Tarmac Masterclass | Walter Röhrl at the 1984 Ulster Rally

With Hannu Mikkola busy with the Rally Argentina it was looking like Audi Sport may be giving the Ulster Rally a miss.
Much to everyone's surprise Audi Sport entered Walter Röhrl and a Audi Sport quattro.
With Walter having never competed on the event before the all tarmac rally seemed to be the perfect place for him to so some high speed testing in the Sport quattro and iron out some of the problems encountered a few months earlier on the Corsican and Acropolis Rally's.

[@Marvdogger2]

If you are experiencing issues with the sound please report to KZbin and try watching on your tv or laptop.

[@boss12]

Oh Man. I didn’t know there was still so much good stuff that hasn’t been curated yet. Thank you again.

[@Marvdogger2]

There is still hours of footage people have not seen.

[@boss12]

@ I’m excited to learn that. I can’t wait.

[@awesomeduder]

love that slogan on the back of the McRae Manta: 'Tuned For Professionals'! great stuff Marv.

[@mosca3289]

Such good humour from Walter before the start. Fantastic film.

[@XJ220NJ]

Rare for a quattro to perform this well on tarmac. Not due to a lack of power or driving skill, of course, but because of reliability problems. As Wilson and Demuth showed on this one, and several others did on the Manx and Tour de Corse, hard surfaces were a big challenge for the Audis. Awesome footage. 100 % devoid of music, capturing both the hurrying quattro and the trailing Mantas as well as interesting interviews. Another excellent video. Thank you!

[@Marvdogger2]

For sure. Tarmac was never the preferred surface for the quattro. The engine, brakes or transmission were usually overstrained or the understeer kept the car off the pace. Walters immense skill certainly helped in this case to tame the car.

[@XJ220NJ]

@@Marvdogger2 Definitely. Though even that wasn't enough to keep basically the same car running on Corsica the next year, which makes this outing even more impressive IMO.

[@Marvdogger2]

@@XJ220NJ Corsica 85 was a disaster. The testing went really well and then a faulty batch of brake discs turned up for the rally and the car had to be withdrawn after the first stage.

[@mvv44y37]

Let's not forget Stig's incredible win on the 1983 Ulster, the first all tarmac win for a Quattro I believe. And Wilson led both Ulster and Manx before retiring in 1985. The car certainly improved over the years, but was clearly still a real handful on tarmac and reliability must have been a constant worry

[@Marvdogger2]

@ There will be a video of Stigs 83 Ulster win in the future.

[@bat33.12]

Great footage, howling 5cyl Quattro, Manta 400 in it's prime as the car of choice in the Irish lanes and some true icons of the sport in Ireland in the 80's Jimmy, Russel and Bertie on camera and Austin McHale and Billy Coleman getting a mention. Walter was different class when he had the Quattro on song. Thank you for the trip down memory lane 👍

[@Marvdogger2]

@@bat33.12 Glad you enjoyed it.

[@danross8565]

Really good and well edited. Hope there’s more footage to come

[@Marvdogger2]

More to come!

[@Marvdogger2]

For those interested in the history of cars used by Audi Sport. IN-NC 46 was the Sport quattro previously used in Corsica and Acropolis Rally’s. It was fresh from winning the Rally Schloss Heidelberg in Germany again in the hands of Walter only the week before the Ulster Rally.

[@PeteRedgrass]

Can I ask how you found that out? Do you have a reference work or is there a website?

[@Marvdogger2]

It’s in an Audi quattro book I own and use for reference quite often.

[@Dulamankelly]

Great to see new footage of this event. Fond memories of Röhrl and the gang. Ulster was a great but punishing format in those days. I even make a quick appearance at the St Angelo service halt!

[@dusankocisevic6823]

Ciao Marv. Like. Share. Cheers🍺🍺 (16:30 Jimmy and Russell are just flying over there, probably much lighter than Walter’s Audi)🔝😎

[@duncandmcgrath6290]

Good job Marv👍thanks

[@Marvdogger2]

@@duncandmcgrath6290 Thanks Duncan. Thought I’d show an event a lot of people will be less familiar with.

[@SteveM-ly7oy]

This is simply awesome. Rohrl is a nice guy, and yes, he was a tough competitor, but fair. Pity he didn't rally in Group A, but with the 200 Quattro, he was clearly wasting his time, so it was little wonder that he quickly jumped ship to do Pikes Peak in 1987 with the S1.

[@johnmorrison27]

Some great scenes along with fantastic content thank you 👍👍

[@BikeThrottleOfficial]

What a cool dude Walter Rohl is ✊🏼

[@ReinhardPriller-ck9ny]

if you are the best in the best car and already achieved your live-goal ( to win Monte Carlo) you can be relaxed and cool👍

[@hans-heinosievers2756]

Walter Röhrl, ein Könner in allen Lagen. Top.

[@marianniculae]

Unique images. And true history of rallyes. Never to seen these days when electric cars are everywhere...

[@davidf2281]

Great footage, but I'll never understand how those spectators thought it was fine to stand on the corner and just assume the driver approaching at 100mph+ wouldn't screw it up and plow into them.

[@ELUSIVEJIM]

Wow. Amazing. What a fantastic upload. Thank you 🙏🏻

[@mirial2108]

Many thanks for this upload, and as usua,l first class uncovered footage for the fans.

[@Marvdogger2]

@@mirial2108 No problem. I don’t see the benefit of footage sitting in boxes after it’s been filmed and no one ever seeing it again.

