The seasons

1982 season — the year of transition

Photo: Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The first year of the new regulations was, in practice, still a year of the old cars. Group 4 models were allowed to carry on, and the season became a duel between the four-wheel-drive Audi Quattro and Walter Röhrl’s rear-wheel-drive Opel Ascona 400.

Grouve Sport documentary

Episode 1 — Birth of a Monster: How Group B Began (1982)

How an ‘old-fashioned’ Opel won the first Group B year.

The starting point

Audi had proved in 1981 that four-wheel drive worked in rallying: Hannu Mikkola won in Sweden and on the RAC, and Michèle Mouton made history at the Rallye Sanremo as the first woman ever to win a world rally. For 1982 Audi ran a full programme with two top crews — Mikkola/Arne Hertz and Mouton/Fabrizia Pons — plus Stig Blomqvist on selected events.

Facing them was Opel, with former world champion Walter Röhrl and co-driver Christian Geistdörfer in the Ascona 400, a car still homologated in Group 4. Röhrl had little faith in beating the Quattro outright, but knew that consistency over a long season could be worth a great deal.

The 1982 season, round by round

Round 1Monte Carlo RallyWalter Röhrl · Opel Ascona 400Round 2Swedish RallyStig Blomqvist · Audi QuattroRound 3Rally de PortugalMichèle Mouton · Audi QuattroRound 4Safari Rally (Kenya)Shekhar Mehta · Datsun Violet GTRound 5Tour de CorseJean Ragnotti · Renault 5 TurboRound 6Acropolis Rally (Greece)Michèle Mouton · Audi QuattroRound 7Rally New ZealandBjörn Waldegård · Toyota Celica 2000GTRound 8Rally of BrazilMichèle Mouton · Audi QuattroRound 91000 Lakes Rally (Finland)Hannu Mikkola · Audi QuattroRound 10Rallye SanremoStig Blomqvist · Audi QuattroRound 11Ivory Coast RallyWalter Röhrl · Opel Ascona 400Round 12RAC Rally (Great Britain)Hannu Mikkola · Audi Quattro

The season

Röhrl opened with victory in Monte Carlo, where tarmac and snow still played to his strengths. Then Audi struck: Blomqvist won in Sweden, Mouton in Portugal. In Kenya, Shekhar Mehta won the Safari for the fourth year in a row in a Datsun Violet GT. In Corsica, Jean Ragnotti took victory in a Renault 5 Turbo; the new Lancia Rally 037 made its debut there too, though it retired.

Mouton was at her best that summer. She won the Acropolis and the Rally of Brazil and joined the title fight. Mikkola won the 1000 Lakes and later the RAC, Blomqvist the Rallye Sanremo. Meanwhile Röhrl collected podiums almost everywhere: second in Kenya, Greece and Brazil, third in Sweden, New Zealand and Sanremo.

The decision came in the Ivory Coast. Just before the start, Mouton learned that her father had died of cancer in Nice. She started anyway but crashed out. Röhrl won the rally and the world title, with 109 points to Mouton’s 97. Audi took the manufacturers’ championship with 116 points to Opel’s 104.

Röhrl takes the title in the rear-wheel-drive Opel Ascona 400, Audi wins the manufacturers’ crown and Michèle Mouton wins three world rallies.

What 1982 meant

• The first woman to fight for the world title. With three wins and second place overall, Mouton remains the only woman to have come close to the drivers’ crown. Read more about Michèle Mouton.
• Audi did not yet have a Group B car. The 1982 Quattro still ran as a Group 4 car; the true Group B versions (A1 and A2) followed in 1983. See Audi Quattro.
• Argentina cancelled. The event did not run because of the economic crisis and the Falklands War, so Brazil also counted towards the manufacturers’ championship.

