When Audi took revenge on Lancia

The war was done. Lancia won. Famously. But what followed? Did the Turinese roll into Monte Carlo for a sixth win in 10 years in 1984? Not exactly.

Audi had endured a winter of discontent. Having started the four-wheel drive revolution, the quattro was supposed to have steamrollered a 1982 title defence. Instead, it found Walter Röhrl and Markku Alén combining beautifully with Lancia’s 037 to divert the season’s silverware southwest through the Alps to northern Italy.

Revenge is a dish best served cold. And the 1984 Monte was one of the coldest in years. Heavy snow landed in the mountains and Lancia boss Cesare Fiorio predicted his rear-wheel drive cars would be shipping five seconds per kilometer to the Audis.

He was wrong. It was more like 10.

What was worse for Fiorio was the loss of Röhrl. Five years after being linked to Audi, the two-time champion signed with the German marque in time for 1984. Röhrl knew two-wheel drive’s time was done. It was time to join that revolution. He wasn’t, however, overly confident ahead of the season-opening Monte Carlo Rally.

Talking to legendary television interviewer Barrie Hinchliffe after his first taste of four-wheel drive rallying, Röhrl said: “The main impression is the traction – this is incredible. All the other things are not so important, but the traction is very impressive. And, of course, [switching from Lancia to Audi] means a difference from the compressor engine to a turbo engine. With the compressor you have power from 2,000 [rpm] to five [thousand] and this [Audi] engine is really powerful from five to eight [thousand].

“I have to use this, but I have to learn. After two or three rallies I should be able to say: “Now I am really able to drive this car.”

One of the key elements of driving a quattro on the limit was the ability to shift one’s left foot to the right.

“Left-foot braking…” continued Röhrl, “it’s always something I said I can’t believe it’s necessary. Now I see it really is and have to do this. After 15 years of using my left foot only on the clutch, it’s not so sensitive for the braking.

“Monte Carlo is a learning race for me. Anyway, my thing is that Audi is winning. If it is snow, I cannot win. Stig [Blomqvist] and Hannu [Mikkola] are two drivers who are really able to. For sure I can’t win.

“I cannot beat the Scandinavians. I have too much to learn on the snow and the loose surface. For asphalt it’s no problem, but for snow it’s too much.”

Then is snowed and Walter won, adding further weight to the contemporary thinking that the German remained the best of the very best.

The 1984 season, it had already been decided by Audi, would be Blomqvist’s. The Swede had been given a program which would potentially carry him to a world title (as it did). But that didn’t translate into immediate team orders on round one. When Röhrl found his feet and got to grips with turbocharging and total traction way quicker than any normal human, Stig found himself in something of a scrap.

Understanding that something had to be said, Audi team manager Roland Gumpert let it be known that the first driver back to Monaco after three days’ competition would be given a trouble-free run to the win. Providing there wasn’t another car in sight. There wasn’t.

Röhrl made the principality at the top of the time sheets. But only just. Earlier in the event a snowstorm had brought Gap to a standstill – the #1 Audi checked in a minute late to a control. The subsequent penalties were scrubbed due to the chaotic traffic.

With just the final 10 stages to run, Röhrl was in the clear for a third straight (and fourth in total) Monte win. But then Blomqvist went quickest and started eating into that advantage. Turns out the lead quattro was suffering a boost issue which robbed it of 100bhp. As soon as Stig found out, he dialled it back and stroked it home to second.

The third factory A2 of defending world champion Mikkola was third. But a distance third. Distant like 12 minutes back after 467 miles of competition.

Truth is, the Finn was jaded. His title-winning season had taken its toll. Mikkola had elected to remain in Florida to recharge his batteries across the winter, but that meant he missed some key tyre and event tests. And he paid the price, struggling throughout the event to pick the right Michelins – nowhere more so than in Burzet, where he dropped two minutes on the wrong rubber.

From Audi’s perspective, no matter. It was a one-two-three the German manufacturer could shout about. And the shouting wouldn’t stop with the overall podium, after Bernard Darniche’s Audi 80 won Group A and Pierre Bos took the Group N award in a similar model.

For the war-winning Lancia outfit, the start of that title defence four decades ago was a humbling experience. Jean-Luc Therier’s private Renault 5 Turbo took fourth and top two-wheel drive, five minutes up on the lead 037 of Attilio Bettega. Then reigning European Rally Champion Miki Biasion was a promising sixth in a Jolly Club car, but what of team leader Alén?

Eighth (behind Darniche’s Audi) and 43 minutes off the front. It had been a harrowing event for the Finn, in more ways than one. Seven minutes had been lost in a snowbank, but it was a heart-stopping moment in one stage which lived longer in the memory. Alén had come within millimetres of spinning his 037 off the side of a mountain.

The car came to a halt, undamaged, but Alén and co-driver Ilka Kivimaki were physically unable to drive on for the next couple of minutes as they took in what had just happened.

Even when things went right for Lancia, they went wrong. As in previous years, in an effort to offset the obvious traction disadvantage, the Italians ran mid-stage tire changes. After a bone-dry opening eight miles of St Jean en Royans slicks were switched for studs and Alén rocketed across the following 16 miles, catching Röhrl and setting a time a minute quicker than anybody.

Only for that stage to be cancelled after a later car went off the road.

That 1983 title suddenly seemed a distant memory. And that war? Turned out to be a battle in the four-year war that was Group B.

But the biggest story of the Monte 40 years ago? Röhrl. Just Walter.