Supporting the Eifel Rallye Festival has always been a priority at the Rally Group B Shrine. Here’s a partial list and short description of the Group B cars, Group S and related prototypes that are registered to take part in this year’s festivities;
Renault Maxi 5 Turbo – 1986, Gr. B – Neil Brighton/Peter Fidalgo
This Renault was built already in 1996 with many original parts and new fabrication where necessary at a time when it was not popular to copy group B cars. Arguably the earliest and most accurate recreation of a Maxi Turbo.
Audi quattro A2 – 1984, Gr. B – Thomas Aigner/Andreas Zeidler
This Audi quattro was converted from a production car into a copy of the 1984 factory car by the Reichert company in 2006 and drove in HB livery at slowly sideways for a few years. In 2010, it was sold to Greece where it was driven by Vasileios Velanis before returning to Walter Münch in Germany in 2014.
Opel Kadett 400 – 1984, Gr. Prototyp – Steven Kaiser/Volker Hess
Apart from Group B rallying, Henk van der Linde had always been a fan of the Opel 400-series (Ascona and Manta). When he heard at the beginning of the new century that there had also been a “Kadett 400” project, Van der Linde wanted to know more and started tracing these vehicles but unfortunately did not find much information.
Renault 5 Turbo – 1984, Gr. B – Markus Trapp/Sebastian Trapp
This Renault came as a Turbo 2 in 2003 from France to Germany and was modified to Tour de Corse spec which meant different front suspension and coil spring and damper units instead of the torsion bar suspension.
Nissan 240RS – 1983, Gr. B – Achim Loth/Paulo de Moura
This car (chassis 006) is one of three Nissan 240RS that, in 2008, were brought from Kenya to Germany for participation in Slowly Sideways events. Unfortunately, the restoration process was not quite as easy as had been hoped because there are hardly any spare parts to find anywhere in the world, all 240RS parts seem to have vanished.
Audi quattro A2 – 1983, Gr. B – Rainer Lohr/Jacqueline Franz
Rainer Lohr owns this quattro since the year 2000 and began in 2005 to rebuild it into a copy of the Audi quattro that Hannu Mikkola drove in Corsica in 1983.
Renault 5 Turbo – 1984, Gr. B – Christian Klein/Eric Marnette
Christian Klein bought this R5 Turbo in 2013 when it was still in the French Rally Group F configuration, but had not been raced for years and was not in good condition.
Opel Ascona 400 – 1983, Gr. B – Andreas Hoppe/Ramona Hoppe
This is the third Ascona 400 that came back from East Africa in 2009 to Germany where it was restored during one year to perfect original condition by Andreas Hoppe and his friends.
Opel Manta 400 – 1985, Gr. B – Frank Höhner/Michael Stoffel
In 2022, Frank Höhner took over this Manta 400, which was built from a road car by the Wolf family. With regard to the paintwork, this Opel represents the car that Guy Frequelin drove in the French championship in 1985.
Ford RS200 Evo2 – 1986, Gr. S – John Wheeler/Scott Wheeler
John Wheeler is the spiritual father of the RS200 and through 1984 to 1986 as Chief Engineer for Ford Motorsport was responsible for the design and development of the RS200 for both road and rally applications.
Audi quattro A2 – 1984, Gr. B – Jürgen Reeb/Christopher Hick
It took Jürgen Reeb two years (2011 to 2013) to build this Audi quattro A2 rally car. After the restoration, it was displayed on several events in Europe and also used on the 2013 edition of the Deutschland Classic.
Opel Manta 400 – 1986, Gr. B – Sascha Kaiser/Joshua Hess
The Kaiser family tried to find the original Hero Manta 400, but unfortunately remained unsuccessful. Finally, in 2015, a normal standard Manta was completely disassembled and faithfully recreated as Manfred Hero’s car. Many parts came from the warehouse of the Kaiser family’s Opel collection.
Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo – 1986, Gr. B – Gerd Dicks/Dani Portela
As for many years he ran the engine workshop at TEE and later at TMG in Cologne, it is only logical that quite early on Gerd Dicks secured himself one of the cars they built and so this Celica TCT has been in the Dicks family for more than twenty years.
Lancia Delta S4 – 1985, Gr. B – Rolf Wyss/Oswald Backes
Rolf Wyss found this Lancia Delta S4 in Italy as a rolling chassis without engine and gearbox. The chassis number 151 did not indicate that it had pursued a motorsport career since usually numbers smaller than 200 were used for the road-going S4s with numbers over 200 reserved for the Group B competition cars.
