Duncan’s Nissan 240RS rekindles memories of no holds barred days

 

On May 2, 1986, Finnish superstar Henri Toivonen and his American navigator Sergio Cresto died a horrific death inside a 600Bhp Lancia Delta S4 Group “B” rally at the World Rally Championship Tour de Corse in France.

They lost control on Stage 18 in a tight bend and the car plunged into a deep ravine, so deep that the sunshine never reach the bottom before bursting into a ball of flames.

On that day Toivonen, always in designer RayBan Aviator designer sunglasses which fitted on his handsome 29-year-old face, brought the Hollywood feel into rallying.

Young girls dropped on his feet.

TV people loved his Finnish accent.

Toivonen started the rally with a disadvantage.

He had lost his championship lead after retiring in Sweden.

Lancia withdrew in Portugal following the tragic deaths of spectators caused by a competition car while the team did not enter him in the Safari Rally.

Stories abound that Toivonen was suffering from flu and was under medication.

Despite this, the young Finn was driving like a man on a suicide mission, setting the fastest stage times consistently.

But on this tight bend without guard rails, the Lancia left the road and crashed into trees which raptured the fuel tank that moments later caught fire after the gas spilled on engine parts which used to glow white-hot.

The corner killed Toivonen and Group “B” because a few days later FISA, now FIA, banned Group “B” cars.

Toivonen had admitted that the Delta which a 0-100 kilometres per hour in 2.5 seconds, was too fast to race.

The Delta was in the same league with the MG Metro, Ford, Audi Quattro Peugeot 205 Evo 2, Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo and Nissan 240RS.

The 80s, always referred to as the “Golden Era of rallying,” saw engineers enter into a “race to the moon” on earth after perfecting turbo charging on tiny cars whose lightweight were reduced by using composite material like Kevlar.

“This rally is insane, even though everything is going well at the moment. If there is trouble, for sure, I am completely finished,” he said in a television interview.

Ian Duncan rekindled the memories of Group cars which aficionados say were “raced by men” compared to today's WRC cars they consider is for “boys.”

Ian Duncan slid the Nissan 240RS Group “B” in the five-kilometre Loldia shakedown stage, leaving a cloud of dust on its tail in corners which made grown-up men squeal like boys.

The Nissan is still engineered beyond the frontiers of technology to make it one of the fastest rally cars in history.

The 240RS was last driven to the limits in the 1985 WRC Safari Rally by Mike Kirkland who finished third after a long 5,000-kilometre drive.

It is a rear-wheel-drive car, second after the twice Safari-winning Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo in 1985-86.

Duncan, who has not tested this car sponsored by UK-based Minti Motorsport since it arrived from UK recently, will compete in selected Kenya National Rally Championship (KNRC) and the East African Classic Safari.

Duncan finished 13th overall in this 35-year-old car whose throaty engine sound is music to Kenyans of a certain generation at Loldia.

He was 55 seconds slower than the stage winner Onkar Rai in a VW Polo R5.

The Nissan cut corners sideways but the throttle response lagged it behind.

We expect Duncan to fare better Friday and Saturday.

Safari Rally champion Baldev Chager was the fastest in the KNRC category in a Mitsubishi Lancer EVO10.

Kenyans are getting confused with these brands - Group B, R5 and Group N.

What is the explanation behind this technical jargon?

For a start, the Nissan was the least powerful in the Group “B” category introduced in 1982 in the WRC but banned in 1986 after fatal accidents involving drivers and spectators.

FISA, now FIA, replaced Group “B” with Group cars with a maximum power output of 300Bhp as a top-level competition car, and Group N, a standard production car with limited modification to slow down cars.

But with time the Group “A” of the 90s such as the Subaru Impreza STi, Toyota Celica GT4 Turbo, Mitsubishi Lancer Evos series, and Ford Escort RS started becoming faster as engineers stretched the rules to the limit.

FIA later introduced the World Rally Car in 1997 and started relaxing the rules slightly in 2013 when the maximum power output was increased to 380 Bhp.

But you cannot buy this car which is used exclusively by manufacturer teams currently from Toyota, Hyundai and Ford.

These cars as small sedans since the engineers work as hard as possible to reduce weight will race in Africa for the first time in the 2021 Safari Rally.

Secondly apart from the United States, small hatchbacks have become the preference of the young generation.

And as manufacturers race cars as a marketing strategy, we are unlikely to see large saloons rallying any time soon.

FIA introduced the R5 category in 2012 to replace the Super 2000 class.
The R5 car like - what Onkar Rai, Karan Patel, and Tej Rai will drive in this weekend’s ARC Equator Rally -- is based on standard production specs and features a 1,600cc turbo-charged powered petrol propelled engine.

Chager, and many other drivers, will drive Group “N” Mitsubishi Lancer EVOs which were reclassified as NR4  since FIA extended their homologation to continue racing.    BY DAILY NATION