The worst thing that clickbait has ever done to online reading habits isn’t wasting your time with inane nonsense, but the level of mistrust it has created between the reader and outlet.
So, when something truly remarkable makes an appearance, it’s almost impossible to give it the attention it actually deserves for fear of it being dismissed as said clickbait. I’ve been caught out by it, you have and we all have been caught at one stage or another.
This, however, is truly special.
I’ll confess that I spend far more time watching rally on-boards than is probably normal, but this has to be up there with some of the best pieces of footage I have ever seen. Captured just last weekend at the Killarney Historic Rally, it features current Citroën WRC driver Craig Breen behind the wheel of a MG Metro 6R4 tackling the wet and winding Molls Gap Special Stage, with Paul Nagle at his side.
A modern WRC car might well be faster across the ‘Gap’, but there’s no argument that the V6 Metro isn’t the more impressive spectacle from both inside and outside the car.
Short of an Audi Quattro, the 6R4 is one of the most iconic sights and sounds of ’80s rallying. Despite being at a significant disadvantage against its turbocharged rivals, the 6R4 still remains a cult icon of the Group B era. When in the right hands, regardless of being on ’00’ duties, it’s still as impressive and spectacular today as it was in its hey day.
If there’s one thing that benefits the 6R4 today, is that we have the technology to really capture the action like we couldn’t three decades ago. The point-of-view helmet cam gives an unparalleled level of immersion as to what it takes to extract every iota of performance from a Group B car. From the manual shifts on the dog-leg box, the whine of the transmission and the micro-inputs required from the driver to keep it all between the ditches.
Now, imagine how much quicker he might have gone had he been against the clock? WRC drivers really are a different breed…
Paddy McGrath
Instagram: pmcgphotos
Twitter: pmcgphotos
paddy@speedhunters.com
Photo by Cian Donnellan
Facebook: Cian Don
Craig Breen on Instagram & Facebook
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The lack of roll bar, door bars, and dash bar is amazing. These guys must have boat anchor balls.
The rollcage is integrated into the chassis on a 6R4, but it's nothing compared to what modern rally cars have.
Doh! Homologation car design strikes again.... Pretty sure my assessment of courage still stands.
can you imagine the urge to get car sick while your trying to read pace notes in this cracked out hornets nest?
Reading in a car at normal road speeds makes me sick. In that ride, I'd be losing my lunch out of one hole and my breakfast out of the other. I have great respect for navigators.
Same, TBH.
Piss in my eye and call me Sally, terrifying, the confidence, the speed at the apex, unbelievable. What is going through their nogins.
How many F1 drivers would have the balls for this ?
Kubica & Kimi
And the boy Senna https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHYt270aYE8
In one of the biographies about him they said that during one of those rally tests he was bang on the pace in the 1st test session essentially. Ayrton was amazing.
Absolutely impeccable car control! The downshifts into 1st gear are timed to absolute perfection. His technique is definitely something to admire, thanks for bringing it to our attention, good on you!
Ah, but that's second gear as it's a dog-leg first. First was only used to get the car off the line
White pants too, jesus!
Jaguar XJ220 engine.
The XJ220 has a 6R4 engine, the Metro came first
This is my first time seeing 6R4 interior and i still can't believe that they moved the driver to passenger's side and kept the dash
I might be missing the joke, but the 6R4 was always right hand drive.
It's a surely a joke. I think it's that the passenger's side has the gauges and dials. The driver's steering wheel area looks empty.
I was indeed missing the joke then XD Maybe I'm just conditioned to shit '80s interiors?
Thanks SO much for waking me up properly this morning, that was simply amazing driving under insane conditions. I've always loved the driver cams since they came about, shows the insanity part SO well.
Rally drivers and F1 are a special breed to be sure!
Real speed hunting here.
Sorry. The most iconig car of the group b era is the Audi sport quattro s1. The other two are the Peugeot 205 gti t16 and the Lancia delta s4. the Metro is as far from beeing an iconig car of the group b era as it can be. It is about as important as the Nissan 240rs and the Mazda rx7.
the best video i've seen today