[zokier]

> Rally in the 80s until 1986 was insane. There was the class B with some of the most powerful rally cars ever built

Strictly speaking true; but in practice peak power didn't end up being that critical and rally cars soon became faster even with less power. Also the ultra-high power period only lasted few years, maybe 84-86 or so (modern WRC car produces 380 HP which afaik is more than any 1983 championship competitor)

[prova_modena]

True, I would also add that a major contributing factor to the danger of the group B era was absolutely horrendous race organization and scheduling, creating dangerous situations for competitors and spectators. Most notably and tragically at Portugal in 1986. While Gr.B cars required great skill, the danger of the cars themselves was perhaps overemphasized by Jean Marie Balestre's FISA to direct blame away from their own organization and on to the manufacturers.

[defrost]

Even today you'll see dangerous conditions in long distance desert racing due to unstructured roads and inadequate crowd barrierrs (for those that travel out to the dune whoops to see things go bad:

( Finke, not the Paris-Dakar )

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-0eTjCfVXs

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJfuZdymPes