Safari Rally 1982
Round 4 of the 1982 World Rally Championship · 8–12 April 1982
Shekhar Mehta won his fourth Safari in a row — and the fifth of his career — in a Datsun/Nissan Violet.
Episode 7 — The Underdogs: Toyota, Opel, Nissan, Mazda, Renault, Citroën, Porsche & Ferrari
The Safari Rally 1982 features in this episode of our documentary series.
At a glance
The podium
Car photos are representative pictures of the model, not of this event.
Route and surface
Open public roads in Kenya rather than closed special stages: thousands of kilometres of rough tracks, dust, mud and wildlife, timed between controls.
Key entries
The leading seeded crews (start numbers 1–8):
- #1 Shekhar Mehta / Mike Doughty — Nissan Violet (D.T. Dobie & Co)
- #2 Mike Kirkland / Anton Levitan — Nissan Violet GTS (D.T. Dobie & Co)
- #3 Timo Salonen / Seppo Harjanne — Nissan Violet GTS (D.T. Dobie & Co)
- #4 Rauno Aaltonen / Lofty Drews — Opel Ascona 400 (Rothmans Opel Team)
- #5 Walter Röhrl / Christian Geistdörfer — Opel Ascona 400 (Rothmans Opel Team)
- #6 Tony Pond / Terry Harryman — Nissan Violet GTS (D.T. Dobie & Co)
- #7 Yoshio Iwashita / Yoshimasa Nakahara — Nissan Bluebird Turbo (Yoshio Iwashita)
- #8 Jayant Shah / Aslam Khan — Nissan 160J (Jayant Shah)
Shekhar Mehta won his fourth Safari in a row — and the fifth of his career — in a Datsun/Nissan Violet.
How the rally unfolded
The Safari did not use special stages in the European sense; times were taken between controls on long sections of open road, and reliability counted as much as speed. Mehta and Mike Doughty finished 41 minutes ahead of Walter Röhrl, whose second place in the Ascona 400 was a vital haul of points towards his title. Mike Kirkland made it two Nissans on the podium.
Only 21 of 73 starters reached the finish. Rauno Aaltonen’s Opel suffered engine failure, Timo Salonen withdrew with delays, and Sandro Munari’s Porsche 911 also withdrew. Audi did not take part.
The decisive moment
Mehta’s local knowledge and the strength of the Nissan were decisive on roads where many European entries broke.
Result — top 10
| Pos. | No. | Crew | Car | Entrant | Gp. | Penalty time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Shekhar Mehta / Mike Doughty | Nissan Violet | D.T. Dobie & Co | G4 | 4 h 26 min |
| 2 | 5 | Walter Röhrl / Christian Geistdörfer | Opel Ascona 400 | Rothmans Opel Team | G4 | +41 min |
| 3 | 2 | Mike Kirkland / Anton Levitan | Nissan Violet GTS | D.T. Dobie & Co | G4 | +1 h 50 min |
| 4 | 6 | Tony Pond / Terry Harryman | Nissan Violet GTS | D.T. Dobie & Co | G4 | +2 h 34 min |
| 5 | 8 | Jayant Shah / Aslam Khan | Nissan 160J | Jayant Shah | G2 | +3 h 49 min |
| 6 | 9 | Robert Collinge / Mike Fraser | Range Rover | Robert Collinge | G2 | +4 h 28 min |
| 7 | 29 | Yoshinoru Takahashi / Mahendra Gohil | Subaru 4WD | Subaru MSG of J | G2 | +7 h 54 min |
| 8 | 15 | Frank Tundo / Quentin Thompson | Mitsubishi Colt Lancer | Frank Tundo | G2 | +8 h 27 min |
| 9 | 33 | Javaid Alam / Arshad Khan | Subaru 4WD | Subaru MSG of J | G2 | +9 h 25 min |
| 10 | 21 | Ramesh Khoda / Jasvinder Matharu | Subaru 4WD | Subaru MSG of J | G2 | +11 h 09 min |
On the Safari and the Ivory Coast Rally, crews were ranked by penalty time accumulated on timed road sections, not by special-stage times.
Retirements of note
- #3 Timo Salonen / Seppo Harjanne (Nissan Violet GTS) — withdrew (delays), time control 28
- #4 Rauno Aaltonen / Lofty Drews (Opel Ascona 400) — engine, time control 73
- #7 Yoshio Iwashita / Yoshimasa Nakahara (Nissan Bluebird Turbo) — accident, time control 42
- #10 John Hellier / Rob Anderson (Nissan Bluebird Turbo) — engine, time control 29
- #11 Sandro Munari / Ian Street (Porsche 911) — withdrew (delays), time control 29
- #14 Assa Nandra / Farakh Yusuf (Nissan Silvia) — excluded (over the time limit), time control 13
Results, retirements, stage wins and leaders are taken from Jonkka’s World Rally Archive. Names are given with their correct spelling; the archive itself omits diacritics.
Related pages
- 1982 season overview
- All 1982 rallies
- Previous round: Rally de Portugal 1982
- Next round: Tour de Corse 1982
- Cars: Opel Manta 400
- Teams: Opel
- Iconic moments · Timeline · Statistics
All rounds of 1982
In pictures 4 photos
Photos from this event where free-licensed pictures exist; otherwise the podium cars, photographed on the occasion stated in each caption.
Further resources
- Motor Sport (May 1982): Marlboro Safari Rally EN · article · subscription
Contemporary report from Motor Sport magazine's May 1982 issue, written as the season unfolded. - WRC.com season archive 1982 EN · archive
Official summary of the 1982 season: calendar, winners and both championship tables. - Wikipedia: Safari Rally EN · archive
History of the Safari Rally with its list of winners over the decades.
The same rally in other Group B years
Sources
- Jonkka's World Rally Archive (juwra.com), Safari Rally 1982: event page — https://www.juwra.com/safari_1982.html
- Jonkka's World Rally Archive, results — https://www.juwra.com/safari_1982_results.html
- Jonkka's World Rally Archive, entry list — https://www.juwra.com/safari_1982_entries.html
- Wikipedia (EN), 1982 World Rally Championship — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_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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