The Toyota RA40 is a WRC unicorn | GRR
We’ve learnt by now, that motorsport enthusiasts are some of the most passionate, knowledgeable and committed people you’ll ever likely meet. It’s a feeling that is further enhanced when we talk to a softly spoken Ben Mellors on Friday afternoon at Goodwood SpeedWeek presented by Mastercard.
It’s a chat we wanted to have, because as we stood utterly perplexed at the speed of the Goodwood Super Special action taking place on Thursday evening, we noticed a rather unusual entrant testing its mettle.
That entrant was Ben Mellors and his incredibly rare Toyota RA40 1980 replica. Points if any of you eagle-eyed WRC fans spotted it too on the stream. It’s a replica, yes, but make no mistake, this car is seriously impressive. As is the story of its creation.
Walking around the car before Friday night’s action, Ben runs us through its vitals.
“This is a Toyota RA40 1980. It’s a re-creation of the car that Björn Waldegård used on the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally. It’s an exact copy. We’ve got an original engine in it, built by the original engine builder at the time. And it’s an original gearbox. The shell we’ve done in-house, copying photographs from period”.
Delivered totally dead-pan by a man who clearly knows his craft inside-out, Ben and his team have gone on to create one of historic rallying’s most accurate and rare examples of a Group 4 unicorn.
“We’re pretty happy that it’s as close to the original as you could have. It’s an unusual car. They only made four or five rally cars at the time. This version ran for six months in the World Championship. There’s only one of the original cars surviving. So we identified it as something we’d like to bring to historic rallying. We’re yet to see another one”.
That must be a rewarding feeling turning up to meets in something no one else has in their garage, or in many cases, something many people have never seen before. But it’s not just vanity that inspired Ben to pursue the RA40, it was race sense and a sense of self-preservation too.
“I’ve been doing historic rallying for a while. I had a MkII Escort, but unfortunately I had a couple of big accidents in that. And they’re not the strongest of cars. So we were looking for something more unusual. But also something a lot stronger and safer”.
As is often the way, Ben’s eyes turned to the engineering excellence of Japan to find his next charge.
“The Japanese were quite ahead of their time in the ‘80s and underneath the chassis of the RA40, it is more like a modern car. It’s a very strong and safe platform to build to from. From there, we managed to find one of the original motorsport engine units, developed for Toyota by Yamaha in 1979”.
Putting out 265PS, the 2.0-litre 16-valve engine seen here is one of 50 built in period. Where the rest are is anyone’s guess, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to imagine all were wrecked throughout the ‘80s being pushed to the limit at the sharp end of professional motorsport. With a five-speed dog engagement gearbox, power steering, a stiff chassis and its two-wheel-drive configuration, the RA40 is delivering enormous amounts of enjoyment for Ben in the cockpit.
“There’s a lot of power slides and backend happiness happening this weekend. You certainly have to adapt your driving style to that. The Super Special stage here is very busy. There’s a lot happening and coming at you. It may only be one and a half minutes long but you’re working at it the whole time. Everyone is already flat out”.
And flat out is exactly how Björn Waldegård, the WRC’s first drivers’ champion would want this car to be driven. No pressure Ben. But seeing him fly past our window more sideways than any of the rest of his peers today, we know the RA40 is in excellent hands.
Photography by Joe Harding.