The 15 greatest Monte Carlo Rally-winning classics of the WRC era

It’s one lovely sideways list

For as long as there have been cars that go, there have been people who like to drive them at astonishing speeds along narrow roads covered in dust, dirt and sometimes snow.

Nowhere is this more evident than the Monte Carlo rally, the 87th edition of which started yesterday.

The rally's tight mountain hairpins have made for many a magnificent photo over the years, as snow and ice frequently coat the treacherous Tarmac, encouraging some decidedly loony sideways driving.

We decided to take a trip down memory lane and remember 15 of the greatest classics to have won the rally since it became a WRC event in 1973.

1. Alpine-Renault A110

Winning year: 1973

Also a winner in Monte Carlo in 1971, before it was a World Rally Championship round, the curvy A110 continued its form with success in the first ever WRC event in January 1973.

Owned and powered by Renault, the Alpine A110 merged a lightweight glassfibre build with a feisty four-cylinder motor to deliver a package that was perfect for the tight turns of Monte Carlo.

In fact, such was its rally prowess, the A110 went on to win the entire Championship that year.

2. Lancia Stratos HF

Winning years: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979

We have Cesare Fiorio, head of motorsports at Lancia in the early '70s, to thank for the stunning Stratos HF: it was his vision that saw the pure-bred rally beast born out of the 1970 Stratos Zero concept.

Fast, yet magnificent through corners, the HF paired a short wheelbase with Ferrari power (in the form of the Dino’s 195bhp 2.4-litre V6) to devastating effect.

During its rallying reign, the Stratos HF claimed several strong wins in Monaco, as well as three emphatic Championship victories.

3. Porsche 911 Carrera

Winning year: 1978

Seeing a works Porsche team in the WRC would be a rare thing today, but the marque took its capable 911 Carrera to victory in Monte Carlo in 1978.

With two Frenchmen at the helm, the factory-entered 3.0-litre machine narrowly edged out Jean Ragnotti’s nippy Renault 5 Alpine to win across 29 Monte Carlo stages.

With solid finishes in Kenya, Portugal, Italy, Finland and France that year, Porsche eventually placed fourth in the manufacturers’ championship.

4. Fiat 131 Abarth

Winning year: 1980

Born to rally, the first 400 Abarth 131s were made in 1976 – enough to see it pass the homologation regulations and dominate the 1980 Championship.

A Fiat-Bertone-Abarth collaboration, rally-spec 131s were kitted out with weight-saving plastic parts and independent rear suspension which, together with a 240bhp engine, made it a force to be reckoned with.

With Walter Röhrl at the wheel, the boxy wagon won in Monte Carlo by a full 10 minutes over 601km of asphalt, before going on to claim victory in a further three events that year as Röhl took the drivers' title.

5. Renault 5 Turbo

Winning year: 1981

Nowadays you’ll often find Jean Ragnotti hooning his Renualt 5 Turbo around as a crowd-pleaser at European race meetings. Back in 1981, though, he was busy putting those same sideways skills to use winning WRC rallies.

The successor to the Renault 5 Alpine which placed second in Monte Carlo three years previously, the 5 Turbo clinched victory in its first WRC outing – the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally.

Immediately recognisable by its squat form and stubby rear end, the 5 Turbo benefited from a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive setup which differed from the front-engine, front-wheel drive arrangement in the standard model.

6. Lancia Rally 037

Winning year: 1983

Channelling more than 250bhp through the rear wheels, Lancia’s Rally 037 was rarely seen without its tail hanging out and its nose lifting skyward – in large part thanks to a body weight of just 980kg.

The spiritual successor to the Stratos, the 037 was the last rear-wheel drive car to win the WRC – and, in 1983, it stormed to a convincing one-two finish in Monte Carlo.

Resplendent in Martini colours, the Group B beast held off stiff competition from Audi’s ultimately game-changing four-wheel drive A1 to clinch victory in the hills, which set the tone for its overall win that year. 

7. Audi quattro A2

Winning year: 1984

The 1984 Rallye Monte Carlo saw Audi’s quattro engineering dominantly prove its worth, as Walter Röhrl – fresh from winning the previous year’s race in the Lancia 037 – led home an Audi one-two-three.

Where the A1’s 1983 season had been blighted by reliability issues and poor weight distribution, the A2 put a lighter build and better balance to excellent use.

Turbo warbling and wheezing like a throaty songbird, an A2 made it on to the podium in seven out of the 10 rounds in 1984, with Audi Sport works driver Stig Blomqvist eventually taking the drivers’ championship.

8. Peugeot 205 Turbo 16

Winning year: 1985

Crafted from a Talbot design in an effort headed by Jean Todt, Peugeot’s Monte Carlo-winning 205 Turbo 16 might have looked just like the road-going model, but the similarity was only shell deep.

The rally-spec Turbo 16 was a beast among beasts: a transverse turbo-charged mid-engine kicked out an absurd 350bhp, in a vehicle that hit the scales at around 950kg.

Combined with a four-wheel drive setup, the package was near-unbeatable – and went on to become the most successful Group B vehicle ever, taking the overall title in 1985 and 1986.

9. Lancia Delta HF / Integrale

Winning years: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992

With the end of the Group B era in 1987, so came Group A – and Lancia was quickest to the mark in developing the Delta.

