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Review: Rally Champions of the 80s

For the World Rally Championship, the 1980s was a decade of drama, controversy, triumph, tragedy and, most importantly, champions. In this action-packed DVD we meet every WRC champion from a turbulent time, as well as the cars they drove.

With a running time close to 60 minutes, Rally Champions of the 80s features plenty of archive footage from famous events like the RAC, Monte-Carlo and 1000 Lakes rallies, and charts the road to victory of the seven men who would reign supreme in the 1980s – showcasing their impressive skills, rivalries and fierce competition which made this possibly the greatest decade of the WRC.

Each title battle is covered in great detail, with plenty of footage from the special stages of the world showing rallying greats such as Walter Rohrl, Stig Blomqvist, Timo Salonen and Juha Kankkunen at their best. Rally Champions of the 80s does an impressive job of displaying how these legends overcame the odds to claim championship glory.

In this golden era of rallying, it wasn’t just the drivers who were the stars, and Rally Champions of the 80s shows you why. The archive footage features numerous iconic vehicles, including the Audi Quattro, Toyota Celica and the rather delicious Lancia Delta, plus Group B monsters like the Peugeot 205 T16 and Ford RS200, all popping and banging out of your TV speakers.

Whilst Rally Champions of the 80s is a feast for the eyes, the narration does leave a lot to be desired. Voiced by Richard Nichols, it is a times a relentless, monotone, bombardment of facts and statistics that make one of the most exciting periods of rallying sound rather dull.

Apart from that, and the lack of any additional features, Rally Champions of the 80s does a decent job of conveying what was a decade of massive change, monster machines, spectator madness, tragedy and some of the closest WRC battles ever seen. A must for rally fans.

Rating: ★★★★★

Rally Champions of the 1980s is out now, priced £12.99 and is available from leading video outlets or direct from Duke Video: visit www.dukevideo.com online.