The retired Irish rally driver, Billy Coleman was doing passenger runs in one of these and an RS200 near my home in the late 90's. I was lucky enough to win the draw for a run in them. He didn't hold back and it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

@purwantiallan5089

3 ай бұрын

How old Billy Coleman is in 2024?

@Backpfeifengesicht45

3 ай бұрын

@@purwantiallan5089 I'd say late 70's. I'd say he was about 50 at that event.

@jamesdolan1375

3 ай бұрын

​@@purwantiallan5089 77 or 78

@NVegianP

3 ай бұрын

I swear, over in Ireland someone knows someone who’s a rally driver

@pathurley86

3 ай бұрын

@@NVegianP lol, 100% true, I know a few

"Metro 6R4 just came too late to the party" RS200: "first time?"

@purwantiallan5089

3 ай бұрын

Nissan 240SX & Bluebird S1600: Another Worthy Opponent

The fact the it was technically a "kit car" is the most British thing ever.

It might have achieved little, but it lost in a graceful and entertaining way to still be a favorite of mine.

@purwantiallan5089

3 ай бұрын

The 6R4 also has the similar amount of bhp like the Lancia Rally 037.

The MG 6R4 is by FAR my favourite Group B racer. It has THE greatest soundtrack with that 8000rpm screaming 3.0ltr V6 and the maddest look of all, a Metro with the biggest box arches ever seen and all wings and spoilers! Plus that engine was SO good that it was bored out to 3.5ltr and fitted with two turbos to produce the worlds fastest production car with the Jaguar XJ220 (542bhp or even 680bhp with the XJ220S limited TWR car!) Plus Will Gallop also twin turbo`d his 6R4 for Rallycross after Group B was banned with his car running over 900bhp!!!!

@tjroelsma

3 ай бұрын

Brilliant as that engine may have turned out to be in its later iterations, it was simply the wrong engine for a rally car. BL reasoned that a big, beefy normally aspirated V6 would be better for rallying because of its much broader torque band, but they underestimated the advantages their competitors 4-cylinder and 5-cylinder turbo engines had: less weight and much higher peak power, resulting in a better power-to-weight ratio. They quickly figured that out, but by then the Group B class was over.

I'm fortunate enough to have seen, and heard, a couple of them in person and they definitely didn't disappoint. Still some of the best-sounding rally/competition cars ever produced.

@purwantiallan5089

3 ай бұрын

Along with SAAB TURBO 95?

Thank you for making Joaquim Santos justice. It's true, the blame isn't on the driver, but one has to understand, back then there were much less means of communication/technology, so I guess it would be harder for event organisers to control where spectators could go, even with the presence of authorities. I can safely say, I've been to the Rally de Portugal several times, and not once do I remember not seeing our national guard, GNR, present to control the presence of spectators. This tragedy was not in vain.

@leeneal6969

3 ай бұрын

Was a different time. Anyone that compares current times to then are just downright deluded.

Thank you for this great video. 🙂 Ironically, the Metro 6R4, while failing to win @WRC level, had a fondly remembered second life as a rallycross winner!

@Your-Local-RX-Guy

3 ай бұрын

Same with the Ford RS200. Both are simply phenomenal cars back when Rallycross was on top of the world.

The Metro 6R4 is definitely one of the most recognizable rally cars of its time! While yes it may have struggled achieving WRC glory, it’s nice to hear that the car made itself at home in the competition of Rallycross racing.

The 6r4 engine was troubled with timing belt issues rumoured to be caused by routing problems. That said it was the only manufacturer that produced 200 rally cars and eventually sold them all the others produced production versions which bore only slight resemblance to the rally versions. I was on one of the first events which was the tour of Cumbria and I was astounded by the noise of it, I could hear it 20 minutes before it appeared on the section. Happy days.

Another superb Group B rally documentary .. Your diction is clear and concise and the footage you have is mind blowing..... 6r4 finishing 3rd to possibly the 2 quickest rally cars ever built...is no shame ...

My morning has been blessed with another automobilistic video.

The Metro 6R4 has easily one of my favorite engine noises ever made. ❤

I didn't know that the 6R4's engine ended up somehow as the XJ220's. Neat tidbit!

The 6R4 is bonkers and I absolutely ADORE it.

I have an 6r4 at work, had it years it's in an absolute state not ran in over 15 years but I still smile every time I walk round back of workshop and it's just sat

@danross8565

3 ай бұрын

Any plans to restore it?

