Mystery Monday: Walter Röhrl – 'Rallying in my era was endurance for humans and cars...'

I drove, amongst some other cars, the Group S Audi at the Eifel Rallye Festival this year. The only real Group S car was this white one, and this is the very first time I have driven it – it has just 28 kilometres on the speedo. It has a five-cylinder engine in it but I don’t know which one. The other mid-engined car we had was just a prototype – that car looked like a normal S1 (Audi’s short-wheelbase Quattro Group B rally car), but with a hole in the roof to feed the engine – like the Pikes Peak car. That one turned into a corner more like the original car, but this one is very light to drive, and you have the feeling you need to be gentle with it. I remember once I drove a Lancia (Delta) S4, and this car feels like an S4. The only problem is that the engineer at the Eifel said, ‘don’t take the engine over 6,500rpm’, and the power is coming in at 5,000rpm: the throttle response is quite bad, but after 5,000rpm it really comes alive. This is with one-bar less boost than we could use. With one-bar more it would be like an explosion!

The car was quite impressive: very smooth, very easy to drive; the gearbox was very direct – in the old Audis it was usually not so good. I think the wing at the back is too big: there is too much downforce, which makes the front light. But then nothing was taken forward with this car; no testing was done. You cannot open the windows so it is 80 degrees in the car – it’s like driving a sauna. I don’t believe the front of the car would have been like this either – it would have had to have been identifiable as an Audi. It looks like a Metro!

For me, yes, I have to say I was looking forward to the Group S cars. Like Group B, which you remember wasn’t as fast as Group S was going to be, I think there were only five drivers who were able to drive them properly. Then, in Group S, maybe even less. Because, you know that in a Group B car, to go fast you can’t just listen to your co-driver: the time is too short. You must know what’s coming. I memorised 90 per cent of the roads from the recce, so when Christian [Geistdörfer] told me I thought, ‘I know, I know, I know’ – it was just confirmed. And then your line is much better than if you have to listen; it’s more smooth. That was the biggest advantage I had in the Group B time, and often I spoke with other drivers and they say, ‘I don’t remember’. I am sure I was born with it – I never did any special exercises. Now, it is like yesterday sitting next to Christian – it is unbelievable. Once we had a break of 15 years, and then the first time we went out together I said, ‘I am sure yesterday was the last day. That’s good.

I think Group S would have been too much, though. In 1971 I did the Monte Carlo rally with 150 horse brakes, and in 1986 with 550 horse brakes, and with the same tree, in the same place, with the same rock and the same ditch. Then, if you have a small technical problem you are gone. That’s why Group B had to stop, even if it was bad for me. Maybe it was good for me, as I’m still here…

I often get asked about the modern WRC. I think Sebastien Ogier, who’s the best, has a much harder life than I had, because everybody can go fast with the modern cars. He has to make a big attack to be 10 seconds faster – I was a minute faster. The suspension, the technical things, are unbelievable now. In my day there were so many areas where you could show you were better – fast [gear] shifting, night driving – but what now is left? It’s a sprint.

If I was making the rules now I’d try and reduce the electronics in the cars. Why not bring back manual gearshifts? I would say, ‘you just have one differential, 35 per cent lock, limited slip’ – it would be cheaper, and fun for spectators. For the driver it would be easier: if you can change a lot on your car you’re never sure about it: you always think it could be better; if it’s fixed you live with it.

Rallying in my era was endurance for humans and cars. When you drive for 40 hours without a rest, then the man in better condition is faster. I think more of this would bring back the fans. Also, a set of regulations where the differences in the drivers was clear to see: at the moment gearshifts are perfect, braking is perfect, suspension is perfect.

So many people come up to me at the Eifel Rallye Festival each year, I did not expect this. When I was young I was shy, I didn’t like all of this. It was the reason I chose rally driving. Jochen Neerpasch [at BMW] said I should be a racing driver, but I said, ‘no’, there are so many people I don’t like that. I want to go to the forest, at night, just me; I want to know for myself if I am good enough. But then I have learned more in the last 30 years, and before I came here for the first time I say, ‘If I come here (to the festival) I have to be here for the people: if I don’t like it I stay at home. And why the people come to me I don’t understand, because I am 27 years not any more active.

The nice thing is so many people tell me, ‘I want an autograph, not because you are a world champion, but because you are a nice man’. That is the best complement you can have.

Photography courtesy of Audi, LAT and Red Bull