Michele Mouton for Audi in 1984
The Audi team players for 1984 were presented at the Isola Ski resort in the French Alps in January. Newcomers were the German champion Walter Röhrl( co-pilot Christian Geistdörfer) and the Swede Stig Blomqvist (co-pilot Björn Cederberg). The new sponsor, tobacco manufacturer HB, changed the Audi to a white colour with yellow stripes on all sides. The drivers all had the Quattro A2 or the Audi Sport evolution with a long wheelbase. Having a powerful engine (estimated at 380 php) was paramount, the driving behaviour of the car somewhat secondary. The competition had not stood still either. Several powerful rally cars will be produced in the near future. Peugeot was the first that year with the 205T16 with a 4x4 transmission in a centrally mounted engine.
The first rally for Michèle Mouton was the Rally of Sweden. The Audi team preferred Stig Blomqvist and Per Eklund and Michèle got the position as quick intervention driver. Eklund started very quickly, but also quickly ended up off the road. This was how Blomqvist took the lead and stayed there. And look...in second place, to everyone's surprise despite a gearbox problem, the French woman. This remained for the history books. The highest position ever for a non-Scandinavian rally driver!
Then the toughest rally on the program: the Marlboro Safari Rally. The weather conditions can be erratic; so does the condition of the roads. Service vehicles, including tyre and fuel trucks, must be available in sufficient numbers to cover the entire route of the rally and the possibility of getting stuck should be taken into account. Special cars equipped for a mud track should be organized to make immediate pre-rally reconnaissance and their crews should be prepared to wait on difficult sections to tow if necessary. Air support must also be organized, if only to act as an airborne radio station to maintain vital communications. This year there were more factory teams present than ever before, with major equipment from Audi, Opel, Lancia, Nissan and Toyota, and even Citroën, Subaru and Daihatsu.
Of course, Audi wanted it to be wet to get the most benefit from the Quattro's all-wheel drive. Lancia, with its fast, powerful rear-engined car, wanted it to be reasonably dry, while Opel, Nissan and Toyota wanted it on the dry side, with just enough rain to settle the dust. Dust can be as serious an obstacle as thick mud, because in calm conditions the dense, reddish-brown clouds can hang over a road for as long as ten minutes before thinning enough to allow reasonable visibility. Overtaking can become not only dangerous but virtually impossible, with eyes becoming red and sore and voices hoarse and cracked. Engines can also suffer, and it takes a very good filter to keep out fine, almost gaseous, African dust.
There were occasional dark clouds on the day of the start, but no rain. Nevertheless, it was quite a surprise, even a disappointment for the organizers that the first ten drivers barely lost a minute until the Taita Hills. In those mountains, Blomqvist and Waldegård emerged as the leaders. In Mwatate, after the Taitas, Michèle Mouton stopped in the service area and asked the mechanics to check the engine problems. After a few minutes she continued her way. Seven kilometres further in the Sisal plantation, she radioed for help, because the engine had completely stopped. It took Audi some time to organize both a car and a helicopter because team manager Gumpert first had to drive to where his helicopter was parked, about a mile away. Meanwhile, Mouton asked the mechanics, using very explicit English words over the radio, to tell her what she could do. No reaction. During the inspection, a broken rotor arm appeared to be the problem. This caused the engine to suddenly fail without the required cooling period. She could not go on anymore.
No Mouton at the start in Corsica, but a four-car strong Audi team in the Acropolis rally. Stig Blomqvist and Hannu Mikkola in the A2 and Walter Röhrl and Michèle in the slightly more difficult Audi Sports. The Sports Quattro had their horsepower scaled down to a maximum of 400 bhp, making them more flexible and stronger. That turned out to be a good plan, because Röhrl took the lead in the rally until the 17th chrono stage, with a few seconds ahead of Vatanen's Peugeot and with Blomqvist and Mikkola in third and fourth place. When Röhl and Vatanen got into trouble, Blomqvist took the lead and never relinquishes it. And Michèle? Only fifteen chrono stages completed, twice she was the fastest, but the engine lost its cooling fluid and she was out of the rally.