Lancia Rallye 037 – 1984, Gr. B – Robert Whitehouse/Yvonne Mehta
This Lancia 037 came to the UK in 1995 and was restored by Gareth Williams of Sweep Motorsport including its original Olio-Fiat livery. It is owned and driven by Rob Whitehouse, a New Zealander who lives in London.
Audi Sport quattro – 1984, Gr. B – Dermott Simpson/David Johnston
Several years ago, Dermott Simpson bought the original Sport quattro (chassis RS02) which was driven by Michèle Mouton on the RAC Rally of 1984. Then came the problem: What to do when you try to conserve the works car as good as possible and at the same time like to drive it on special stages. But Dermott came up with a solution.
Audi Sport quattro S1 – 1984, Gr. B – Claude Millet/Theo Millet
Claude Millet drove for three years in the Peugeot 205 Rallyecrosscup and thus is used to motorsport. As he could not find an original Sport quattro, he built this car out of a long quattro himself. It took him ten years to find all the parts needed or to remake the ones missing and about 1500 hours of labour went into this project.
Renault 5 Turbo – 1984, Gr. B – Frank Hachmann/Sven Flöter
This Renault 5 Turbo is owned by Frank Hachmann since 1992 and was completely rebuilt between 2003 and 2005. The engine has 1397cc and with an engine kit from Renault Sport and a Devil exhaust delivers 200bhp.
MG Metro 6R4 – 1986, Gr. B – Patrick Berghaus/Karin John
Father and son Berghaus upgraded their 6R4 from a near standard Clubman spec car to this reliable 350 bhp strong Clarion-Metro and copied the 6R4 as used on the Hunsrück Rally in 1986.
Audi quattro A1 – 1983, Gr. B – Michael Brechmann/Andreas Hachmann
This Audi came from Dubai in pretty poor condition with two other quattros and was restored to competition standard by Kessel and the engine by Lehmann. In 2016 and 2017 it was still rallying with Michael Hinderer in the Mitropa Cup in Germany before Michael Brechmann took it over.
Peugeot 205T16 – 1985, Gr. B – Ludwig Biewen/Robert Bornträger
This Peugeot 205 T16 remained with Peugeot Germany in Saarbrücken for many years after 1985 and later in Cologne when the company moved and merged with Citroen. It was often exhibited in public. However, Peugeot was not in a position to prepare it ready to drive and finally sold it to Ludwig Biewen.
Lancia Rallye 037 – 1983, Gr. B – John Saunders/
The car was found in a museum in Las Vegas having sat on display for nearly 25 years following its sale from the factory. Although non-running, the car was superbly untouched and original and has just completed a comprehensive but carefully sympathetic two-year restoration.
Porsche 911 SCRS – 1984, Gr. B – Wolfgang Inhester/Rita Inhester
The former German Rally Champion Codriver Wolfgang H. Inhester took a Porsche 911 SC 3.0 from 1983 to transform it as close as possible to a copy of the SC/RS that Henri Toivonen drove to victory on the Costa Smeralda Rally in 1984.
Audi Sport quattro S1E2 – 1985, Gr. B – Klaus Herchenbach/Felix Herchenbach
Since there are only very few original Sport quattro E2, Klaus Herchenbach had no choice but to consider a copy. With Dirk Schauf in Thuringia a specialist was finally found who could realize that project. The body was built from the front end of an Audi 80, the floor of the Urquattro and the rear section of the quattro Coupé.
Lancia Rallye 037 – 1985, Gr. B – Pat Horan/Noelle Horan
This Lancia 037 chassis 131 was first prepared by Beppe Volta to Evo 1 specifications and registered already in 1982. It was than used by Sergio Barbero in 1983 in the Italian Championship. In 1984 it was active by Beppe Volta as a test car for Cunico and Vudafieri and than upgraded to Evo 2 spec.
Audi Sport quattro Pikes Peak – 1987, Gr. Prototyp – Coen Donkers/
In the Dutch town of Veghel, Coen Donkers runs his own Audi workshop and apart from repairing road cars he specialized in the replication of famous rally cars. His favourite cars have always been the Sport quattro, the winged Sport quattro E2 and also the Pikes Peak version of the E2 driven by Walter Röhrl in 1987.
