1982 was a very bad year for Ferrari. The tragic death of the team’s rider Gilles Villaneuve, who had great potential, at the Zolder circuit in Belgium and the brutal crash of Didier Pironi at Hockenheim. The latter survived after her, but was forced to end his career due to severely injured legs. Nevertheless, a completely different story awaited Ferrari in the WRC championship that year.
Ferrari 308 GTB
In 1982, it seemed to rally enthusiasts that the WRC was going through a real golden age. In that season we could see racers competing in cars such as Ferrari 308 GTB, BMW M1, Audi Quattro, Porsche 911 SC or Lancia 037.
in 1975 introduced, the Ferrari 308 GTB had a mid-mounted V8 engine, which gave the car near-perfect weight distribution, excellent handling, and power in excess of 300 hp. A company called Michelotto, with the blessing of the legendary Italian manufacturer, began to rebuild and prepare these cars for WRC Group 4 competition.
Seeing a Ferrari in a rally was like seeing a wild horse running at full speed on the loose
Although one might think that the Ferrari 308 GTB was built to stand somewhere in the marina of Saint Tropez, next to its owner’s yacht. But seeing this supercar emerge from a cloud of dust and hurtle towards the nearest corner at full speed was a much more impressive sight. It’s like seeing a wild horse running at full speed in the wild. This is exactly what the spectators at the 1982 French WRC rally saw.
BMW M1
If in 1982 In the French WRC rally, we could even see Ferrari itself, and BMW was not going to be far behind. Designed at the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro’s Italdesign design house, the composition of the model was also underwhelming. Rear-wheel drive and a mid-mounted, 3.5-liter in-line six-cylinder engine generating around 430 hp. Sounds impressive, right?
At the time, the boys from Munich just wanted to show the world what their new Italian-flavored supercar was capable of. Let’s add to that the sponsor Motul’s painting and we will get a unique picture that the French people saw at that time.
Who won in 1982? BMW M1 and Ferrari 308 GTB head to head?
It seemed that in 1982 In the French WRC rally, all the constellations of the then WRC gathered. Rally queen Michele Mouton with Audi Quattro, Walter Rohrl with Opel Ascona 400 and Dakar rally legend Bruno Saby with Renault 5 Turbo.
At the wheel of the BMW was Bernardas Darniche, an experienced rallyist who had won this rally a year ago (1981).
Therefore, the 42-year-old Frenchman JCAndruet, sitting at the wheel of Ferrari, looked modest compared to his rivals. But in motorsport, no one cares how you look, only how fast you go.
The Ferrari-driven Frenchman got off to an impressive start, winning three of the first five stages to lead the overall standings.
On the first day, as soon as B. Darniche, driving a BMW M1, established himself in P4 place in the general standings, the oil hose of his M1 was missing and he was forced to retire.
As it later turned out, the new Bavarian supercar weighed too much to compete with lighter competitors from the WRC. Plus, it was a very wide, clumsy car and it was completely unsuitable for competing on the narrow streets of Corsica, where the French Rally was held at the time. In later rallies, this car was also characterized by unreliability. As a result, after several more failures, BMW finally admitted its fiasco in the rally and gave up.
The BMW M1 was too heavy, wide and clumsy to compete with its lighter rivals
Going back to the legendary 1982 Rallye de France, with BMW pulling out, many of the leaders lost for one reason or another, leaving JCAndruet in the Ferrari 308 GTB and Jean Ragnotti in the Renault 5 Turbo to fight for victory.
Before the start of SS18, the athletes were separated by 57 seconds, but the sudden onset of rain mixed all JCAndruet’s cards. The Frenchman, who didn’t have a service truck nearby that year, was forced to drive in the rain with “slick” tires, so his closest competitor with a Renault, who had put on rain tires, ran ahead by almost 4 minutes.
On the last day of the rally, the Ferrari driver still had hopes of “leaning back”, but the car caught fire after changing the brake pads, and buried all his hopes. Being late to the start of the next GR due to the fire, he was additionally penalized (so the delay increased to 11 minutes). For the rest of the final day of the rally, JCAndruet just fought to somehow maintain second place.
The Ferrari driver climbed onto the WRC podium for the first and last time in the history of the Italian company
Finally, with his P2 finish in the rally, we saw the first and last time in Ferrari’s history to see a car from the manufacturer on the podium of a WRC rally.
Meanwhile, as in the proverb: “where two fight, the third wins”. Mr. Ragnotti won the rally with Renault 5 Turbo.
