10 of the best road-going rally cars

If you could have any car you wanted, what would it be? Of course many of us might hanker after a Testarossa or a Countach… but how realistic are those supercars as a daily driver?
In fact, if you wanted some awesome performance combined with useful everyday practicality, you could do a lot worse than a road-going version of a rally icon.

Rallying's 1980s and 1990s heyday produced a whole new type of performance car: the homologation special. These were road-going versions of the snarling rally champions that their makers had to produce in sufficient numbers for the latter to qualify for racing.

With a decent boot, everyday driveability plus a hefty dose of extra performance, these are easy cars to love. And here are our favourites.

Any of these would make an exciting ownership prospect. It goes without saying that, rare and specialist as they are, these cars all need protecting with some dedicated classic car cover.

1. Audi Quattro

Few cars are as indelibly associated with rally heroics as Audi's revolutionary Quattro. Until this stubby brute careered onto the scene in 1980, the concept of 'four-wheel drive' merely conjured up images of Land Rovers chugging earnestly through muddy fields.

Taking advantage of the recent rule change that allowed 4WD cars to compete, the Quattro ripped up the rulebook, showing us that 4x4 cars could deliver spectacular success in rallying… and could also make for a terrifically engaging drive for the rest of us, confined to our B-roads and country lanes.

The car's drivetrain may have been necessarily heavy but, when it was mated to a five-cylinder turbo engine with 200bhp, it delivered a mix of grip and grunt that would put a grin on any keen driver's face. Yes, the Audi Quattro changed the story of both rallying and performance road cars. And, back on the B roads, it became an icon, built in just small enough numbers (some 11,452 were made) to retain genuine icon status.

2. Porsche 959

When it was introduced in 1986, to satisfy regulations and allow the car to compete in Group B rallying, the Porsche 959 was the fastest street-legal production car in the world. Its twin-turbocharged, 2.8-litre flat-six engine gave the big Porsche an eyebrow-scorching top speed of 195mph.

That performance, and the legendarily swashbuckling Group B in which the 959 was competing, meant that some serious grip was going to be necessary. And, to that end, Porsche devised some road-holding tech that still impresses today. The all-wheel drive system could change torque distribution between rear and front wheels in both normal and slip conditions, making the 959 a superbly grippy and adaptable car on both road and muddy rally track.

The car's finest hour on the rally stage was at the 1986 Paris-Dakar Rally, where 959s finished in first, second and sixth place. Its legendary performance and rarity (fewer than 350 were produced) mean that 959s are now traded for sums north of £1 million. Anyone who has that sort of cash to splash surely won't skimp on the classic car insurance that an icon like this needs.

3. Subaru Impreza 22B STi

The Subaru Impreza's iconic boy-racer status can be linked to one particular moment in motorsport history. In 1995, Colin McRae won the World Rally Championship drivers' title in an Impreza, guaranteeing the previously uncelebrated Japanese 4x4 saloon a halo status from that moment on.

Before then, Subarus had been seen as tough, sensible cars for farmers and others in need of some off-roading capability: now, suddenly, thousands of keen drivers wanted a 'Scooby', complete with gold wheels and a noisy exhaust. At a stroke, the Impreza gained the kind of allure that another rallying giant, the Mk1 Ford Escort, had enjoyed in the 1970s and 1980s.

There were many variants and generations, but if we're looking for a true rally hero we'd probably select the 22B. Subaru built just 400 of these for the Japanese market and 16 for the UK, guaranteeing them rarity status (even McRae famously had to pay for his 22B). Short gearing, manually adjustable four-wheel drive and a redline just under 8,000rpm meant that drivers were rewarded with WRC-level adrenaline thrills.

4. Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

In the early 1980s, Peugeot wanted in on the increasingly exciting and prestigious Group B rally act – and they wanted to do it in their already hugely admired 205 supermini, whose GTi variant was showing just how much performance could be crammed into a small car.

Peugeot developed the 205 Turbo 16 in tandem with coachbuilder Heuliez, who essentially cut off the rear of a three-door 205, welding in a firewall between the B-posts, and added in a tube frame to carry the front suspension. The 1.8-litre engine was moved toward the rear, and the car got all-wheel drive capabilities. It also got a gearbox, interestingly, from the big, beautiful and quick Citroën SM (the two firms had merged not long before, in 1976).

To homologate the car for rallying, Peugeot then built 200 road-going versions, all left-hand drive and all finished in the same purposeful-looking shade of dark grey. Other visual clues included wider wheel arches and a rear section that raised to give access to the engine.

How many made it to the UK? Not that many, and those that did now fetch six-figure sums.

5. Mitsubishi Lancer Evo

The ongoing rivalry between the Subaru Impreza and its Japanese nemesis, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, lent healthy amounts of drama to the World Rally Championships of the late 1990s. And, while the Subaru may have won the battle for hearts and minds, the Evo arguably achieved even more out on the track, with super Finn Tommi Mäkinen triumphing four times on the trot from behind the wheel of an Evo.

The car also had the extra cachet of being genuinely rare on Britain's roads, being built exclusively for the home Japanese market until Mitsubishi’s UK-based Ralliart team imported a few versions of the Evo VI and its iconic Mäkinen special edition.

This was a car for proper rally enthusiasts. Tech such as the Active Yaw Control, which increased cornering and traction performance by means of a computer-controlled rear differential, is still looked on admiringly to this day. Indeed, every generation of the Evo is now a treasured classic – and early generations in particular are prime candidates for classic car insurance.

