Remembering when… Röhrl struck ERC gold 50 years ago

The car…
The factory Opel Ascona Röhrl drove during the 1974 ERC season came with a two-litre engine with an overhead camshaft and crossflow cylinder head. This meant the car produced between 192hp and 212hp. Special springs and special shock absorbers as well as internally ventilated disc brakes at the front and ventilated drum brakes at the rear were used to adapt the car for rally use. “The engine was easy to drive,” Röhrl said in his biography Aufschrift. “Power came from around 2000 rpm and continued to 7600 rpm. But I refrained from revving it up so high. My moral limit was 7000 rpm. Mostly.”  

The first win…
Röhrl and Berger became winners for the first time in 1974 when they finished first on Rallye Firestone in Spain driving for the Opel Euro Dealer Team. The event, which took place in the March of that year, featured 19 stages in the northern Spanish mountains.   

… and the second…
Four weeks later, Röhrl and Berger won the 38-stage Tulip Rally in the Netherlands after leading from start to finish. Further victories followed on Rallye Hessen, Rallye Vltava and Danube Rally, which put the German pair comfortably on top of the standings heading to Switzerland’s Rallye du Lugano in October.

The title…
A tough route made up of 28 special stages in the mountains between Lugano and Lake Maggiore took its toll on the competitors with only 18 of the 52 starters making the finish. Röhrl and Berger made it through with an advantage of more than 10 minutes having led from the start. With six wins during the season they are crowned European champions with three rounds left to run. “With the European title I had achieved what I wanted,” said Röhrl, who went on to become world champion for the first time in 1980.  

The co-driver’s view…
From a “nobody”, as he once described himself, Röhrl established himself as a contender in 1972 and into 1973, when he joined Opel with Berger co-driving. “Driving through a special stage with Walter is safer than crossing the road in the city,” Berger once said.  

Who are the other ERC champions to date? 
Follow the link below to check out the winners of the FIA European Rally Championship from when it began in 1953 to the present day: https://www.fiaerc.com/more/information/hall-of-fame

Photos: McKleinimagedatabase.com