Safari Rally 1984
Round 4 of the 1984 World Rally Championship · 19–23 April 1984
Björn Waldegård won the Safari in a Toyota Celica Twin-Cam Turbo — his second Safari win, seven years after his first in a Ford Escort.
Episode 7 — The Underdogs: Toyota, Opel, Nissan, Mazda, Renault, Citroën, Porsche & Ferrari
The Safari Rally 1984 features in this episode of our documentary series.
At a glance
The podium
Photo: SG2012 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Alf van Beem via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Jiří Sedláček via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0Car photos are representative pictures of the model, not of this event.
Route and surface
Open Kenyan roads and tracks, timed between controls.
Key entries
The leading seeded crews (start numbers 1–8):
- #1 Hannu Mikkola / Arne Hertz — Audi Quattro A2 (Audi Sport)
- #2 Shekhar Mehta / Rob Combes — Nissan 240RS (D.T. Dobie & Co Ltd)
- #3 Michèle Mouton / Fabrizia Pons — Audi Quattro A2 (Audi Sport)
- #4 Per Eklund / David Whittock — Toyota Celica Twin-Cam Turbo (Westlands Motors)
- #5 Björn Waldegård / Hans Thorszelius — Toyota Celica Twin-Cam Turbo (Westlands Motors)
- #6 Guy Fréquelin / Bruno Berglund — Opel Manta 400 (Opel Euro Team)
- #7 Markku Alén / Ilkka Kivimäki — Lancia Rally 037 Evo (Martini Racing)
- #8 Stig Blomqvist / Björn Cederberg — Audi Quattro A2 (Audi Sport)
Björn Waldegård won the Safari in a Toyota Celica Twin-Cam Turbo — his second Safari win, seven years after his first in a Ford Escort.
How the rally unfolded
Waldegård, entered by the Kenyan dealer Westlands Motors, beat Rauno Aaltonen’s Opel Manta 400 by nine minutes. Hannu Mikkola was third, Markku Alén fourth in a Lancia 037.
Audi’s Mouton (turbo) and Blomqvist (engine) both retired. Per Eklund crashed the second Toyota, and Mike Kirkland’s Nissan was out after the driver was injured. Shekhar Mehta was fifth.
The decisive moment
The Celica’s reliability made the difference on the rough roads, as it had in Ivory Coast the previous autumn.
Result — top 10
| Pos. | No. | Crew | Car | Entrant | Gp. | Penalty time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Björn Waldegård / Hans Thorszelius | Toyota Celica Twin-Cam Turbo | Westlands Motors | B | 2 h 02 min |
| 2 | 10 | Rauno Aaltonen / Lofty Drews | Opel Manta 400 | Opel Euro Team | B | +9 min |
| 3 | 1 | Hannu Mikkola / Arne Hertz | Audi Quattro A2 | Audi Sport | B | +23 min |
| 4 | 7 | Markku Alén / Ilkka Kivimäki | Lancia Rally 037 Evo | Martini Racing | B | +1 h 06 min |
| 5 | 2 | Shekhar Mehta / Rob Combes | Nissan 240RS | D.T. Dobie & Co Ltd | B | +1 h 33 min |
| 6 | 17 | Vic Preston Jr / John Lyall | Lancia Rally 037 Evo | Martini Racing | B | +2 h 12 min |
| 7 | 9 | Timo Salonen / Seppo Harjanne | Nissan 240RS | D.T. Dobie & Co Ltd | B | +3 h 50 min |
| 8 | 12 | Franz Wittmann / Peter Diekmann | Audi Quattro A2 | Franz Wittman | B | +5 h 35 min |
| 9 | 29 | Yoshio Iwashita / Yoshimasa Nakahara | Nissan 240RS | Yoshio Iwashita | B | +5 h 54 min |
| 10 | 28 | Basil Criticos / John Rose | Audi 80 Quattro | Basil Criticos | A | +7 h 51 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 Michèle Mouton / Fabrizia Pons (Audi Quattro A2) — turbo, time control 11
- #4 Per Eklund / David Whittock (Toyota Celica Twin-Cam Turbo) — accident, time control 12
- #6 Guy Fréquelin / Bruno Berglund (Opel Manta 400) — engine, time control 63
- #8 Stig Blomqvist / Björn Cederberg (Audi Quattro A2) — engine, time control 67
- #11 Mike Kirkland / Anton Levitan (Nissan 240RS) — driver injury, time control 16
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
- 1984 season overview
- All 1984 rallies
- Previous round: Rally de Portugal 1984
- Next round: Tour de Corse 1984
- Cars: Toyota Celica TCT, Opel Manta 400, Audi Quattro
- Teams: Opel, Audi Sport
- Iconic moments · Timeline · Statistics
All rounds of 1984
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
- WRC.com season archive 1984 EN · archive
Official summary of the 1984 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 1984: event page — https://www.juwra.com/safari_1984.html
- Jonkka's World Rally Archive, results — https://www.juwra.com/safari_1984_results.html
- Jonkka's World Rally Archive, entry list — https://www.juwra.com/safari_1984_entries.html
- Wikipedia (EN), 1984 World Rally Championship — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_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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SubscribeThumbnail photos on this page: SG2012 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Jiří Sedláček (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Marlis Decker (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0); sv1ambo (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); MPW57 (Wikimedia Commons, Public domain); Kieran White from Manchester, England (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Rally Paradise (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0); Clive Horsman (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0); Morio (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0); Brian Snelson (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0).