It was the key car culture news of the week: the release of the movie trailer Race for glory: Audi vs Lancia, which should be the definitive film about the world of rallying. For what ? Because the film focuses on the 1983 season, when two Group B cars competed in a duel at the top: the four-wheel-drive Audi Quattro with a 330-horsepower 5-cylinder front turbo engine against the two-wheel-drive Lancia 037. but with a 4-cylinder central engine with a compressor of 320 hp. This was just before the appearance of the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, which began to win from the end of the 1984 season. If the German car showed better traction, the Italian one stood out for its balance and lightness, driven by the driving of artist Walter Rohrl against an army of Audi drivers. The story of this 1983 season is memorable because, in the end, it was not Germany that won the Constructors’ title and, above all, it was the last time a car with two solid wheels won the World Rally Championship. .
A trailer that immediately sets the tone
At the time, rallying was the number one motorsport on television, with viewers playing toreador on the track, spectacular night events and sometimes haphazard interpretation of the rules by the most astute teams. In an excerpt leaked this week, Cesare Fiorio’s character says, “A rally is a war and I’m an army general.” We see the boss of Lancia, played by Riccardo Scamarcio (seen in John Wick 2), facing off against Audi CTO Roland Humpert, played by Daniel Brühl (Goodbye Lenin, Inglourious Basterds, Rush). Yes, this is the same Roland Gumpert, who later became the creator of the Gumpert Apollo supercar. So here’s a battle we like, like James Hunt vs. Niki Lauda in Ron Howard’s Rush (2013) or Ferrari vs. Ford in James Mangold’s Le Mans 1966 (2019). Thus, Race for Glory will be the first major film in the world of rallying, it is also a real car movie as opposed to the entertaining but completely unrealistic Fast and Furious saga or Transformers saga.
Two important reports to relive the epic
To go further and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the time, nothing better than a reminder with this report for TF1 by our national Jean-Louis Moncet, created at the Rally Portugal in 1983, to watch it again on youtube. The battle between Lancia and Audi is well covered there, with the added bonus of an interview with Audi’s Michel Mouton, who achieved the feat of emulating Hanna Mikkola and overtaking Walter Rohrl in the Lancia. Finally, in a different style, in English, but beautifully delivered, we have to watch the Grand Tour episode of 19 January 2018 on Amazon Prime, commented by the ineffable Jeremy Clarkson (ex-Top Gear UK), who elaborates on the twenty minutes. during the 1983 season and the war between Audi and Lancia. This well-documented sequence includes, of course, archival footage as well as exciting re-enactments, which one suspects inspired Race to Fame director Stefano Mordini. The release is scheduled for February 7, 2024.
Read also:
- “The rush”: a true story
- Peugeot 208 Rallye: the return of the iconic sports car?
- They participate in a rally in Europe in their 1928 Bugatti type 444
Source: Auto Plus
Robert is an experienced journalist who has been covering the automobile industry for over a decade. He has a deep understanding of the latest technologies and trends in the industry and is known for his thorough and in-depth reporting.