Motorsport · 1986 · Corsica, France
The Crash That Ended Group B
Henri Toivonen and co-driver Sergio Cresto are killed when their Lancia leaves a Corsican mountain road, and rallying's fastest and most dangerous era is banned within months.
Lancia Delta S4
Car
Group B banned by FISA, end of 1986
Result
Group B (1982-1986)
Era ended
Group B rally cars were purpose-built machines producing well over 500 horsepower in bodies barely heavier than a road car, and they had made the World Rally Championship's mid-1980s era the fastest and most spectacular in the sport's history, run on narrow public roads lined with unprotected spectators. Henri Toivonen, driving a Lancia Delta S4, was among the favourites at the 1986 Tour de Corse in Corsica.
On the second day of the rally, the car left the road on a mountain stage and plunged down a ravine, bursting into flames on impact. Toivonen and Cresto were both killed, and the fire was intense enough that the wreckage was almost entirely consumed before marshals could reach it.
It was one of several fatal Group B accidents that season, some involving spectators, and the governing body FISA banned the entire category at the end of 1986. The most thrilling era rallying has had was also the one it could not survive.
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