Rothmans Opel Team

[racer69]

Just have some questions on the Opel/Vauxhall teams from the early 80s:

- Was the Opel Ascona 400 a replacement for the Vauxhall Chevette, or did Vauxhall and Opel homologate different Group 4 cars.

- The Vauxhall Dealer Sport team rallyed Chevette's in the 83 British series, against McRae in an Opel Manta 400. Why were Opel competing against Vauxhall in Britain.

- If Opel and Vauxhall homologated different cars, then why did Brookes and the Vauxhall DS Team rally Manta's in 84-87

- Did Opel compete in the WRC in 83, i know Vatanen won the Safari, but Toivonen won the Manx later in the year, a European series qualifier.

- When did The Opel team pull out of the WRC, and why. Did they continue as a factory team anywhere else. If they competed in 1984 and onwards, where they sponsered by Rothmans

[Barrie]

I thought in those days of the BRC, there were mainly privateers racing with part works support.

[WillieP]

Originally posted by racer69
Just have some questions on the Opel/Vauxhall teams from the early 80s:

- Was the Opel Ascona 400 a replacement for the Vauxhall Chevette, or did Vauxhall and Opel homologate different Group 4 cars.

- The Vauxhall Dealer Sport team rallyed Chevette's in the 83 British series, against McRae in an Opel Manta 400. Why were Opel competing against Vauxhall in Britain.

- If Opel and Vauxhall homologated different cars, then why did Brookes and the Vauxhall DS Team rally Manta's in 84-87

- Did Opel compete in the WRC in 83, i know Vatanen won the Safari, but Toivonen won the Manx later in the year, a European series qualifier.

- When did The Opel team pull out of the WRC, and why. Did they continue as a factory team anywhere else. If they competed in 1984 and onwards, where they sponsered by Rothmans

I dont think there were any works enterd Chevettes as late on as 1984. McRae and the works Manta's were run by GM Dealersport not Vauxhall Dealersport. The Chevette was dumped in favour of the Ascona which was originally run in Scandinavia by people such as Vatannan.

McRae's last run in a Manta was 1983 at which point he moved on to a Rothmans Metro 6R4 , Brookes continued with the Manta before both he and McRae switched to Ford Sierra's after the demise of Group B

[chunder]

Opel and Vauxhall were very separate in those days. EVen Fiat and Lancia competed against each other sometmes.
To answer some of your questions, Opel was always the European and world motorsport arm of GM. THe Chevette was really only a force in Britain. Airikkala did compete a few times in the WRC but the Ascona and early Kadetts with Rohrl at the wheel were the GM world rally teams.
The Ascona was used in Europe by Jochi Klient in the early eighties in single cam form with the 400 used toi great effect to win its debut rally in Sweden with Anders Kullang at the wheel. THis conincided with the introduyction of the HSR Chevette like the one Brookes and Pond drove.
An interesting point is that the Chevette was never eally proved to have been homologated properly.
Hope this answers a few of your points