Rally Cars, Konemann Inc., Reinhard Klein

Since the very birth of the motor car, man
has devised an array of motor spo
challenges. The hugely popular sport of
World Championship rallying provides the
most varied and demanding of all these
environments. For nearly half a century, a
multitude of car manufacturers from all over
the world, both great and small, have
recognised it and risen to the challenge.
Rally fans have been captivated by a plethora
of evocative machinery, ranging from the
lightly modified production cars that
prevailed until well into the 1960s, to the
fire-breathing, 500-horsepower monsters of
the 198Os and the computer-aided,
exotically constructed cars of the new
millennium. The rules governing eligible
cars for rallying have evolved in parallel with
design advances. However, a common theme
has prevailed: almost all rally cars are
derived from production-based, roadgoing
models. Part of the sport's mass appeal is
that the man in the street can marvel at the
skill of the world's greatest drivers yet still
identify with the cars he sees competing.
The engineering excellence applied to rally
car design has benefitted millions of
motorists across the globe, as technical
innovations derived through rallying have
often been transferred to the production line.
This lavishly illustrated book provides a
detailed insight into the technical evolution
of the rally car from its modest beginnings
to the present day. There have been close to
200 rally cars which have made a significant
impact on the international history of the
sport and this book documents them
extensively, combining the photographic and
writing skills of a contrasting yet
complimentary editorial quartet, in addition
to the views of many respected and
distinguished alumni from the sport.

Think of the most dramatic perspective from which
you could photograph a rally car and you will probably
find that a German has beaten you to it. Cologne-based
REINHARD KLEIN lives, sleeps, eats and drinks rallying
and as a testament to his passion for the sport, he is
the proud owner of an example of one of the cars
featured in this book. He has spent the last 25 years
travelling to rallies with a camera and is acknowledged
as the master of his profession; like a good wine he has
become better with age. Over the years he has also
collecteda remarkable photographic archive, which was
the base for this book.
DAVID WILLIAMS is a freelance journalist living in
London and works for a variety of publications
worldwide, including Motoring Neus and The Guardian.
He has also been the editor of the annual, Rallycourse,
since 1990 and has therefore worked regularly with
Reinhard Klein. An occasional competitor, he has been
involved in the sport since the mid-1980s. In this
book he has been responsible for coverage from 1983
and the Group B cars until the present.
JoHN DAVENPORT has been involved in international
rallying since the early 1960s. For 15 years he was a
professional co-driver and accompanied drivers such as
Hannu Mikkola, Ove Andersson, Simo Lampinen and
Vic Elford. At the same time, he was rallies editor
firstly for Motoring News and then Autosport. He
directed Austin Rover's motor sport programmes for
10 years and was the moving force behind the
development of the MG Metro 6R4. He has published
several books on rallying and currently contributes to
Motor Sport and other magazines. John Davenport has
described all the cars up to 1983 and the onset of
Group B.
It is ironic that CoLIN MCMASTER should have
obtained a university degree in engineering prior to
pursuing a career in his true passion, photography.
After four years of photographing the Formula 1 World
Championship, he found his spiritual home in rallying
in 1995 and has covered almost every round of the
World Championship since. A return to the Fl circuits
has no appeal for him. However, this book sees him
happily return to engineering, this time in an editorial
capacity. Prodrive opened its workshop doors
exclusively for Colin McMaster to photograph and
describe every aspect of a modern rally car, based
around a detailed study of the Subaru Impreza
WRC2000.