6. Lancia Stratos

Some road-going rally cars are simply souped-up versions of popular hatchbacks of their time. Others look so completely built for speed and competition that their racing heritage is instantly apparent. And the extraordinary, low-slung, wedge-shaped Lancia Stratos is clearly from this latter class. This shouldn't be surprising, since the little Italian fireball was the first car to be purpose-built for the World Rally Championship.

The Stratos' mid-mounted 2.5-litre V6, sourced from Ferrari, could hurl the road car from a standstill to 60mph in a little over six seconds – and then keep on going until somewhere up around the 140mph mark. A fixture in 1970s rallying, the Stratos won three consecutive World Championship victories in 1974, 1975, and 1976.

The wonderfully outrageous design came from the pen of Marcello Gandini, perhaps the iconic figure of the wedge car era. Fresh from the heart-stoppingly beautiful Lamborghini Miura, Gandini was working on another Lamborghini, a certain Countach, when he started work on the Lancia. Talk about glamorous relatives.

7. Ford Escort Mexico

Ford's Mk1 Escort bestrode the late 1960s / early 1970s rally landscape like a colossus. One of its greatest victories came in the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally, with legendary Finnish driver Hannu Mikkola at the wheel.

Ford quickly decided to put out a road-going Escort to commemorate this famous victory and, in November 1970, the Escort Mexico Mk1 duly arrived. Its 1.6-litre, four-cylinder engine produced 90 bhp and a top speed of 99mph.

Hardly supercar stuff, but that wasn't the point. In terms of purely visceral driving thrills, the Escort Mexico had few competitors. For example, the car's traction control produced easily controllable drifts at safe speeds – and nigh-perfect balance.

The Mexico still stands up today as an icon from a golden age of rallying – and proof that, when it comes to entertainment and all-round driver engagement, speed most definitely isn't everything. This is a car you will want to chuck around merrily – having protected it first, of course, with some specialist classics insurance.

8. Lancia Delta HF Integrale

After some disruption from Fiat, Audi and Peugeot in the late 1970s and early/mid 1980s, Lancia returned, from 1987 onwards, to the WRC dominance it had enjoyed with the Stratos. And the car that took it back to the top table was a souped-up version of a sensible family hatch that had been on sale since 1979.

Yes, the Lancia Delta Integrale, under a few different modifications, won the manufacturers' championship a hugely impressive six times on the trot from 1987 to 1992. The (albeit brilliant) excesses of Group B were over, and we were now in the slightly more sober Group A. More safety regulations were in place, and the cars now had to be based on production models that sold at least 5,000, rather than the tiny 200 of the Group B era.

This meant that the late 1980s and early 1990s were a golden era for awesome, high-performing rally cars, whose road-going versions you actually stood a reasonable chance of owning. And, with its 46 WRC victories, six consecutive constructor titles and four drivers’ championships, the Delta Integrale dominated this early Group A era – and became a much sought-after road car as a result. The fact that it also had the boxy, square-jawed look of a Giugiaro classic did it no harm at all.

9. Mini Cooper S

Ever wondered how Mini's legendary performance variant got its name? Well, John Cooper was the owner of the Cooper Car Company, a sports and racing car manufacturer from Surrey, and friend of the Mini creator Alec Issigonis. Cooper, who knew his performance cars, saw in his friend's lightweight and nimble design the potential for a new racing champion.

Issigonis and Cooper collaborated on the new sporting Mini, which made its debut in September 1961. The new Mini Cooper got a race-tuned engine, twin carburettors, a closer-ratio gearbox and – a rarity in a small car of the era – front disc brakes. One thousand original Coopers were produced to homologate the car for Group 2 rallying and, in 1962, a Cooper duly took the British Saloon Car Championship.

More and better was to come, though, in the shape of the Cooper S, with its bigger engine and servo-assisted brakes. When Paddy Hopkirk won the 1964 Monte Carlo Rally in a Cooper S, the hot Mini's cult status was assured (further wins came in 1965 and 1967). Better still? You could get a Cooper S that looked, and drove, like the real rally deal from your local dealership. Thousands of thrill-seeking 1960s drivers did just that.

10. Talbot Sunbeam Lotus

Flashback: the year is 1978, and Chrysler Europe's new European supermini, the Sunbeam, is selling decently but not spectacularly. Chrysler's thinking is that they will give its image a little uplift by launching a 'hot hatch' derivative – and a rally version.

For the latter, Chrysler approaches those masters of the lightweight sports car, Lotus. The Sunbeam Lotus duly gets stiffened suspension and a bigger anti-roll bar – plus a 2.2-litre version of the Lotus 907 engine that went into the early Elite, Eclat and Esprit models.

By the time the car came out, Chrysler Europe had been sold to PSA, resulting in all Chryslers being rebranded as Talbots. All hail, then, the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus – which was available in black and silver, and later in blue and silver.

On the rally circuit, the Sunbeam Lotus saw success at the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally and then, memorably, won the WRC for Talbot in 1981 – beating rally giants like the Audi Quattro, Renault 5 Turbo and Ford Escort RS1800 into pole position.

Classic car insurance to protect your historic racer

The huge range of classic cars which we're proud to insure here at Lancaster extends to some of the road-going rally icons that we've discussed here.

In fact, whatever your classic and whatever type of driving you're intending to do in it, it's likely we'll be able to arrange the classic car insurance to suit you.

Contact us today for a quote.