Post by dinger on Dec 5, 2016 14:25:58 GMT
The current issue of the weekly mag Motorsport News has an interesting piece on four times World Rally Champion Kankkunen (1986/7 and 1991/3) and his favourite cars, from his long and successful career. They are the Peugeot 205 T16, Lancia Delta Integrale and Celica GT4, remember he will have been talking of the highly developed rally versions he drove. Here's what he said about the three versions of the Celica used by TTE in the early nineties.
" The first one GT4 - 165 was OK but not very good, not so reliable. But 185 was ready and was reliable. 205 was too big and complicated for the rallies, we should have had the Corolla at that time, we would have won many things. But the Corolla was delayed because of the turbo problem we had in 1995."
Um - he's a bit unfair I think, on the 165 which in 1990 was Toyotas first real winner at the top level, especially with Carlos Sainz at the wheel and he's maybe biased towards the 185, his World Championship car in 1993. And the reason the 205 had a short career and the Corolla delayed, TTE were banned from rallying after using an illegal turbo on the 205, in 1995. And remember as a standard road car the 205 with around 40bhp more than the first two generation cars, far and away the best of the three GT4's.
" The first one GT4 - 165 was OK but not very good, not so reliable. But 185 was ready and was reliable. 205 was too big and complicated for the rallies, we should have had the Corolla at that time, we would have won many things. But the Corolla was delayed because of the turbo problem we had in 1995."
Um - he's a bit unfair I think, on the 165 which in 1990 was Toyotas first real winner at the top level, especially with Carlos Sainz at the wheel and he's maybe biased towards the 185, his World Championship car in 1993. And the reason the 205 had a short career and the Corolla delayed, TTE were banned from rallying after using an illegal turbo on the 205, in 1995. And remember as a standard road car the 205 with around 40bhp more than the first two generation cars, far and away the best of the three GT4's.