From 1985 to 1989, I lived in Germany as a military brat.  While Germany and Europe in general wasn't much for muscle cars and drag racing, they did have one thing going for them at the time:  Group B rally racing. 

For the uninitiated, Group B was the top of the heap of rally cars.  These cars were psychotically fast sporting well over 500 horsepower with practically no weight.  Four wheel drive did its best to keep these things from going into orbit.  How fast were these cars?  A Lancia Delta S4 of the era could go from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.3 seconds on a gravel road.  Not too shabby for 1986, right?  After a stint behind the wheel, Nigel Mansell said a Peugeot 205 T16 Group B rally car could out accelerate his F1 car.

It was unfortunate that I never got to see any of these cars in action in person.  Dad had deemed a personal visit to a rally race "too dangerous" after he watched a few races on TV with me.  Bah!  At least I got to see some of these amazing machines in person at shows and even got to sit in a real Audi Group B car that was rumored to have had 700+ hp.  That's a way to make an 11 year old smile.  It is a real shame I never got to see these cars go because in 1987, the Group B class was eliminated after a series of unfortunate crashes/deaths in late 1986.  It seemed that it was indeed too dangerous to guide these 500+ hp earth-bound, fire-belching missiles down narrow logging trails for both spectators and drivers.  Who knew?

In case you are a casual rally fan, the top of 2006/2007's heap of WRC cars are limited to 300 hp.  Quite a change from the psychotic Group B cars of my youth.

Enjoy the videos, I know I did.  It brought back many memories.

Video:  Group B Pure Sound Volume 1.
Video:  Group B Pure Sound Volume 2.

Source:  www.youtube.com