If you get the inclination, watch some rally footage from the 1960s or earlier. You won’t recognize what you are seeing as actual rally racing…instead, it’ll look like the best tour of Europe drive you’ve ever thought of, from the cars to the towns to the streets. There is little in the way of screaming engines, sideways antics or flame-throwing anti-lag pops from the exhaust. There isn’t even four wheels being driven! Rally racing back then was a gentle affair, one that focused on the time and not so much on the showmanship. By the 1970s, however, “gentle” was scrubbed out of the lexicon with Ajax powder and steel wool…instead, you had the beginnings of some of the more psychotic offerings ever driven: lifted Porsches, Lancias with Dino V6 engines crammed inside, the specialized Fiat 131 Abarth, and all manner of European Ford Escorts were showcasing some of the wildest driving styles you can picture. It’s not the absolute lunacy of Group B or the 1990s WRC styles that McRae and company put on a show with, but between the Seventies and today, rally racing has been all about the showmanship. Slides, jumps, and dodging idiots standing in the middle of the stage routes has become commonplace, but the jumps might be the most celebrated of all of it. Few things stand up to the theatre of all four wheels off the ground that high, for that far. Be it on asphalt, dirt or snow, when the car flies, the audience pays attention!
