DIY Performance Cars

[Dr Who]

because the pug was the first of the new breed, hence they had a head start on everyone else.
towards the end of the '86 season both the Delta and the RS200 were showing their superiority over the older pug.Had the fatalities of both Henri and Sergio NOT happened it's generally accepted that the main battle would've been between Ford and Lancia.
as the same incident killed group S before it even got off the ground then,as i've seen the car Fiat were going to run in the catagory, i feel it may have been somewhat one-sided.
.

When you say towards the end of the season, it won one rally by 3 seconds over Juha...

Toivonen had a good start to the 1986 season at the Monte.. Sadly he and his co-driver died next rally...

Every other rally where Juha/Timo finished they beat Alen/Biasion

I dont think they were showing superiority, and the rs200 alhough a great car, never proved its value until rallycross...

 

[The_Dark_Side]

When you say towards the end of the season, it won one rally by 3 seconds over Juha...

Toivonen had a good start to the 1986 season at the Monte.. Sadly he and his co-driver died next rally...

Every other rally where Juha/Timo finished they beat Alen/Biasion

I dont think they were showing superiority, and the rs200 alhough a great car, never proved its value until rallycross...

the gap was closing, pug had a head start and totally dominated, but the newcomers albeit with teething troubles to overcome, were improving at a heady pace.
the Pug engine simply couldn't deliver the power that group B was starting to demand but the extra experience of the team and proven chassis was more than enough to compensate for this, but given another season i firmly believe the 205's would've been off the podium more times than they would've been on it.
don't forget that a 90% car isn't as good as a 100% car, but put a more talented driver in the lesser able car and in many cases it's enough to beat a better vehicle...and as you mentioned those particular drivers by name then i'm sure you're aware of just exactly how good Kankkunen really was.
put him in a mk 2 RS2000 and you in a 400 brake quattro and i'd put bets on hime beating you on a stage....but that doesn't mean the escort mk2 was a better car than the Audi does it?

i have to agree with you RE: the RS200 though...one of the latecomers to the group it never really had time to show it's prowess.
a technically better car than any of the Group B vehicles it needed rallycross to finally show what it would've been capable of.
incidentally the road RS cars are pretty poor to drive in standard form, i've got pretty strong legs and the clutch in the RS made my leg ache after only a short time.

 

[Dr Who]

No but I dont consider the other drivers to be inferior to Juha.. I deffo consider myself to be such....

However, I could probably spank most of the drivers on this board in the same car

 

[The_Dark_Side]

No but I dont consider the other drivers to be inferior to Juha.. I deffo consider myself to be such....

oh come on this is the case and you know it.
even at the top level regardless of activity there are always a few lights that shine brighter than others.
Mikkola was incredible, they used to say Toivonen would either finish first,maybe second or destroy the car in the attempt to do so .
Blomqvist was just unbelievable and a few others i can think of too.
no disrespect to the man but Alen was always a second fiddler to the guys i've named above....naturally talented by the bucketful, but still not as good as others i could name.

However, I could probably spank most of the drivers on this board in the same car

them's a'fightin words in these parts there stranger

 

[The_Dark_Side]

incidentally @ the Dr.

one of the things i neglected to discuss was one of the pug's major reasons for success.
EVERY driver that had a stint in one commented on two things usually.
1.in the realms of Gp.B it was extremely reliable.
and
2.it was relatively easy to drive it v.quickly....the other cars needed time to acclimatise to the specific car but the 205 allowed a pro driver to jump in coming from any other car and be competetive.
compare this to a "balls to the wall" car like the S4, a car you didn't drive in as much as you just held on.