Mazda Rally Team Europe

MRT/E, Mazda

Full name	Mazda Rally Team Europe
Base	Brussels, Belgium
Team principal(s)	Achim Warmbold
Drivers	see below
Chassis	Mazda 323 GTX Mazda RX-7 Rally Mazda Familia 4WD
Tyres	Michelin Pirelli
World Rally Championship history
Debut	1985
Manufacturers' Championships	0
Drivers' Championships	0
Rally wins	3

The Mazda Rally Team Europe was a rally team created by Achim Warmbold that competed in the World Rally Championship from 1985 to 1992.

History

Group B Mazda RX-7

The Mazda Rally Team Europe was created by Achim Warmbold as European Mazda preparation business based in Brussels, Belgium. Mazda headquarters appeared to ignore it. Although eventually Warmbold gained their attention, this did not seem to help the project much at first. Warmbold first created a Group A Mazda 323. This 323 was old fashioned and front wheel drive, but did feature a turbo engine. The 323 was short lived as it was only a warm-up for a Group B Mazda RX-7 with a Wankel engine. It managed to get a podium in the 1985 Acropolis Rally.

Group A

The first Group A model was based on the BF 323 with a turbo engine and 4WD. The timing of this project could not have been more perfect: the 323 4WD Turbo debuted in the 1986 Monte Carlo Rally. While this was before the Group B accidents at the Rally Portugal and the Tour de Corse, its launch was only one year away from the ban of Group B and by the time Group A became the main WRC class, only Mazda had a well proven 4x4 turbo car. With Ingvar Carlsson and Timo Salonen at the wheel, the BF 323 GT-X brought Mazda three wins in the World Rally Championship.

The new 5th generation BG 323 GT-X was debuted midway through the 1990 season at the 1000 Lakes Rally The new model was much improved over its predecessor, its enlarged 1839cc engine, canted forward so as to provide greater freedom to locate the Xtrac transmission. It was also wider, offered improved suspension travel and had better thermal management, even if the addition of so many grilles lent the GT-X a somewhat fussy frontal appearance. Mazda’s driver line-up was also improving what with the team’s stalwart; Finns Hannu Mikkola and Timo Salonen now supported by Ingvar Carlsson and, from time to time, Gregoire de Mevius and Jesus Puras. But it wasn’t to be. The frenetic, relentless pace of Group A development meant that while the GT-X was a marked improvement over what had gone before, it was still behind Lancia and Toyota and Ford.

The new, larger engine gave more power, but its 275bhp still wasn’t enough, especially when mated to an intercooler deemed too small and too inefficient for WRC. Nor was it especially reliable, as evidenced by a rash of retirements following its Finnish debut. More power was extracted through a change of ECU supplier. Come the start of the 1991 season, and the Mazda outfit had also Timo Salonen to Mitsubishi however Carlsson, Puras and Rod Millen remained as did a young Finn called Tommi Makinen. The latter would actually deliver Mazda its best result of the year with drive to fifth on Rally Finland, but that was the only bright spot on otherwise frustrating WRC year.

Mazda withdrew its factory team from WRC programme at the end of the 1992 season, just as the BG 323 GT-R homologation run had been completed for 1993 as a replacement for the GT-X. MRTE built five Group A cars in 1992, one of which went to Bjorn Johansson and Mazda’s Swedish rally arm who bought the team from Mazda. The 323 GT-R was run by several privateer teams from 1993 onwards, its best results being a 5th place in 1993 and second place in 1994, both at Rally Sweden.

The capability of the GT-R was further demonstrated by its success in Group N, in which guise Alex Fassina scooped the FIA Production Cup.

Drivers

• Philippe Wambergue (1984)
• Minna Sillankorva (1984)
• Achim Warmbold (1984–1986)
• Rod Millen (1985)
• Ingvar Carlsson (1985–1990)
• Timo Salonen (1987–1990)
• Hannu Mikkola (1988–1991)
• Grégoire De Mévius (1990)
• Jesús Puras (1991)
• Tommi Mäkinen (1991)

Group B era (1984-1985)

Year	Car	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	WDC	Points	WMC	Points
1984	Mazda RX7	Ingvar Carlsson	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC Ret	ARG	BRA	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR Ret	-	0	14th	2
		Achim Warmbold	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC 9	ARG	BRA	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR	53rd	2
		Philippe Wambergue	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	ARG	BRA	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR Ret	-	0
1985	Mazda RX7	Ingvar Carlsson	MON	SWE 8	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC 3	NZL	ARG	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR 10	16th	16	10th	22
		Achim Warmbold	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC 6	NZL	ARG	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR	34th	6
		Mike Montgomery	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL 11	ARG	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR	60th	2
		Neil Allport	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL Ret	ARG	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR	-	0
		Stuart Eyre	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL Ret	ARG	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR	-	0
		Minna Sillankorva	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	ITA	CIV	GBR	-	0
		Rod Millen	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN	ITA	CIV	GBR 9	60th	2

