The History Of The World Rally Championship

For 30 years some of the most talented and bravest drivers have battled across the continents of the world to claim what is arguably motorsport's toughest prize: the World Rally Championship. Now a multi-million dollar, global technology battle and terrestrial television phenomenon played out over the frozen wastes of Finland, the dusty plains of Australia and the sun-kissed mountain roads of Corsica, the WRC has reached its 30th birthday. This book celebrates that important milestone and paints an exhaustively detailed picture of the people and personalities who have shaped this great sport. The Complete Book of the World Rally Champions provides a biographical account of the 65 men who have won at least one World Championship Rally since 1973. The biographies are compiled by the sport's leading writers and historians and complemented by stunning photography. The book includes a detailed and accurate statistical career record of each driver, plus highlights of all the significant cars.

Drawing upon interviews with key people in the World Rally Championship as well as trans-local ethnographic research, this book explores questions of commerciality and sporting identity, tackling the sport's controversial handling of the shift into 'the commercial age'. It is essential reading on combining sporting heritage and commercial progress.

In the late 1970s, the problem facing any manufacturer taking part in the World Rally Championship was that the rules kept being changed at short notice. This book looks at the solutions found for Lancia’s rally car, the 037, and takes the reader through the new rules that all potential contenders would have to consider if they wanted to win rallies at World Championship level. Lancia’s Rally was developed quickly to deal with the then-dominant Audi Quattro. The reasons it succeeded are featured here, along with an in-depth, behind-closed-doors look at the development of the car, with the close help and cooperation of its designer and chief engineer, Ing. Sergio Limone. Here you can read how he decided on the basic configuration of the car, what the rules would allow, and how the project unfolded in total secret at Fiat’s various test tracks and centres in and around Turin, overlaid with rumour and counter-rumour as the world’s motoring press tried to make sense of what little knowledge it had of the project’s progress. In addition, Ing. Limone’s own photographs from areas never accessed by the public tell their own story. The focus then moves to the world of top-level rallying, with all the associated glory and headaches. Accompanied by stunning photography and insights from team members, we follow the small and nimble 037s, as the cars have become popularly known, as they head out to take the World Rally Championship for Makes in 1983 and innumerable wins throughout the world. In addition, there are tests of various key examples of the cars, and appendices of events and chassis used. This book is illustrated with 250 stunning and rare rally action photos.

This book explores the history and politics of motor racing, one of the most popular and lucrative elements in the international sport industry. Written by a group of international scholars and motor racing specialists it discusses the sport’s origins, the relationship of motor racing to nation building and modernity (noting its links to fascism and dictatorship), the links between motor racing and the automobile industry, motor racing and the politics both of gender and of race, motor racing, the media and postmodernity, and motor racing, the spatial and globalization. This book speaks to scholars in history, politics, sport studies, the sociology of sport, sport management and cultural studies, along with the many lay readers who are interested in the relationship between motor sport and society.

The world of rallying was changed forever on January 1st 1982 with the introduction of the new Group B rules. These virtually gave manufacturers carte blanche to design the fastest car they could for world rally special stages, so long as they built at least 200 identical examples. This is the story of Lancia's mid-engined and supercharged rally. The reader is taken from initial thinking about the car and conception, through development to the full history of its rallying lifetime with the help of the car designer and chief engineer, Ing Sergio Limone. Featuring many of Limone's own photographs during development, and interviews with team members. Illustrated with 250 stunning and rare rally action photos.

Traces the story of Volkswagen's debut in the FIA World Rally Championship from the first sketch through to lifting the trophy.

This is the famous WRC (World Rally Championship) annual; the complete report about each race, with a magazine section at the beginning of the book featuring stories about the worlchampion as well as other historical and technical topics.

This book is the first independent exploration of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) institutional history. Virtually unexamined compared with similar institutions like the FIFA and the IOC, the FIA has nevertheless changed from being a small association in 1904 to becoming one of the world’s most influential sport governing bodies. Through chronologically organised chapters, this book explains how the FIA manages to link together motorsport circuses like Formula 1 with the automotive industry and societal issues like road safety and environmental sustainability. In an exciting narrative spanning seven decades, it reviews the FIA’s organisational turning points, governing controversies, political dramas and sporting tragedies. Considering the FIA to be a unique type of hybrid organisation characterised by what the author calls ‘organisational emulsion’, this case study contains theoretical innovations relevant to other studies of sport governing bodies. It makes an empirically grounded contribution to the research fields of institutional logics, historical sociology and sport governance.