[@mirial2108]

@@Marvdogger2 Your footage is extraordinary as it covers the romantic period of ralllying, just when I was getting into it as a kid because of the Tamiya R/C car I got back then in the good ol days of 1985.

[@mvv44y37]

Must have seen only 10% of this footage previously so this is fantastic! Interesting that the first shot of the car sees it on BBS wheels then it's on Speedlines for the rally. This was a hard worked car and was eventually destroyed after hitting a train in the 1985 Ivory Coast. Also interesting that despite the importance of this win and the dominance of Rohrl throughout, it's not even mentioned in Geistdorfer's book 🤷‍♂️

[@late6303]

Really enjoyed that one, thank you as always Marv

[@Marvdogger2]

Thanks sir.

[@guywarny2553]

Simply the BEST !! 😊

[@Andres205-q3p]

Hola quetal muy bonito video del walter rhoss tengo todas las maquetas de famoso AUDI CUATRO ESPORT EL ULTIMO QUE E COJIDO WALTER SUBIDA PIKE ESPEAT AÑO1986 saludos y viva walter,, que nostalgia

[@barsorrro]

I may be strange, but I love this simple -- almost "austere" -- type of rally reporting. I'm probably getting old, but the current WRC reporting has so much package on it, so much drama built into the commentary, and with the editing is focused exclusively on the bits where something happens, I just can't watch it. I feel as if I were watching a scripted thing, not a sports event.

[@Marvdogger2]

@@barsorrro Rally coverage now is all sadly extremely rushed much like the events and sadly the official WRC coverage is all we really get since they went the F1 route years ago of taking control of the media coverage.

[@Marvdogger2]

If you’re experiencing sound issues please try watching it on your tv or laptop. I have tested it through the KZbin app on tv and phone and have not had any trouble. I was signed out also.

[@schrauberkoenig83]

Thanks for Upload ✌🏽✌🏽✌🏽

[@rolandet]

Great footage m8

[@haewien]

In Marv we trust!

[@gothicpagan.666]

Just before it went silly with costs. Production models were just abour good enough to have a go without needing factory budget. Looking back if I had my time again, I'd have gone down the Skoda rought, instead of trying to keep an Imp then Samba going

[@Marvdogger2]

@gothicpagan.666 Did you have any problems with the sound on the video. A couple have mentioned it has no sound?

[@gothicpagan.666]

@@Marvdogger2 No, I assumed by time I was lucky enough to find it, any sound issues were corrected.

[@michaelhutin5451]

For 1984 this is good quality video, is it Betacam?

[@Marvdogger2]

@@michaelhutin5451 Yes. The original camera tapes were digitised and I’ve edited them from the original rushes to make this video.

[@jamiemiller7752]

It was high band U Matic in 1984. Betacam came later in 1989. 👍

[@Marvdogger2]

@@jamiemiller7752 Thanks Jamie. Good to see you here.

[@jamiemiller7752]

@@Marvdogger2 Cheers. It’s a great video and one of the very few times the old man tried a bit of presenting 😂

[@balintfoto]

🍻🍻excellent content

[@pbuedi]

@Marvdogger May I ask what processes and software you use to get such great picture quality out of your original footage? I assume the source is probably VHS tapes? I have tons of Rally footage from the 80s on VHS, but the source is pretty bad already and I have yet to find a good way to stabilize the picture and get rid of the chromatic aberration.

[@Marvdogger2]

Hi cant be of much help I'm afraid as I've never transferred anything from VHS to digital myself its always been done for me. VHS Rallies on youtube has transferred alot of vhs for other people I'd reach out to him. There is stabilization software out there most editing programmes have it built in as a feature but it can also lead to problems if over applied. Some of the footage I work with is slightly washed out so I do my best to fix the colours while still staying faithful to how it was originally filmed.

[@pbuedi]

@@Marvdogger2 Thank you for your reply. I will watch out for VHS Rallies and see what can be done 🙂

[@arthurdardalis]

The Manta’s are flying, they appear faster out of the corners than the Audi

[@Marvdogger2]

They were going hard to keep up with the Audi.

[@Fiducioso77]

like on trust ❤

[@makalu69]

Proper rally cars...

[@Jamie-x4c]

When Audis were cool

[@XJ220NJ]

Agreed! Though I think the same can be said about many other brands, too.

[@jerrythegaffer]

RIP Brooksie.

[@darrenhillman8396]

And Bertie.

[@davidbarnier1006]

Le plus grand....

[@rong.7768]

Sound??

[@Marvdogger2]

@@rong.7768 Hi are you watching on your phone, tv or pc?

[@Marvdogger2]

Are you watching on an Android device?

[@Vamppas]

Something wrong with the sounds... for me atleast

[@helgelippert1970]

On my phone I couldn´t hear nearly nothing, but with Laptop no problems.

[@gscheidhaferlvomdienst6864]

Sorry, no sound

[@Marvdogger2]

@@gscheidhaferlvomdienst6864 Works fine on my phone and laptop. Not sure why nothing for you.

[@gscheidhaferlvomdienst6864]

Didn't work in Germany...

[@Marvdogger2]

@ Must be a KZbin issue. I used the same editing software I use on all my other videos.

[@gscheidhaferlvomdienst6864]

Ok, I try it again

[@XJ220NJ]

@@gscheidhaferlvomdienst6864 It did for me. Actually, it still does. Good luck with fixing the problem, it's worth it!