@adamthers1881

3 ай бұрын

That's criminal

@scotty197878

3 ай бұрын

I can smell something?? 🤥 🐂 💩

4:06 The GM 3.8 Litre is a cast iron V6 derived from the Buick/Rover Aluminium V8, and so this engine in various generations is quite ubiquitous and legendary in the US. Buick Grand National added a turbo, and it's also been factory supercharged in Pontiac, Chevrolet, and Oldsmobile guises. A derivative V6 engine was even run at Indianapolis in 1984 qualifying spectacularly amidst a field of V8 power.

Best informative racing video creator on YT

Always pumped when u drop a video lil bro keep it up

The Metro was easily the most lovable Group B car. I watch the old VHS recordings and its impossible to not root for the little MG.

I have to say, I used to have zero real care for Rally, you've made it interesting to learn about for me now, thanks

What a drive by Tony Pond at the 85 RAC

Awesome video. Thanks for making this.

Top quality episode, as always.

I really really love your content! You're one of the few if not only creator who does documentaries of cars that are not usually talked about but still have a lot of history to tell such as this video. Keep up the great work! I always look forward to your next video 😁

The 6R4 is still my favourite Group B car. The sound it makes from the NA V6 is epic compared to the more muffled notes of the turbocharged cars in the rest of the events. The boxy aggressive look just completes the package.

the will gollop 6R4 will always be my fave growing up watching this around brands hatch was amazing. Cant wait to see it at the Lydden hill festival "if its there"

GOOD INFORMATION ABOUT THE 6R4. GOOD JOB!! The best is the opinion about the organization of WRC this was the main cause for the ending of group B. People were crazy , because they let them to be. Not becasue of the cars or drivers or even circuit. But because of who organized the events. WELL DONE!!!

Another great video! I'm sure this channel will be a great success

YES!! Finally a video on my all-time favourite rally car! Thank you @automobilistic!

Just subbed. Brilliant content, it takes me back to my childhood

Absolutely amazing content. I love rally so I hope for more rally content...thank you very much

Please keep making videos on these rally legends. They are very good and detailed.

The 6r4 at lydden hill was a great show, still is at classic RX events

There are still a few 6R4s running in the UK, Mark Jasper still rallies one every so often. Having been lucky enough to do numerous rallies in three different 6R4s they do have a certain charm - they're agricultural, very small, exceptionally hot, exceptionally noisy but fun. In tarmac spec their braking was more impressive than their acceleration. Once all the body panels are removed (after, say, hitting a tree 😓) you realise how small the Metro bodyshell is!!

Great work Sir another fantastic informative piece 😊i love your channel i have learned a great deal from your videos , even though the car wasn't very competive i still love the 6R4 its a legend in my book 😊keep up the spectacular work brother respect 😊

I was a teenager during the Group B years. Nothing compares to the sound that would come thundering through the forest, your soul would be shaken! I had a soft spot for the 6R4, but the Lancia Delta was in another league.

Well done again, laddie. The MG Metro is my favourite as well. Bloody pity.

Great video, very informative.

Fully agree with your tangent on blame. Sadly, it's common for organizers or agencies to hold others accountable, just to avoid bad press o to avoid paying the consecuences. Not just motorsport, but in most things I hope that someday they realize that owning up to a mistakes can be used to learn and to improve things for the betterment of everyone

@DropkickNation

3 ай бұрын

Bullshit. Not that organizers are not to blame, but if you happen to be stupid enough to stand IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD while a 500 BHP WRC car is shooting at you with 100MPH, you are 100% absolutely to blame. Both parties are guilty.

Always wanted one of these in kit form❤❤❤❤😊

Just found your channel. Your presentation and professionalism, reminds of the B1M channel.

neat looking little rallycar. Never seen it before today

Saw most of them at Brands hatch rallycross events normally in early December. Like you say it ended up in the XJ220 with a class win at LeMans (although disqualified after the race for doing as they were told by the ACO, they have never given the trophy back!)

Your channel is so good.

Metro 6r4 is one of my favourite group b cars, it and the quattro sounded so good

Saying the spectators had no responsibility is like saying if I stand in the middle of the road and get hit by a car, it's the city's responsibility since they didn't stop me. I think the spectators share the responsibility with the organizers, but not the driver.

@robinv2758

3 ай бұрын

Well yes and no, obviously the fans are partially to blame but in this particular accident everyone was off the road and considering there were no rules against it that meant they were allowed to do it. If the organisers did actually ban spectators from being there and they went there regardless then it's fully to blame on them, a while back a family lost their 2 kids that way in a local rally a while back because the family refused to move despite officials telling them

Bit like a phoenix from the flames, it rose to be a major success in rallycross throughout the 80s and 90s.🎉

Was lucky enough to be down at competition department and see a field of 6R4’s

NY500 motoring cafe near Pickering in North Yorkshire has a Clubman 300 spec MG Metro 6R4 on display. Great place to visit!

