Rally Is Not Just Cool

    This week has been super tiring for me for some reason. I slept a lot every day but still felt drowsy every morning, maybe it's time for me to work on my sleeping pattern. but anyway, talking about cars always makes me exited, so let's kick on. 

    When I just started watching YouTube, there were two types of video that I watched the most: Pewdiepie and dangerous rally compilations. I had little toy cars ever since I could remember, so when I first saw cool cars in motion at the time, it was probably the most intensive adrenaline rush I've experienced. Among the super fast and dangerous rally cars, there were a few that stood out to me. And two of them were the Audi Quattro and Lancia 037 Evo. After I grew a bit older, I started watching a car show called Top Gear, and in the program the hosts introduced one of my favorite motorsport rivalries of all time, Audi v.s. Lancia.

    I will say as far as I can remember with a little google search, so take them with a grain of salt. I think it was around 1982 when the new category of rally race was created by the FIA, they wanted a faster series than the already popular group A a the time, so they named it group B.(How creative!) The racing series gave the manufacturers lots of freedom when designing their car, so it didn't took long for it to become the frontline of material science and technology for many brands. Besides Audi and Lancia, many familiar names like Mazda, Subaru, Toyota, Ford, or even Ferrari had a go in this newly created series. Seeing so many different and honestly, more popular brands, you might wonder what's even special about Audi and Lancia, well let me tell you then.

    Before Audi came along, despite racing on loose surfaces like gravel and mud, no one really thought of using four-wheel-drive in their cars. Many reason contributed to this result, but the most significant one is that four-wheel-drive was considered sluggish and inefficient at the time. Because outside of military usage, there really wasn't any scenario for anyone to sacrifice the comfort and reliability of simpler two wheel drive systems, so the technology itself was very underdeveloped. What made Audi special was that instead using the traditional two wheel drive system which was thoroughly studied, they tried to maximize the advantage of for four wheel drive by making the system more compact and advanced. After they spent 3 years developing under the support of Volkswagen, the Audi Quattro came along.

    Good looking, isn't it? Not only was the Audi Quattro a sight to behold, it also performed as well as it looked. Taking over the first season(1982) in total dominant fashion, it finished on the podium for every single race the entire year and snatched the manufacturer champion. What made this victory even historical is that among the three drivers for it, one of the driver, Michele Mouton, was a woman. She wasn't just any woman that was just mentioned for the record, she actually got second place in the driver's championship, which made a massive news throughout Europe in the 1980s.

    Now let's talk about some nerdy stuff. The four wheel drive system in the Audi Quattro was so good and efficient they decided to put them into their production cars. And not just the super exotic ones, but ordinary sedans and family cars that anyone could afford.(Audi was a cheaper brand back then, they elevated since then.) The added extra grip saved countless drivers from serious car accident and provided excellent traction in tough weather conditions. Because of how well regarded it ended up between the customers, other brands started to put four wheel drive into their cars as well. That is the reason why four wheel drive is such a conventional power train for production cars now, it is this very rally car that popularized this concept. So you see, race cars aren't just for entertainment, they occasionally stimulate human evolution.