And in the world of rally. In the Mid-80's came a whole slew of amazing rally cars, all of which were technological wonders. The arms race between many teams ramped up very quickly, and a lot of amazing cars were released in a few years.
The Audi Quattro which single handedly revolutionized the sport by showing what AWD could do. AWD was legalized in 1979 for WRC, and Audi started on development of the Quattro. It finally debuted for rallying in 1981 (after a few events as the course car in 1980, one where if it was actually competing it would have won by 9 minutes), and quickly became the car to beat in 1981 and 1982. Most manufacturers knew by then that AWD was going to dominate, and started developing new cars with AWD.
Then, in 1983 came Group B. The first to join race in Group B was the Lancia 037. It was still rear wheel drive, but it was more powerful and purpose built for rally competition. In fact, in 1983 the Lancia won the manufacturers championship, mostly due to the unreliability of the Quattro at the time.
Next up was the Peugeot 205 T16 debuting in mid-1984, which just decimated everyone. It was AWD, it was mid-engined (as opposed to the Audi front engine), better balanced, easier to drive and more powerful. Peugeot dominated 1985 winning nearly everything it competed in. Audi, in an attempt to come back debuted their new Quattro S1 at the end of 1985, along with a new Lancia Delta S4 (turbocharged
and supercharged), Metro 6R4 and the Ford RS200, every car now sporting AWD.
But, the Group B ended after two incidents in 1986, one that claimed the lives of spectators and second one that claimed the lives of the driver, co-driver and spectators. Group B, and the still-in-development Group S, were both cancelled by the FIA for being unsafe.
The Audi Quattro
The Peugeot 205 T16.
The Lancia 037
The Ford RS200
The Lancia Delta S4