All winners and podiums 1982

Rd.	Rally	Winner	Car	2nd	3rd
1	Monte Carlo Rally	Walter Röhrl Christian Geistdörfer	Opel Ascona 400	Hannu Mikkola Audi Quattro	Jean-Luc Thérier Porsche 911 SC
2	Swedish Rally	Stig Blomqvist Björn Cederberg	Audi Quattro	Ari Vatanen Ford Escort RS1800	Walter Röhrl Opel Ascona 400
3	Rally de Portugal	Michèle Mouton Fabrizia Pons	Audi Quattro	Per Eklund Toyota Celica 2000GT	Franz Wittmann Audi Quattro
4	Safari Rally (Kenya)	Shekhar Mehta Mike Doughty	Datsun Violet GT	Walter Röhrl Opel Ascona 400	Mike Kirkland Datsun Violet GT
5	Tour de Corse	Jean Ragnotti Jean-Marc Andrié	Renault 5 Turbo	Jean-Claude Andruet Ferrari 308 GTB	Bernard Béguin Porsche 911 SC
6	Acropolis Rally (Greece)	Michèle Mouton Fabrizia Pons	Audi Quattro	Walter Röhrl Opel Ascona 400	Henri Toivonen Opel Ascona 400
7	Rally New Zealand	Björn Waldegård Hans Thorszelius	Toyota Celica 2000GT	Per Eklund Toyota Celica 2000GT	Walter Röhrl Opel Ascona 400
8	Rally of Brazil	Michèle Mouton Fabrizia Pons	Audi Quattro	Walter Röhrl Opel Ascona 400	Domingo de Vitta Ford Escort 1.6
9	1000 Lakes Rally (Finland)	Hannu Mikkola Arne Hertz	Audi Quattro	Stig Blomqvist Audi Quattro	Pentti Airikkala Mitsubishi Lancer Turbo
10	Rallye Sanremo	Stig Blomqvist Björn Cederberg	Audi Quattro	Hannu Mikkola Audi Quattro	Walter Röhrl Opel Ascona 400
11	Ivory Coast Rally	Walter Röhrl Christian Geistdörfer	Opel Ascona 400	Per Eklund Toyota Celica 2000GT	Björn Waldegård Toyota Celica 2000GT
12	RAC Rally (Great Britain)	Hannu Mikkola Arne Hertz	Audi Quattro	Michèle Mouton Audi Quattro	Henri Toivonen Opel Ascona 400

Final standings (top 6)

Pos.	Driver	Points	Manufacturer	Points
1	Walter Röhrl	109	Audi	116
2	Michèle Mouton	97	Opel	104
3	Hannu Mikkola	70	Nissan	57
4	Stig Blomqvist	58	Ford	55
5	Per Eklund	57	Toyota	41
6	Björn Waldegård	36	Renault	34

Continue to 1983 or go back to all seasons.

In pictures 1 photos

More from Seasons

1983 season — Lancia versus AudiThe light, rear-wheel-drive Lancia 037 beats the Audi Quattro to the manufacturers' title, while Hannu Mikkola becomes world champion.Read more →1984 season — the year of Audi and BlomqvistStig Blomqvist wins five rallies and the world title, Audi takes both championships — and Peugeot arrives with the 205 T16, which wins three of the last four rounds.Read more →1985 season — Peugeot takes overSeven wins for the 205 T16, five for Timo Salonen and Peugeot's first titles. But also the year of Bettega's death and Vatanen's terrible crash.Read more →1986 season — the peak and the endThe fastest rally cars ever built, tragedy in Portugal, the deaths of Toivonen and Cresto, the ban on Group B and a title decided only after the season had ended.Read more →

Sources

1. Wikipedia (EN), 1982 World Rally Championship — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_World_Rally_Championship
2. eWRC-results, 1982 season — https://www.ewrc-results.com/season/1982/
3. Jonkka's World Rally Archive, 1982 calendar — https://www.juwra.com/calendar_1982.html
4. Motor Sport Magazine, Rally Review September 1982 — https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/september-1982/116/rally-review-september-1982/

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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