Audi Quattro
The original Audi Quattro competition car debuted in 1980, first as a development car, and then on a formal basis in the 1980 Janner Rally in Austria. Largely based on the bodyshell of the road-going Quattro models (in contrast to the forthcoming Group B cars), the engine of the original competition version produced approximately 300 bhp (224 kW; 304 PS). In 1981, Michele Mouton became the first female ever to win a world championship rally, piloting an Audi Quattro. Over the next three years, Audi would introduce the A1 and A2 evolutions of the Quattro in response to the new Group B rules, raising power from the turbocharged inline 5-cylinder engine to around 350 bhp (261 kW; 355 PS).

The Quattro A1 debuted at the 1983 season opener Monte Carlo Rally, and went on to win the Swedish Rally and the Rally Portugal in the hands of Hannu Mikkola. Driven by Stig Blomqvist, Mikkola and Walter Rohrl, the A2 evolution won a total of eight world rallies; three in 1983 and five in 1984.

Lancia Stratos
The Stratos was a very successful rally car during the 1970s and early 1980s. It started a new era in rallying as it was the first car designed from scratch for this kind of competition. The three leading men behind the entire rallying project were Lancia team manager Cesare Fiorio, British racer/engineer Mike Parkes and factory rally driver Sandro Munari.

The bodywork was designed by Marcello Gandini, head designer at Bertone, and the technical layout was loosely based on a (Lancia Fulvia V4 powered) concept car called Stratos Zero which had been first shown at the Turin Motor Show in 1970. The body was wedge-shaped, and unusually short and wide, providing maximum traction. The car later appeared in Michael Jackson's 1988 film, Moonwalker as well as in his music video for Smooth Criminal.

In 1971 Lancia presented the Lancia Stratos HF prototype. The prototype (Chassis 1240) was fluorescent red in colour and featured a distinctive crescent-shaped-wrap-around windshield providing maximum forward visibility with almost no rear visibility. The prototype had three different engines in its early development life: the Lancia Fulvia engine, the Lancia Beta engine and finally the mid-mounted 190 bhp (140 kW) 2418 cc Dino Ferrari V6. The V6 gave the road car a 0-60 time of just under five seconds, and a top speed of 144 mph (233 km/h).

XS Racing's V8 Firenza
The initial Firenza was available in a base model 1159 cc overhead valve and two models with overhead camshaft, in 1598 cc and 1975 cc variants. The latter was the same engine as used in the earlier Viva GT. Some six months after launch, in December 1971, performance was boosted when the engine capacities were enlarged to 1256 cc, 1798 cc and 2279 cc respectively. All models had a front mounted four cylinder engine driving the rear wheels. Suspension was double wishbone and coilsprings at the front, and a live rear axle with trailing arms and coils at the rear. The SL model in each engine size carried the highest level of trim.

In 1973, Vauxhall acknowledged that their rather dull model range needed a makeover, and developed a radical version of the Firenza, known officially as the High Performance (HP) Firenza, but known colloquially as the "droopsnoot" after its dramatically styled aerodynamic nose. The nose was moulded from GRP, and featured two pairs of Cibie headlamps behind toughened glass covers. The overall look was somewhat reminiscent of the Renault Alpine A310, and used the same headlamp units.

The Droop Snoot Group has become home to many overseas versions of the cars, particularly the South African product. The HC was known as the Chevrolet Firenza there; as with the UK cars it was available with a big four, although an upright 2.5 litre. The GT name was carried on in South Africa, Firenza GTs featuring the 2.5, a shorter diff and a UK style seven dial dash.

South Africa also had its own 'homologation special'; the Chevrolet Can Am, known as the 'Little Chev'. Built to compete against the Perana Capris in South Africa's saloon racing series, the Can Am featured the 300 bhp, 302 CID V8 from the Camaro Z28, mated to a four speed GM Muncie gearbox. The shell was modified to take the bigger engine and box, and used the Firenza GT interior, with a lightweight bonnet and an aluminium wing on the boot.

Rage RX150 Buggies
The Rage RX150 lends itself to a multi-surface racing discipline, thus we progressed towards a Championship which uses both tarmac and shale in a head to head racing format. Every RX150 is supplied to the same specification, with customers able to choose the colour of their chassis. Each vehicle is fully tested before leaving the factory, and engines and gearboxes are sealed for the one make championship. Every vehicle is dynamometer tested to confirm power output is within set parameters.

