Olympus Rally 1986

Lance Richert

Well-known member
Well the Audi Quattro that was such a big hit at the 1985 Olympus Rally only won a single rally on the WRC calendar at San Remo, and by the time the WRC came back to Washington State in December 1986 they had pulled out of rallying (much to the delight of Steve Adams). Luckily for us, Lancia and Peugot were still competing for the championship and each sent one of their Group B monsters. Also some great Group B cars from Toyota.

The cars were presented in the Tacoma Dome before their first special stage:

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Steve - LOL

Here's the Grp B Toyotas. Nice fender flares. A 4-wheel drive Group B car never won the African Safari Rally but these did. These Toyotas were awesome.

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The other star of the show, Peugot:

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A Subaru brought from New Zeland:

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Rod Millen's Mazda 323 GTX. Didn't everyone one of these sold in the states get turned into a rally car?

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Interesting pictures. Thanks for posting.

When I look at these several things come to mind. Lots of sponsors, and they must have had a pretty good battery and charging system to keep all those driving lights working.
 
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The lights were fitted because they sent them out that night for the first special stages in the dark, if my memory serves correct.

Here's the Peugot first on the road. The lights are for a UK camera crew shooting the event.

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And then out on a gravel stage:

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That might be an Audi, but don't tell Steve.

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Oops! The service crew are going to have a long night with this one!

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This Lancia was from Italy with some sort of pasta sponsor. Go figure.

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Grp B Celica.

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Being able to observe the service stops and the crews thrashing on the car, all speaking italian (or french with the Peugot) was great fun.

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Marku Alen driving the Lancia

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It was impressive to see how many bodies they could put on the car in a 20-30 minute service stop. The dirt and muck got everywhere.

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Just as much activity at the other camps. You can see in various shots Budget rental trucks. The overseas teams rented these trucks, then outfitted them with all the support gear. Then I assume stripped it all out before returning the trucks.

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This car went on it's side. The oneguy is pushing out the rear wheel arch, and the other is pulling out what remains of the windshield. I think this is a Corolla FX16.

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Back out in the forest on the first night, it is pretty late out.

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The AWD Grp B cars were amazing, but so were these 2WD Celica Group Bs.

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Those first night stages were in and around Shelton, ending at 1 in the morning.

The next morning we were at the ORV park near McCleary. Nice little grandstand to watch the cars blast around on the motocross course before heading up into the hills to complete the stage. It was raining hard, note the wipers. Total length of this stage was 10 miles and was called Porter Creek.

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Moving on to the next stage, this was a good place to see the cars run through a clearcut:

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Then back in the forest for a stage ending, it was getting pretty dark for the camera, and we were still getting dumped on by rain:

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1986 Olympus Rally - John Buffum's Car

Hey Guys, This is a really interesting thread.

I thought I'd register because I own the John Buffum Audi quattro which is shown in this thread. JB drove it on the 1986 Olympus Rally and the very same car was used by Michele Mouton to win Pikes Peak in 1985.

Does anyone on here, have more photos of this car, either on 1985 Pikes Peak, or The 1986 Olympus Rally, I wonder?

Kindest regards from the UK:)
 
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Greetings Hans, I can check. I might have images of Buffum's car from another local rally earlier in 1986. Do you know when it changed hands from Mouton to Buffum? Right after the '85 Pikes Peak possibly?

For the '86 Olympus Rally we were keyed on the Group B cars so we tended to move on to the next stage each time before Buffum passed by. So I got limited pictures of the Audi. Plus it was regular 35mm film, and I was a poor college student, so I really budgeted how many pictures I could take. I think I only had 4 rolls of film to work with.
 
Thanks Lance!

Hi Lance,

Thanks for the reply - my name is John :)

Greetings Hans, I can check. I might have images of Buffum's car from another local rally earlier in 1986. Do you know when it changed hands from Mouton to Buffum? Right after the '85 Pikes Peak possibly?

After winning Pikes Peak, the car went to a few local Audi Dealer Car showrooms for display and then onto John Buffum within a short while.

For the '86 Olympus Rally we were keyed on the Group B cars so we tended to move on to the next stage each time before Buffum passed by.

I'm really confused here:confused: The quattro John was driving....(in these pictures above), is one of the most legendary Group B Cars of all time!:confused:

Anyway, thanks once again for responding and I would really appreciate anything you guys can find in relation to this car:)
 
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