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Yeah I had read this too. You just have to love his antics! :)
I also read somewhere that on some other Montecarlo Rally he arranged small services inside certain staged so that tyres could be changed from snow to tarmac and viceversa depending on prevailing weather conditons.
Rallying these days has just become too antiseptic...
...and too short in terms of stage miles.
Winner's total time of the last Rally Finland 2.28 is a joke compeared to the typical 8-12 hrs back when the 037s ruled the roads.
Here's another story to add to the Fiorio's legend. This happened in the 1984 Rally Portugal:
[quote]The big fight was Hannu Mikkola in the HB Audi Quattro A2 vs Markku Alen in the Martini Lancia Rally 037. An unfair fight, because we all know Portugal is gravel and the Quattro is 4x4 whilst the Lancia is not. Mikkola was first on the road and Lancia was annoyed, they wanted to be first on the road. With Alen being still rather close to Mikkola, Fiorio ordered Alessandro Bettega and Massimo Biasion to book in early at the day’s first stage. Such Mikkola was 1st on the road and Alen 4th. The incredible thing about this scenario compared to modern times was that this was not about road sweeping! Right in contrary, both Bettega and Biasion started the stages ahead of Alen, only to pull over and park up 100 yards into the stages and wait for Alen to go past!
What’s the point of that then? Dust!
With this trick there was a much larger gap on the road between Mikkola and Alen and therefore Alen did not have to drive in Mikkola’s dust! The trick worked! Well, to some degree. Hannu Mikkola still won the rally, but Markku Alen in the RWD Lancia came 2nd, only 7sec down! 7sec on a rally twice as long as today! He actually caught up! [/quote]
Excellent stuff, guys!
Not to downplay your image-uploading efforts, but including a little bit of fluff and history makes the cars come to life so much more that pure images (as great as those are) can do.
More from the pages of history... ;)
Walter Rörhl and Markku Alen had special works high-roofed 037's so that they'd fit inside, and even sometimes Markku would have to have his helmed smoothened down to fit in the car.
Also in 1983, Markku was the designated Lancia driver for the Drivers' Championship, and as such he had to win in Corsica, however Walter was faster than him and he'd only stop in the penultimate stage. Cesare Fiorio instructed a member of his crew to follow Walter's car down the stage with a helicopter and land in front of him to block the road in case he didn't stop. But in the end it wasn't necessary...
The presentation model in 1982 in Martini colours.
^^^ Fantatsic one, Ferrer!
Another example of Fiorio's unreal management skills.
[quote]In the Rally Acropolis 1983 the schedule was that on the first day there was only two runs over the famous, long Meteora stage, past the James Bond movie monastery of the same name. Lancia is a very nice company and some 3 months before the rally Lancia made a donation to the poor local council. How stunned was Audi when they discovered the formerly rough gravel Meteora stage was freshly tarmaced from start to finish! No doubt the kind donation was Fiorio’s idea! The trick worked, the Lancia’s beat the Quattro’s on the tarmac stages and such for the next, long gravel day they would be first on the road! No worries about road sweeping. Lancia had a dust free rally, while Audi did not. An important difference, in the end the RWD Lancia’s finished 1-2, ahead of the 4x4 Audi’s. [/quote]
Lancia 037 Stradale, Chassis [B]no.045[/B] for sale at :
RM Auction Paris on the 4th of February 2015
(And a happy new year !) :)
Lancia 037 Stradale, Chassis no.045 #2
Lancia 037 Stradale, Chassis no.045 #3
Lancia Rally #45
Some old shots without borders and some additions. If any one can help me with the exact production/introduction year of the Group B Variants, be my guest :) According to UPC the [I]production[/I] years were only 1982-1983, but Group B version was used up to 1986.
Lancia Rally #46
Lancia Rally #47