Rage Motorsport, the official designers and manufacturers of the world leading range of road and offroad Rage buggies with top speeds of + 100 MPH and acceleration of 0-60 in 3.5 seconds, was conceived with one vision; to offer a unique thrilling experience to drivers of their vehicles.

Baja & Cross-Country Vehicles
Baja 1000 is an off-road race that takes place on Mexico's Baja California Peninsula in the fall. The event includes various types of vehicle classes such as small and large bore motorcycles, stock VW, production vehicles, buggies, trucks, and custom fabricated race vehicles. The course has remained relatively the same over the years with the majority of events being either a point-to-point race from Ensenada to La Paz, or a loop race starting and finishing in Ensenada. The name of the event is misleading as the mileage varies for the type of event (loop or point to point) and has represented kilometers in the past.

The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar"; formerly known as "The Paris-Dakar" or "Paris to Dakar Rally") is an annual rally raid type of off-road automobile race, organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Most events since the inception in 1978 were from Paris, France to Dakar, Senegal, but due to security threats in Mauritania in 2008, the 2009 Dakar Rally was run in South America (Argentina and Chile), the first time the race took place outside of Europe and Africa. It has stayed in South America from 2009 to Present. The race is open to amateur and professional entries. Amateurs typically make up about eighty percent of the participants.

Modern Rally Race Cars
The introduction of the special stage brought rallying effectively into the modern era. It placed a premium on fast driving, and enabled healthy programmes of smaller events to spring up in Britain, France, Scandinavia, Belgium and elsewhere.

Since then, the nature of the events themselves has evolved relatively slowly. The increasing costs both of organization and of competing as well as safety concerns have over the last twenty years brought progressively shorter rallies, shorter stages and the elimination of nighttime running, scornfully referred to as "office hours rallying" by older hands. Some of the older international events have gone, replaced by others from a much wider spread of countries around the world, until today rallying is truly a worldwide sport. At the same time, fields have shrunk dramatically, as the amateur in his near-standard car is squeezed out.

Classic Rally Race Cars
Group B referred to a set of regulations introduced in 1982 for competition vehicles in sportscar racing and rallying regulated by the FIA. The Group B regulations fostered some of the quickest, most powerful and sophisticated rally cars ever built. However, a series of major accidents, some fatal, were blamed on their outright speed. After the death of Henri Toivonen and his co-driver in the 1986 Tour de Corse, the FIA disestablished the class after only four years. The short-lived Group B era has acquired legendary status among rally fans.

The Ford Escort Mark II had a successful rallying career. All models of the Mark I were carried over to the Mark II, though the Mexico gained the RS badge and had its engine changed to a 1.6 L OHC Pinto instead of the OHV, it had a short production span as customers either bought the much cheaper "sport" or the much more exotic "RS 2000" (a shame, as the RSMexico was basically an RS2000 without the 'droopsnoot'). A "Sport" model was also produced using the 1.6 L Kent. Also a new and potent model was released, the RS1800, which had an 1800 cc version of the BDA engine. It was essentially a special created for rallying, and surviving road versions are very rare and collectible today. There has been a long standing debate regarding how the RS1800 was homologated for international motorsport, as Ford are rumoured to have built only fifty or so road cars out of the four hundred required for homologation.

Created for the short lived Group B race category, the 4WD mid engined MG Metro 6R4 (6-cylinder, rally car, four-wheel-drive) Metro of 1984 was a world away from the best selling supermini to which it bore only a superficial cosmetic resemblance. The competition car effectively only shared the name of the production Metro as it featured a mid-mounted engine with four wheel drive transmission enclosed within a seam-welded tubular chassis. The development of this vehicle had been entrusted to Williams Grand Prix Engineering.

The Ford RS200 is a mid-engined, four-wheel drive sports car produced by Ford from 1984 through 1986. The road-going RS200 was based on Ford's Group B rally car and was designed to comply with FIA homologation regulations, which required 200 road legal versions be built. Despite some rumours to the contrary, the RS200 was not based on the European version of the Escort, as were both its predecessor and successor.

Show Highlights & Best Bits.
I've edited the photos to show the vehicles in more astheticly pleasing poses and edited the better videos into a single compliation.