The Delta HF 4WD, with its 2-litre turbo engine and four-wheel drive setup, took one-two victories in Monte Carlo in both 1987 and 1988, before the more powerful Integrale iteration picked up the baton.

So dominant was the Integrale that there was a model on the Monte Carlo podium every year until 1992, including a one-two-three finish in 1989.

10. Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD

Winning year: 1993

The successor to the 1991 Monte Carlo-winning GT-Four ST165, Toyota’s Celica Turbo 4WD (or ST185) was the marque’s most successful WRC effort.

The Celica took victory in the 1992, 1993 and 1994 drivers’ championships, and doubled up with the manufacturers’ championship in the latter two years.

It was Didier Auriol who set the tone for Toyota in the 1993 season, stealing a late victory in the opening round at Monte Carlo from a powerful pair of Ford Escort RS Cosworths.

11. Ford Escort RS Cosworth

Winning years: 1994, 1996

Developed by the Ford works team as a rally pure-bred, the Escort RS Cosworth is arguably the most iconic WRC machine never to have won an overall Championship.

Based on the chassis of its spiritual forefather, the Sierra, the Escort RS Cosworth was renowned for its huge wing, sublime handling and the eminently tuneable 2.0-litre turbo engine which sat beneath the bonnet.

While a combination of driver troubles and reliability issues blighted its Championship efforts, the Escort RS Cosworth was still able to take a pair of deserved wins in Monte Carlo.

12. Subaru Impreza 555

Winning year: 1995

The steed for Colin McRae’s sole Drivers’ Championship win, Subaru’s Impreza 555 was the first to use the mighty Impreza chassis – and its powerful legacy still lives on today.

Debuting in 1993, regulation restrictions in 1995 meant a new engine for the 555 which, along with Toyota’s exclusion from the season for use of illegal turbo restrictors, helped propel the Subaru to victory.

That year, it all began with a win in Monte Carlo – though here it was McRae's teammate Carlos Sainz who took first place, rather the eventual champion himself.

13. Toyota Corolla WRC

Winning year: 1998

Toyota’s last rally contender before the marque’s withdrawal from the WRC in 1999 (and until it returned in 2017 with the Yaris WRC), the Corolla WRC, seen above at the 1998 Catalunya Rally, was a fitting swansong for the Japanese manufacturer.

With Carlos Sainz behind the wheel, the Corolla started its first full season at the 1998 Monte Carlo event – and stole victory from Juha Kankkunen’s Ford Escort WRC by 40 seconds.

What followed was a fierce battle throughout the season between the Corolla and Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evo – a fight that eventually saw the latter come out on top.

14. Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI

Winning years: 1999, 2000, 2001

Notable not just for its dominance as a machine but also for the fact that the same driver, Tommi Mäkinen, claimed each of its three successive Monte Carlo wins, the Lancer Evo VI was the pinnacle of Mitsubishi’s '90s rally efforts.

Modified from its Group A spec to accord with the new World Rally Car regulations, the 300bhp Evo VI was built by Ralliart and benefited from greater reliability than previous Evos.

After winning in Monte Carlo, Mäkinen went on to claim his fourth-straight Championship – in commemoration of which Mitsubishi released a special edition of the road-going Evo VI.

15. Citroen Xsara WRC

Winning years: 2003, 2004, 2005

If the phrase 'rally dominance' was in the Oxford English Dictionary, the definition would be simply 'Citroën and Sébastien Loeb'.

Champion from 2004 to 2012, the Frenchman’s WRC success began with Citroën’s Xsara WRC – a car which took him to 28 rally wins.

Driving the Xsara WRC, Loeb technically won the Monte Carlo rally in 2002, but an illegal tyre change gave him a two-minute time penalty which handed victory to Subaru’s Mäkinen.

Instead, it wasn’t until 2003 and his first full season in the sport that he led home a one-two-three for Citroen in Monte Carlo, which set in progress a run of form that would last all the way to his retirement 11 years later.

16. Honourable mention #1: Ford Escort RS1800

Highest finish: 2nd (1979)

A rally edition of the front-engine, rear-wheel drive classic, the RS1800 never clinched victory in Monte Carlo, but it did take the overall Championship in both 1979 and 1981.

With a fuel-injected 2.0-litre Cosworth engine, the rallying RS1800’s biggest innovation was an AWD system based on automatic torque vectoring – an idea that’s still the basis of many AWD systems today.

The highest it placed in Monte Carlo was 2nd in 1979, just six seconds behind the winning Stratos HF.

17. Honourable mention #2: Talbot Sunbeam Lotus

Highest finish: 2nd (1981)

Born in part from government funding of Chrysler’s dwindling UK operations in the late '70s, the Sunbeam survived a French buyout and rebadging to be tweaked by Lotus into Championship-winning rally spec.

Though the road car was short-lived, Talbot’s Sunbeam Lotus nevertheless received positive reviews – and rallying was deemed the perfect way to market it.

Though its highest finish at Monte Carlo was 2nd, the hot hatch – piloted by Guy Fréquelin, with none other than Jean Todt in the co-driver’s seat – put its 2.2-litre Lotus engine to good use by winning the 1981 season.