The end of Group B

In the space of two months in the spring of 1986, two accidents ended an era. After the deaths of spectators in Portugal and of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto in Corsica, FISA decided that Group B cars would no longer be allowed in the World Rally Championship from 1987.

Grouve Sport documentary

Episode 10 — Europe’s Group B: The European Rally Championship & the National Champions (1982–86)

Our episode on the European and national championships ends with what the 1986 ban left behind.

Portugal, March 1986

On the first stage of the Rally de Portugal, near Sintra, Joaquim Santos crested a rise and swerved to avoid spectators standing in the road. His Ford RS200 went off into another group of spectators: three people were killed and more than thirty injured. The leading works drivers withdrew from the rally, stating that the safety of spectators could not be guaranteed and that the accident had been caused by crowds in the road rather than by the cars themselves. See iconic moments.

Corsica, May 1986

On the Tour de Corse, Henri Toivonen was leading in the Lancia Delta S4. On the 18th stage his car left the road on a left-hand bend, plunged down a wooded slope and caught fire. Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto were killed. See iconic moments.

FISA’s decision

Immediately after Corsica, FISA under Jean-Marie Balestre announced that Group B cars would be excluded from the World Championship from 1987, and that Group A would become the top category. Audi, which had not started another world rally after Portugal, announced its withdrawal from rallying after Corsica, arguing that the decision did nothing about spectator safety. The remaining teams completed the 1986 season with their Group B cars.

Group S: the class that never came

Group S had been planned as Group B’s successor, with only a small number of cars needed for homologation and a power limit (usually quoted as 300 hp) to keep speeds in check. Several manufacturers had built prototypes. When Group B was removed from the World Championship, Group S was abandoned as well, and none of the prototypes ever started a world rally.

The last Group B season

The 1986 championship ran to its end, but not without controversy. The Peugeots were excluded from the Rallye Sanremo over their aerodynamic ‘skirts’; after Peugeot’s protest, FISA annulled the whole event eleven days after the final round, and the drivers’ title passed from Markku Alén to Juha Kankkunen. The last world championship rally for Group B cars was the Olympus Rally in the United States in December 1986. See season 1986.

After 1986

From 1987 the World Championship was contested by Group A cars, derived from models built in far larger numbers; Lancia was best prepared with the Delta HF 4WD. Group B cars remained eligible for a time in the European and national championships, with restrictions — see European and national championships.

Sources differ on the exact date and wording of FISA’s announcement in May 1986 and on the precise Group S limits that had been proposed; we give only the points on which the sources used here agree.

More from Group B

Group B timelineFrom the introduction of the rules in 1982 to the ban in 1986 and its aftermath: every key moment on one interactive timeline.Read more →Statistics and recordsSortable tables of every world rally win and podium from 1982 to 1986 by driver, co-driver, car, make and team, plus championship charts, a car comparison tool and records.Read more →Group B documentariesVerified official Group B documentaries — free and paid — plus Grouve Sport's own documentary series, Group B — The Rally Years.Read more →Iconic rallies and momentsThe Col de Turini, Mouton in Sanremo, Vatanen in Argentina, Bettega and Toivonen in Corsica, the tragedy of Portugal 1986 and the Sanremo title that was taken back.Read more →Teams and team managersAudi Sport, Lancia Martini, Peugeot Talbot Sport, Ford, Austin Rover, Toyota Team Europe, Opel, Rothmans Porsche/Prodrive and the private teams: who ran them, where were they based and what did they win?Read more →The drivers of Group BChampions, prodigies and co-drivers: the people who tamed the fastest rally cars ever built. With profiles, results and a sortable record of every world rally win.Read more →

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (EN), Group B — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_B
  2. Wikipedia (EN), Group B (including the planned Group S) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_B
  3. Wikipedia (EN), 1986 World Rally Championship — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1986_World_Rally_Championship

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

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Thumbnail photos on this page: Anthospace (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Ermell (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Mr.choppers (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0); _morgado (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Tony Harrison (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0); Fabien Rochet (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).