Group B 1982–1986

The seasons 1982–1986

Five world championships, 61 world rallies and five different champions. For every season: the winners, the standings and the stories.

Photo: Carlom1961 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Every Group B season had its own character. 1982 was the bridge from the old rules to the new; 1983 the classic duel between four-wheel drive and lightness; 1984 Audi’s year; 1985 Peugeot’s breakthrough; and 1986 the year when everything came together — and came to an end.

Season	Drivers’ champion	Manufacturers’ champion	World rallies
1982	Walter Röhrl (Opel)	Audi	12
1983	Hannu Mikkola (Audi)	Lancia	12
1984	Stig Blomqvist (Audi)	Audi	12
1985	Timo Salonen (Peugeot)	Peugeot	12
1986	Juha Kankkunen (Peugeot)	Peugeot	13 (Sanremo later annulled)

Final standings at a glance

Pick a season and switch between the drivers’ and manufacturers’ tables. Points follow the official final standings; for 1985 only the drivers’ points are shown, because we could not independently verify the manufacturers’ totals.

Where they raced

The Group B-era calendar spanned five continents: from the snow of Värmland to the Kenyan savannah and the Andes in Argentina. Click a marker to see every winner of that rally between 1982 and 1986.

How the championship worked

Every world rally counted for the drivers, but not every rally counted for the manufacturers. Sweden and the Ivory Coast were drivers-only events in 1982–1984; in 1985 only the Ivory Coast was. Drivers scored 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1 for the top ten. That is why works teams sometimes skipped events on purpose: Lancia did not contest the last two rallies of 1983 once the manufacturers’ title was secure, and in 1986 Toyota was the only team to bring a full works effort to the Ivory Coast.

More from Group B

World Championship rallies 1982–1986All 61 world championship rallies of the Group B era, each with its own page — searchable and filterable by season, surface and winning make.Read more →European and national championshipsThe European Rally Championship and the national championships where Group B cars raced most: how they worked, who won them and links to every championship page.Read more →The cars of Group BFrom the Audi Quattro to the Ferrari 288 GTO Evoluzione: every significant Group B car, with engineering, history, results and an interactive comparison tool.Read more →What was Group B? Rules, homologation and the endHow FISA reorganised motorsport in 1982, why 200 road cars were enough, how 'evolutions' worked and why the rules disappeared after 1986.Read more →Search Group BSearch every page about drivers, cars, teams, seasons and moments.Read more →Sources and image creditsEvery source, page by page, plus full credits for the photographs used: author, file and free licence.Read more →

Sources

1. Wikipedia (EN), 1982–1986 World Rally Championship — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_World_Rally_Championship
2. eWRC-results, seasons 1982–1986 — https://www.ewrc-results.com/season/1985/
3. Jonkka's World Rally Archive, calendars 1982–1986 — https://www.juwra.com/calendar_1984.html

All text is original writing for Grouve Sports Management Group, based on the sources above. Facts checked on 21 October 2026.

Thumbnail photos on this page: Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Thesupermat (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0); Matthew Lamb (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0); NaBUru38 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Calreyn88 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); _morgado (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); estoril (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Ermell (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Nicky Clarke (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Calreyn88 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Bahnfrend (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).