in my chest first time I saw it in the flesh and our Henri got the best of it,mostly. Many thanks for posting,I was checking all afternoon to see if you'd put out day 4. A subscriber 👍👍👍

[@colinstewart1432]

Totally agree. I'm also born in 1970 and I'm loving this channel. Thank god VHS Rallies had the good sense to archive this frankly excellent collection. 👍

[@Qwerty1235945]

Just superb. I went to see this rally at Wollaton Park. That stayed with me forever.

[@colinstewart1432]

They should rename it Woolard Park 👍

[@animalcol1]

Great coverage. Thanks!!

[@PlayFloyd_IN]

11:15 - a phone starts ringing in the middle of the interview. Production staff today would be in deep hot water for that today. A look into a very different time.

[@Brookspirit]

They are filming in the rally control center so i'm sure they expected it at some point. It wasn't that unusual at the time. The Grandstand studio on BBC One had typists working in the background and phones ringing. It gives the impression of a busy newsroom with the latest information coming through.

[@PlayFloyd_IN]

@@Brookspirit I see. I'm 31 years old and it looks and feels like a very different time to me.

[@jamesmiller3142]

@@PlayFloyd_IN Don't forgot the fight which broke out live on Grandstand 😉 kzbin.info/www/bejne/iGXJc6WQn5aojq8

[@PlayFloyd_IN]

@@jamesmiller3142 I saw this for the 1st time and even though it was fake, it was quite entertaining. 😄

[@LB1973]

"Lockerbie, wherever that is?" three years later you'll definitely know...sadly

[@chrisst8922]

William Woollard, so good.

[@EleanorPeterson]

13:18 - A poignant moment. "The car is now locked up in a garage in Lockerbie, wherever that is..." Wow. That was 1985. Three years later everybody in Britain knew where Lockerbie was. Pan Am flight 103 to New York was brought down by a terrorist bomb, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. Yep. We know where Lockerbie is, now.

[@colinstewart1432]

Exactly what went through my mind.

[@farmerlamb2372]

B555SRW was the 205T16 that Tiff Needell drove on TopGear pre 1997 Network Q report

[@VHSRallies]

Currently undergoing restoration by Peugeot UK

[@Joop.23-2-63]

@4:37 Mats Jonsson leading group A with an outdated Opel Ascona, driving skills. Remember him, back in the 80's with a lot other Swedish drivers during the tulip rally, Barneveld and the rothmans Hellendoorn rally.

[@silvierotazziano7562]

Jesus Christ this is beautiful

[@francescozanarotti3723]

Henri + Sergio + S4 = 😇😇🥇🥇

[@Marvdogger2]

Neil Wilson was co-driving on this event.

[@NahBro-]

Henri did nt have Sergio on this rally. By what I've heard Henri didn't believe Sergio was good enough at the top level

[@bobanppvc]

@@NahBro- where you hear that.If true maybe he was right

[@gtisid]

Its easy to see how the uk lost its status with the lombard rac. i remember being fascinated with all rallying in the 80s but compared to most other world rallies the rac was like the bloody paris dakar. miles and miles of stages every car viirtually destroyed

[@Jonc25]

The Peugeot still going with all that damage. They don't make em like they used to. Thanks.👍

[@ELUSIVEJIM]

Not sure if Ari Vatanen would agree after his accident with the 205 T16 E2 in 1985.

[@drazenbudis7881]

James Well Ari’s accident was at flat out speed

[@byronmills5952]

@@ELUSIVEJIM Vatanen continued with Rally raid and Pikes Peak spec T16s in 205 and 405 flavours for years after he recovered from his accident.

[@jussi-pekkaturunen689]

"they used to"? Do Ott's '19 Monte accident with 80's plastic car and the car would be in pieces which fits to a matchbox. B-groub drivers had actually fair share of DNFs due to mechanical issues.

[@chrishey6891]

I know there are a lot of stages, but look at the massive gaps between them! Now you are talking of winning rallies by seconds and stages by tenths.

[@kevinmarkocic7603]

hah at 16:25 toivonen says hi to the camera :D

[@ELUSIVEJIM]

Well spotted. I think it was more the sun in his eyes. 👍

[@kevinmarkocic7603]

@@ELUSIVEJIM haha yeah, he might be just blocking the sun

[@nigelsmith7366]

Modern rally drivers may have better cars but these guys had insane skills and stamina to be able to race for 4 days with only 1 day sleep