Group A era (1986-1991)

Year	Car	Driver	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	WDC	Points	WMC	Points
1986	Mazda 323 4WD	Ingvar Carlsson	MON Ret	SWE Ret	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	CIV	ITA	GBR 10	USA		70th	1	11th	9
		Achim Warmbold	MON Ret	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	NZL	ARG	FIN	CIV	ITA	GBR	USA		-	0
		Rod Millen	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	NZL 7	ARG	FIN	CIV	ITA	GBR	USA 10		44th	5
1987	Mazda 323 4WD	Timo Salonen	MON Ret	SWE 1	POR Ret	KEN	FRA	GRE	USA	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	CIV	ITA	GBR		14th	20	6th	52
		Ingvar Carlsson	MON 4	SWE 4	POR Ret	KEN	FRA	GRE	USA	NZL	ARG Ret	FIN Ret	CIV	ITA	GBR		17th	20
		Rod Millen	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	USA 4	NZL	ARG	FIN	CIV	ITA	GBR		26th	10
1988	Mazda 323 4WD	Timo Salonen	MON 5	SWE Ret	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC Ret	USA	NZL	ARG	FIN 4	CIV	ITA	GBR 2		5th	33	4th	66
		Hannu Mikkola	MON Ret	SWE Ret	POR 4	KEN	FRA	GRC Ret	USA	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	CIV	ITA	GBR Ret		30th	10
		Ingvar Carlsson	MON Ret	SWE	POR Ret	KEN	FRA	GRC	USA	NZL	ARG	FIN	CIV	ITA	GBR		-	0
		Ray Wilson	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	USA	NZL 2	ARG	FIN	CIV	ITA	GBR		18th	15
		Rod Millen	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	USA 8	NZL	ARG	FIN	CIV	ITA	GBR		59th	3
1989	Mazda 323 4WD	Ingvar Carlsson	SWE 1	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL 1	ARG	FIN	AUS Ret	ITA	CIV	GBR 8		7th	43	3rd	67
		Timo Salonen	SWE 22	MON Ret	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN 2	AUS	ITA	CIV	GBR 6		12th	21
		Thorbjörn Edling	SWE Ret	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN 5	AUS	ITA	CIV	GBR		34th	8
		Mikael Sundström	SWE Ret	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	AUS	ITA	CIV	GBR 7		52nd	4
		Hannu Mikkola	SWE	MON 4	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	AUS	ITA	CIV	GBR 9		27th	12
		Rod Millen	SWE	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL 2	ARG	FIN	AUS 5	ITA	CIV	GBR		11th	23
		Ray Wilson	SWE	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL 7	ARG	FIN	AUS Ret	ITA	CIV	GBR		52nd	4
1990	Mazda 323 4WD Mazda 323 GTX	Timo Salonen	MON 8	POR Ret	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN 6	AUS	ITA	CIV	GBR Ret			25th	9	5th	30
		Hannu Mikkola	MON Ret	POR 6	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	AUS	ITA	CIV	GBR Ret			34th	6
		Grégoire de Mevius	MON	POR Ret	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN	AUS 6	ITA Ret	CIV	GBR			34th	6
		Ingvar Carlsson	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL 2	ARG	FIN	AUS 5	ITA	CIV	GBR			10th	23
		Rod Millen	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL Ret	ARG	FIN	AUS Ret	ITA	CIV	GBR			-	0
		Mikael Sundström	MON	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	AUS	ITA	CIV	GBR Ret			-	0
1991	Mazda 323 GTX	Hannu Mikkola	MON Ret	SWE 7	POR Ret	KEN	FRA	GRC 8	NZL	ARG	FIN Ret	AUS	ITA	CIV	ESP	GBR 7	25th	11	5th	44
		Jesús Puras	MON Ret	SWE	POR 7	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN	AUS	ITA	CIV	ESP	GBR	40th	4
		Ingvar Carlsson	MON	SWE 4	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL 8	ARG	FIN	AUS Ret	ITA	CIV	ESP	GBR	16th	13
		Rod Millen	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL 6	ARG	FIN	AUS 6	ITA	CIV	ESP	GBR	23rd	12
		Tommi Mäkinen	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRC	NZL	ARG	FIN 5	AUS	ITA	CIV	ESP	GBR Ret	29th	8

External links

• World Rally Archive: Mazda's seasons