My favorite car of all time, not road car or race car, just car.

The fact that fingers were found by mechanics in the cars. Maybe the organizers should have organized security to remove the public bystanders from the actual road. It wasn't the cars that killed group b. It was the spectators and the organizers.

@julianturberfield7101

3 ай бұрын

Unless you had organizers lined up every 100ft or so along the route, people would be sneaking into viewing spots all along the route. It's not a closed-off racetrack where you can easily control the entrances and exits, it's forests, lanes between people's houses or just normal public roads to name a few.

the car looks like a modern WRC Rally 1, but with 80s design

This is what I've been saying about the crowds for years, the only safe rounds were in the UK as they were kept away from the tracks.

MG metro turboはグループBCarです エンジンV6 3Lコンパクトに造られていて素晴らしいRacingエンジン音は最高で トラブルに悩まされてレースでは戦果を残せずにグループBは終わりクラシックラリーで出場し 活躍しています♪頼もしい車です。

Always been fond of the 6R4. One of BL's underdog success stories.

That 4wd river hatchback at the beginning looked sick didn’t even know they existed

Thank God. A young youtuber who can speak well, naturally, and without that hideous - every sentence has the same inflection - intonation up in the middle - down at the end. Good Luck young sir. May you do well.

Whilst they might not be everyone’s favourite, I think everyone likes the 6R4

I still remembered this iconic MG METRO 6R4 from Colin McRae Rally 3. Wish they added it on GT2 A SPEC MOD.

Finally someone says what I been for years saying. I am Portuguese, and I hate that the Rally that was done in my country was the beginning of the end for Group B but your tangent is exactly what I've been for years preaching, since I know perfectly well how much of the things were organised in my country back in the day, with lots of cut corners and safety as an idea in the back of the head because it reduces the overall revenue. Currently is way better but there is still a lot more to do so. Any fan of any category of racing who disses and downplays changes that improve safety to both the spectators and the drivers because "racing always was a dangerous sport and drivers know well, and they still want to compete" is not a real fan. Same as the ones in the their "rose coloured glasses" see the Turbo era and the 90s of the F1 and the Group B of the WRC as pinnacles of motorsports and everything after that only turn the sport less enthusiastic and mundane while forgetting the drivers and spectators who lost their life's while competing, for their own enjoyment.

This was my favorite Group B car, why? the sound.

Favourite rally car this 1

honestly the 6r4 has always been my favourite group b car, if group b had lasted longer and they had the chance to make more adjustments to the 6r4, i think it really could have done better

I remember seeing one in the MGOC shop as a kid. Tiny cars really.

A superb and very well researched video, just like all the others you have made. Nonetheless, I disagree with just one part of the narrative, that the Portugese fans were not to blame for the accident. They were to blame, 100% they were to blame. Joachim Santos Ford RS200 was not the first car on the road and the fans OUGHT TO HAVE REALISED THERE WAS A RALLY ON and with high speed cars on the tracks. They invited calamity upon themselves, like exitedly crossing a flooded river oblivious to the fact you could be swept away. All the same may the souls of those who lost their lives rest in eternal peace.

12:37 So you got these cool specs from the great Cesare Fiorio!!

Second best looking rally car ever 😊

Where you talk about the crash is so important and why we have FIA safety degiagtes and Yellow and Red cards for organisers in modern rally.

Still one of the best looking and sounding rally cars

Nice video. Just to add a little more to the XJ220 arc of the story and sort of to just how, lets say in a very BL way, they got of the ideas and bits and bobs spot on but then fell completely apart on others and didn't get things sorted. Will Gollop and others later demonstrated that the 6R4 could be devastatingly fast and rugged to a degree and TWR/Jaguar believed enough in the potential of the engine to develop it into the powerplant for the XJR-10 and -11 before sticking it into the XJ220. Also to be fair. Peugeot was already much farther along than anyone else with the evolution of the 205T16 as a rally car, as was Audi with their visually and soundwise spectacular but developmentally mistepped and results wise completely underwhelming S1E2, while Lancia and in particular Ford were in the same "we missed the boat" club with Rover. Lancia though had probably done their homework better and built something that while being a temperamental and fragile death trap, had the speed to be very competitive straight out the gates and then be developed into something a bit more robust and even quicker with Fiorio throwing money at it.

It won so much nationally it’s probably the most successful group b car

Have you thought about doing a video on the Peugeot 908? Such a cool car

Video idea: renault rs01 "the first ever turbo charged f1 car"

Your right it's was organizers fault Group B died when Lancia, Audi were finding fingers in the car because people wanted to touch the car that's insane!!!!!!!!

