Rallye Monte Carlo 1986: Henri Toivonen wins despite being crashed into by a spectator car on a road section
Henri Toivonen won the 1986 Monte Carlo Rally to record a historic victory exactly twenty years on from his father's Monte success, but it nearly didn't turn out to like that at all. Toivonen suffered an accident when an oncoming spectator car crashed into him on a road section just after he had completed the Burzet test.
Toivonen suffered a hip injury and he would be in pain the rest of the rally. The car's chassis was twisted being a couple of centimetres shorter on one side. Toivonen overcame this obstacle as he drove at a sublime pace for the mechanics who fixed his car.
Reigning world champion Timo Salonen, in a Peugeot T16 E2, got himself into the lead of the of the event with a night just remainig but a gamble on tyre choice cost him, and he elected (much to the bemusement of the French) to settle for second and collect good early championship points.
The Audi and Austin Rover challenge never really materialised. Rohrl was out of the running after a puncture on Burzet while challenging for the lead, but with a time loss of six minutes his hopes of winning were over. Meanwhile both Metro's retired, Pond hit a sign post at Aix-les-Bains due to jammed steering so the team pulled him out as logistically couldn't service him running 2hrs behind Wilson. Wilson, though, retired 6 stages later with a broken transmission.
The biggest embarrassment, though, was the debut of the Citroen BX4TC. Overweight and under powered both Wambergue (blown engine SS2) and Andruet (accident SS7) were out by the time the rally reached SS8.
Rallye Monte Carlo 1986: The story as told by Murray Walker :
A disaster debut for the Citroen BX 4TC:
Sights and sounds of the Monte Carlo Rally 1986:
The atmosphere at the Col de Turini:
Not Rohrl's year due to a puncture:
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