At the end of June, Michele Mouton, in BP overalls, is in action in Colorado together with Fabrizia Pons and the Audi quattro S1 at the Pikes Peak hill climb competition. The American Pro Rally champion John Buffum had already won this race in 1982 and 1983 with an older 10-valve version engine. In 1982 he completed the 19.9 km course in 12 minutes and 20 seconds. The ladies finished second in the general classification and were the winners in their class. They just could not break Buffum's record, not due to inexperience but due to minor engine failures that occur as a result of less oxygen at high altitudes. Mouton was not completely satisfied. “For Audi it is a good result, but for the pilot – you know it can be better. A bit frustrating.” She planned to come back next year!
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At the end of August, the Finnish 1000 Lakes Rally, Hannu Mikkola's home race. He drove the S1 and Michèle a Sport Quattro. There were still five rallies scheduled for the world championship. The Peugeot 205 T16 became Audi's most feared opponent. They seemed to win every rally they participated in. In Finland, Audi had no luck at all. Both drivers had to give up, Michèle after an accident and Hannu with steering problems. Fortunately for the championship, Stig Blomqvist won the Rally of Argentina and the Rally of the Ivory Coast.
In preparation for the RAC rally, Michèle again participated in the Rally National Audi Sport in Egeland with Pauline Gullick. There's the second one.
On Sunday morning, November 25, the city of Chester will be the starting point of the RAC. Ari Vatanen and his Peugeot were going fast, but Lady Mouton could follow well. At the end of the first stage back in Chester she was second, 39 seconds behind Vatanen. The second stage started on Monday night. Vatanen continued to dominate and won most of the special stages. But at the beginning of the afternoon at the final destination Hawick, Mikkola had climbed to second position, but already more than a minute and a half behind. Struggling with a delicate car, Michèle Mouton had fallen back to more than three minutes in third place, followed by the American John Buffum (also on Audi).
After an hour and a half break, start of stage three towards Middlesbrough. Michèle Mouton lost that third place to Buffum in the Kileder Forrest chrono stage due to a flat tyre. At the end of this stage Vatanen was firm in the lead. Mouton remained fourth with more than a minute and a half behind Buffum in third.
The departure of the next stage was in the middle of the night. Mouton got three times fastest times and can gradually caught up with Buffum. She came back in third place when Buffum had to stop. Michèle got a suspension problem in the last stage and lost a place to Per Eklund and the Toyota.
In the world championship, Stig Blomqvist was the world champion and Hannu Mikkola second. Audi was the absolute winner in the manufacturers' championship.
Michele Mouton again Audi in 1985
Michèle Mouton's program for 1985 was limited to a full British Rally championship. The team remained the same: Fabrizia Pons in the seat next to her and the Audi Quattro Sport. The National Breakdown rally in February (photo 1 and 2) and the Circuit of Ireland in April clearly showed that it could be a miserable year. Two rallies, two non-finishes. She did not get far in the Costa Smeralda, a rally for the European championship (photo3). The Audi lost a wheel and many another problems. The highlight of the year was The Welsh Rally, on familiar terrain around Cardiff (photo 8 and 9). The team scored a wonderful second place there. A month later, Scottish Rally. Gearbox broken (photo 4-7).
photo 1 and 2
photo 4 - 5 -6 -7
The highlight of her year was the successful conquest of Pikes Peak. Her winning time of 11min 25.390sec was a new hill record. Read the full story on this site.
In an interview with Motorsport magazine, you can read: “It was a fabulous experience. The first year, I did it with Fabrizia because I didn’t want to try to commit all 20 kilometres to my memory, then I went back to tackle it on my own.