Teenage me, driving around in my mum's MG Metro, I was a rally god (only in my head of course). It might not have been as fast or as cool looking as a 6R4, but at least it was just as unreliable... 🤣

True definition of a pocket rocket.

I wish this car was in Gran Turismo 😓

Such a fascinating car I wonder if there are any running today.🤔🤔

Ponds car was withdrawn from the Monte in 1986 it didn't retire.

😎👍 just found this channel

@automobilistic what glasses do you wear? Those are cool.

I'd love to see an hear one of these, it's my favorite rally car ever, though I'm stuck in the states an I'm a bit young/broke to actually travel. Still love it though.

Great content, but the sound quality varied a lot. Is it just my ears or did you filter out the high tones in some voice overs?

Still the best sounding rally car ever made

It might've achieved little, but the noise it made might be the best out of Group B.

These Group B stories are fascinating and fun to hear. But they are all missing the the idea behind the Group A,B,C classifications. The idea, as I remember it, was that groups should be used across all FIA sports car classes. Group A was stock. Group B was homologated. Group C was prototype. And the specs were guaranteed frozen across a number years. The point was to make it easier and cheaper for more manufacturers to get into sports car racing. It was a great idea. The problem was that the specs where too loose, allowing the engineers to take the cars well beyond the expected performance levels. It is a shame that the rally troubles caused the whole group concept to cancelled. There were several other Group B cars that we never saw race because of the tragic events of Group B rallying. Such as Ferrari F40, Porsche 959, Jaguar XJ220 and Mercedes 190. A notable Group C we did get to see was the Porsche 962.

XJ220 should have been a V12 from the XJ-8/9.

I love this car

Did you know that the metro 6R4's V6 was used in the XJR-11

can you make videos about opel rally cars please I really enjoy watching your video and an opel manta 400 and opel ascona 400 video would be astonishing (ascona 400 won 1982 drivers title with rohl)

it's important to remember that just because hundreds of spectators swarming the course while a snarling turbocharged beast careens towards them _looks_ cool, that doesn't mean it is *_anywhere_* close to a good idea. the inclusion of that sidebar is very much appreciated.

N/A Group B car, looks cool. What is that red Group C looking diecast car on your table??

Regulating fans has been such a massive improvement in terms of spectator safety for rallying, unfortunately however some do still ignore it. Not too long ago in a local Belgian rally a few people were in a no spectating area and despite being told to move multiple times they refused, in the end it cost the lives of 2 teenagers when a car crashed and rolled straight into them. Obviously investigations were done but in the all necessary safety regulations were followed and those spectators simply refused to follow the rules

There's one for sale in Australia, Tasmania

Couple of things I want to say. I was reading all the magazines then, in 1986. I recall clearly that money was a problem for Austin Rover. Hence they couldn't afford to go rallying outside of Europe. I think the conditions of NZ would have suited the Metros. Wilson did test for the Acropolis in February 1986 but crashed, and I think the team decided that it was too rough. Another thing is that for the Tour de Corse, they took two, brand-new cars for Pond and Wilson, which were lighter than previous cars. The problem is, though, that these two cars had been completely untested. The result was that they handled terribly, and Pond, who was in car no. 3, was way off the pace. He was caught by car no.4, Toivonen, and passed by him, on every single stage. Now that's embarrassing. We know the fault with the cambelts. This was because Austin Rover didn't have the money or access to an engine testbed. Eventually, they did get their hands on one, and tested the engines to destruction, with the result being that after the Scottish Rally in 1986, the cars became much more reliable. I really do think that if they had bolted on a turbocharger to these engines, then the Metro would have had more than 500 bhp and it would have been competitive. Let's not forget that the Metro was a well-built, sturdy car and handled nicely when it was sorted. It just needed a bit more time and it would have reaped the rewards. In the British Open Championship, it won three of the six rounds (Circuit of Ireland, Ulster Rally, and the Manx Rally) and was also successful in Europe.

@paulqueripel3493

3 ай бұрын

If they'd turbocharged it they would have had to shrink the capacity. 3 litre naturally aspirated, 2.1L turbocharged.

Austin Rover/Leyland 'reliability' strikes again....

11:30 totally agree with you. That being said with the little rallies I’ve been to, it’s 10x more fun being on the road😬🤫👀

A lot of the spectators have SLR cameras and personal photography was at a peak during that time. Could you imagine group B today? It'd probably be much the same except the spectators would have their backs to the cars trying to get themselves in the frame too. It would look very different, but very much the same I feel. Losing a finger in a radiator grill would be the ultimate clout.

Request can you make a video on the bentley speed 8