Clarkson's favoriete Rally Battle: Audi Quattro VS. Lancia 037 | The Grand Tour | Prime Video NL

Overview

The video recaps one of rallying’s most iconic “gearbox vs. technology” battles: Audi’s turbocharged, four-wheel-drive Quattro supremacy against Lancia’s lighter, two-wheel-drive 037 in the early 1980s.

How Audi “cheated” the rules—and dominated

• Audi’s Quattro was originally developed for the German military, and engineers secretly tested whether its four-wheel-drive grip could translate to civilian-style rallying.
• A key turning point came when Audi lobbied to have rally rules changed to allow four-wheel drive—played for laughs as the representative waits until everyone is leaving, then casually asks at the end of the meeting if the ban can be removed.
• The payoff: by the early 1980s, Quattros were winning everywhere, with references to major champions and dominance (described as “master of all conditions,” with multiple cars taking top spots).

Enter Lancia: the underfunded, clever answer

• The 037 is presented as wonderfully “Italian” and raw—noisy, lumpy, and charmingly archaic—contrasted with the Audi team’s efficiency and seriousness.
• Lancia’s boss Cesare Fiorio is portrayed as a playboy with a different priorities vibe (powerboat racing, liking life), while Audi’s boss Roland Gumpert comes off as hands-on, engineer-doctor serious.
• Drivers are framed as part of the contrast:
  • Audi’s rally stars are shown as constantly motivated and fully committed.
  • Lancia’s Walter Röhrl is described as someone who doesn’t even want to compete everywhere or chase the title for the spotlight.

The “rulebook gray zone” comedy: Lancia’s 400-car requirement

• Lancia needed to build at least 400 road cars to qualify, but the video jokes about how they handled inspections:
  • They say “yes” while only producing 200 in one place.
  • Then they shuffle officials across town during a long lunch.
  • And magically present the other 200 later.
• Even funnier: they allegedly used cardboard-looking roll-cage substitutes to pass visual checks, implying their cars were effectively more fragile than they looked (supported by commentary about thin tubes and plastic parts in crash evidence).

Monte Carlo: everyone expects Audi—Lancia wins with cold-weather tricks

• At the 1983 Monte Carlo Rally, the video emphasizes panic around ice for rear-wheel-drive mid-engine Lancias.
• Lancia’s solution becomes another comedic montage:
  • buy as much salt as possible and sprinkle it to remove ice,
  • pressure local authorities to clear ice for safety and spectacle,
  • and—within the “gray zone”—change winter tires mid-stage.
• The result flips expectations: Lancias take 1st and 2nd, while Audi’s four-wheel-drive advantage doesn’t automatically solve everything.

When the world turns harsh: Lancia beats Audi via strategy and opportunism

• In Sweden, the snow is too much; Lancia “solves” it by simply not showing up, letting Audi take a win cleanly.
• In Portugal and East Africa, Audi keeps finding momentum, but then Corsica (more dry tarmac) shifts the advantage.
• Corsica becomes a setup for the key twist: Lancia arrives with more cars than usual (the video implies they increased their entry count). If Audi’s best result is limited by the number of Lancias, Audi starts looking exposed—until mechanical failures stop them from even achieving that.

Greece and Finland: rugged chaos, then Röhrl refuses one event

• Greece (the roughest, toughest) produces a dramatic pattern: breakdowns happen, but the surprising twist is that they’re mainly Audis failing—Lancia capitalizes.
• For Finland, Röhrl refuses to go because he dislikes the jumps—leading to an easy Audi win there.

San Remo showdown: dust management and Röhrl’s peak performance

• With only a few rounds left, Lancia needs the San Remo win to stay alive for the championship—framed as winning “in Italy, in front of the home crowd.”
• The big obstacle is dust: it hangs in the air so long visibility becomes a nightmare.
• Lancia tries a van with brushes to clear dust, but it “doesn’t really work,” so the drivers improvise an alternative:
  • when dust has been cleared, they exploit timing—dust is gone by the time they need it.
• There’s also a comic “team van stoppage” moment: a driver/power failure (a belt coming undone, causing the car not to start) delays them. Officials stop their workaround briefly—then Röhrl goes all-in.

The climax: Röhrl’s dominance in the 037

Röhrl delivers an ecstatic victory performance, describing the car like it “fits” him perfectly. The video then underlines how unstoppable he is:

• he wins an overwhelming number of stages,
• the team scores an incredible 1-2-3,
• and the video cuts off as it leads into their championship-winning consequence.

Key jokes / highlights

• Audi rule-change lobbying staged as a casual afterthought at the perfect moment.
• Lancia’s logistics humor: “lunch that lasts forever” while moving officials between car parks.
• Alleged cardboard roll-cage deception (visually passing inspection while being structurally questionable).
• Lancia’s dust/ice problem-solving treated like comedic “hacks” (salt piles, tire swaps, dust brushes, improvisation).
• Röhrl’s Finland refusal: “I don’t like jumps” delivered as a human, stubborn motivation rather than a technical issue.

Main personalities featured

• Richard Hammond / Jeremy Clarkson (narration/commentary voice and reactions)
• Roland Gumpert (Audi team boss)
• Cesare Fiorio (Lancia team boss)
• Hannu Mikkola (Audi driver)
• Stig Blomqvist (Audi driver)
• Michèle Mouton (Audi driver)
• Markku Alén (Lancia driver)
• Walter Röhrl (Lancia driver)