Rare Car : Talbot Horizon Group B

The world of Group B rally was at times a very strange place, where companies could see their chance to realign their image using some really outlandish cars screaming through woodland, sideways as the vehicle (no pun intended) for that.

Peugeot had their fingers a bit burnt with the Talbot/Matra F1 project being less successful than they might have hoped.  In contrast to this their partnership with Lotus on the Talbot Sunbeam was doing great stuff in the world of rallying, a much more consumer level motorsport.  When the Group B regulations came around they turned their attention to this as a new chance to make more of a name for themselves.

Renault had been going well with the Renault 5 Turbo in rallying, inspired by this PSA turned to Lotus once again to get a Group B car built.

Effectively they copied the overall design of the Renault 5, mid-mounting the engine behind the front seats.  The engine was the same as that used in the Lotus Sunbeam, the shell was essentially a silhouette, and we expect that not much horizon lives on underneath that exterior.

Before the project could turn a wheel in anger Audi came along and spoilt the group B RWD party with the Quattro.  The Horizon project was canned after just two cars were built.

One wonders what could have been, maybe the Talbot Horizon "Rallye" or some similar such name would now be a watch word for RWD rallying lunacy.  Maybe someone with a spare Lotus engine and a Talbot Horizon fancies finding out how much fun it might have been?? .. Answers on a post card.


We must say thanks to the excellent Rootes-Chrysler.co.uk for their excellent write up on this car