Peugeot's Group B Titan
The 205 Turbo 16 was one of France's greatest industrial and technological successes, like Concorde and the TGV. It soon dominated the world championship and won two titles, in 1985 and 1986, despite strong competition from Audi and Lancia. The Group B programme was announced by Jean Todt at the end of 1981, with its first entry on the Tour de Corse in 1984. The design brief was simple: the car had to look like Peugeot's best-selling 205, weigh no more than 950kg and have a mid-mounted turbocharged engine and four-wheel drive, like the Audi. The last point demonstrated Todt's vision as early as 1981, whereas other manufacturers only went down this route much later.
To achieve this, Todt assembled a high-quality team of creative, passionate and pragmatic contributors. They included Jean-Pierre Nicolas as test driver, Jean-Claude Vaucard from the R&D department, and two notable hires poached from Renault: the engine specialist Jean-Pierre Boudy and, above all, the chassis engineer André de Cortanze who was working on the Moto Elf. Many key figures in the T16's history had spent time at Alpine, winner of the WRC in 1973: Nicolas, Saby, Jabouille, Fréquelin and, of course, Todt and de Cortanze.
A month after its official Group B homologation, the 205 T16 debuted on the 1984 Tour de Corse. Demonstrating its potential: Nicolas finished 4th, exactly 20 years after driving a Renault Dauphine in the 1964 Tour de Corse. Ari Vatanen, who was in the lead for a time, came off the road and his T16 went up in smoke.
A year later, on the 1985 Tour de Corse, saw the first appearance of the second generation model, the Evo 2. The Evo 1's career would continue for several months until the new model was completely ready. The favourites for the Tour de Corse were Vatanen and Timo Salonen, both driving Evo 1s. Saby's job was to get some miles under the wheels of the new model. However Salonen retired immediately and Vatanen, fighting Ragnotti in his Maxi 5 Turbo, came off the road abruptly and destroyed his T16, fortunately without any injuries. Peugeot's hopes now rested on Saby and Fauchille, and Todt directed them to finish in the points and bring the car home on the podium. He won two stages outright at the end of the rally and achieved a second place finish, quite a feat given the development work left to do on the Evo 2.
This example was first used in the 1986 Swedish Rally with the World Champion Timo Salonen. While in the lead ahead of Toivonen's S4, he was forced to retire during the seventh special stage when an oil filter seal split. The car was then used on the 1986 Tour de Corse by Saby, who won the event. It was also entered in the 1986 Acropolis Rally, although it is not known who drove it: the winner Kankkunen, the third-placed Saby, or Salonen, who retired!
At the end of 1986, Peugeot were again World Rally Champions, for the second consecutive year, but Group B was then banned following the accidents in Portugal and the deaths of Toivonen and Cresto in an S4 on the Tour de Corse. For the former stars of Group B, the only options were long-distance rallies like the Dakar or rallycross.
This 1985 Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 Evolution 2 is part of a collection of 7 Group B rally cars which includes an Audi Sport Quattro S1, a Renault 5 Maxi Turbo, a Lancia 037 and S4, Ford RS200 and an MG Metro 6R4, all set for auction on Friday 5 February 2021 with Artcurial Motorcars. Photos © Peter Singhof / McKlein.de / Artcurial.