This time the organisers made life quite complicated. They accused me of having exceeded the speed limit by 5mph when making practice starts. I was fined and told I wouldn’t be allowed to sit in the car at the start, that I would have to jump in and belt up before I could leave the line. I pointed out that it would be crazy to do that, and possibly unsafe if I didn’t do up my belts properly, so they backed off and agreed to let me be in the car, but Audi’s mechanics had to push me to the line and I wasn’t allowed to select a gear until after the clock had started. To be honest, all they succeeded in doing was increasing my motivation…”
When she returned to Northern Ireland in early July for the British Midland Ulster Rally, the setback was back (photo). This time the Turbo let her down. And it just keeps happening at the Manx Rally. Still, she has enough points to be classified tenth in the championship.
And then Michele Mouton was at the start of the Ivory Coast Rally. It was her first and last WRC rally event of the year. As navigator for this rally she had Arne Hertz, Hannu Mikkola's regular navigator. This became a rally full of controversy. What had happened during the rally ? Did Audi cheated on the rules ? Is it just a myth or is there something more to it?
The basis of this controversy lay directly in the second stage of the Rally. Michèle Mouton's car has had engine problems for several kilometres. She stopped at the service point just after the 22nd special stage. According to the testimonies of other teams also present at the location, including Toyota and Nissan, thick white smoke was coming from the Audi engine, a classic symptom of a failed cylinder head gasket. The mechanics filled the engine with water and oil. But they did not intervene mechanically and the Audi with number 2 left towed by the Audi #11.
For Toyota boss Ove Andersson, however, the diagnosis was very clear. This engine problem is so serious that it seems beyond repair. According to him, Michèle Mouton, who has so far shown himself to be a serious threat to the official Toyotas, was on the verge of giving up. He instructed his entire team, including the airplane pilots: "Keep a close eye on Michèle's car and let us know when it stops."
This was where the first doubts arise. The testimonies were numerous and formal. Instead of following the rally route, the Quattro disappeared from the official route onto the road next to it. At the start of the 22nd fast chrono stage, the Quattro was back with a time penalty of 1 hour and 23 minutes, which indicated that a repair had taken place. And more, the fast number 11 assistance car of Braun and Fisher was no longer in the race.
The incident was somewhat forgotten until the break on the Kokonou ferry during the river crossing after stage 27. This imposed break gave everyone the opportunity to take a closer look at the Mouton-Hertz Audi. And it turned out: car number 2 carried the windshield of number 11. There was no doubt about it, because a sticker on this windshield made it possible to recognize it in a formal way.
At the end of the second stage, Roland Gumpert and rally driver Fisher of the number 11talked to the press in the hotel about the breakdown of Mouton’s car. “Defective oil pump! We therefore took this part from our own car to install it on Michèle's.” But if it was just an oil pump, why not fit a new one on No. 11, as it is useful to have quick assistance in these types of rallies? Answer: “We already ask a lot of our technicians. We didn't want to unnecessarily overload them with work (...).”
And the sticker on the windshield? The same Fischer will give his version a little later: “The anti-fog system no longer worked on the windshield of Michèle's Audi. Yes indeed, we replaced it.”
And then a bomb exploded.
In the Yamoussoukro parc fermé, it was noted that Audi number 2 did not have a roof number. “It came off. It was just before the finish of the second stage. When I noticed it I started looking for it myself, but some kids must have picked it up because I never found it.” That is possible, but it is a sticker stuck on a clean car at the start of the rally?
In any case, the problem is being taken sufficiently seriously by the board of stewards led by Bernard Consten, who ordered an investigation by the technical commissaires, although no complaint has yet been filed by another participant or another team. After the finish of the third stage, a detailed examination would be carried out, which showed that the vehicle checked was indeed the same as the vehicle that underwent the technical checks at the start of the event: license plate and seal were compliant. Amazingly, however, this report did not mention the chassis number.
But, finally Mouton withdrew from the Rally. She had hit a train and what was left of that car was unsafe as it was falling to pieces!
