OpenTube

When Williams Built a Rally Car

The Car Nerd

14,115 views

Group B Playlist: Group B Rally

In 1980, Austin Rover needed a rally car capable of fighting the Audi Quattro.

So they went to Williams.

Patrick Head and his Formula One engineering team were asked to help turn the humble Metro into a four-wheel-drive Group B weapon.

The result was the MG Metro 6R4.

Williams helped develop the chassis, suspension and drivetrain layout. Austin Rover then created an entirely new naturally aspirated V6 capable of more than 400 horsepower and 9,000 rpm.

After more than four years of development, the car finally made its World Rally Championship debut in 1985.

It finished third.

Then Group B was cancelled.

This is the story of what happened when one of Formula One’s greatest engineering teams built a rally car.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
📚 ORDER MY NEW BOOK "History Written by Losers" — out now!

The true story of global power has been whitewashed by the victors and the fixers. This book tells the side of history they tried to bury.

👉 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🏁 IN THIS EPISODE

We uncover the extraordinary story of the MG Metro 6R4:

• Why Austin Rover approached Williams Grand Prix Engineering
• How Patrick Head’s team completely changed the original layout
• How Williams turned a Metro into a mid-engined, four-wheel-drive rally car
• Why engineers initially used a Rover V8 with two cylinders cut off
• Why Austin Rover rejected turbocharging
• How the V64V produced over 400 horsepower at 9,000 rpm
• Why the car took more than four years to reach the WRC
• How it finished third on its World Championship debut
• Why Group B disappeared just as the 6R4 was coming good
• And how its engine later found a second life in rallycross and the Jaguar XJ220

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
🔗 LINKS & SUPPORT

📚 The book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GP9TKPBH
📺 Documentary channel: @thatjasonhassett
🔔 Subscribe for weekly post-mortems on the cars, companies and engineering decisions that shaped modern motoring.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

#MGMetro6R4 #WilliamsF1 #GroupB #Rally #WRC #PatrickHead #TonyPond #BritishLeyland #CarHistory #Motorsport #TheCarNerd

20 Comments

@TheCarNerd Creator 3 weeks ago Pinned

I put a notice after the intro but may have been to quick, we got a copyright take down, so had to do small edits and re-upload 😊🙏

@robsorgdrager8477 3 weeks ago

Why do feel like I watched this like a few days ago?

@padmundo 3 weeks ago

Had the absolute immense pleasure of being whoered around in one a few years ago as a passenger. Absolute weapon and pure mechanical ferocious feedback. Churns up tyres, we did the tyres in very few laps... Absolute joy!

@essenlame 3 weeks ago

This is rapidly becoming my favorite YT channel for car stuff (great description, I know). Seriously, having a small group that earnestly cares about the subject makes a difference over larger budgets and hosts that chase the algorithm. I love that you focus on euro cars, bc that has been a blind spot of mine growing up in the states. We got some of the japanese stuff, but not much euro, and there are a lot of unique cars we don't know much about. Thanks for the hard work, we definitely appreciate it.

@kanojo1969 3 weeks ago

I was born in 1969, meaning I was 15 years old when group B was at it's peak, the best time in history to be a young rally fan. There was nothing like it before, and nothing since. Every car from that era had it's own unique history, and specs that were drawn up by a lunatic. At that time in NZ you got a full drivers license at age 15, and we ditched school to follow the Rally of New Zealand from stage to stage, dicing playfully with the actual cars as they drove on public roads between stages. We had the time of our short lives. I don't think I ever saw a 6R4 but they were dynamite, probably my 2nd favorite behind the legendary RS200. I had several models of the 6R4, including a lexan body for my R/C monster truck that made it look like a 6R4. It was awesome.

@cause0d 3 weeks ago

I’m just happy to be here

@deanothemanc5281 3 weeks ago

Great informative video, i had the pleasure 😂 of owning a metro in the mid 90s, to say it was an experience would be an understatement!!!Not even rusty metal, it just had holes 🕳!!!Only positive was i didn't have to worry about locking it 😂!!!