Race For Glory: Movie About Audi and Lancia’s Rally Racing Rivalry Coming to the Big Screen
Movie about F1 racing in the ’70s, check. Movie about racing at Le Mans in the ’60s, check. Now, a movie about rally racing in the ’80s.
Michael Mann's Ferrari isn't the only movie about special moments in automotive history in the pipeline. A new movie titled Race for Glory tells one of the greatest racing stories of all time, the one of Lancia's battle against Audi for the World Rally Championship in 1983.
To recap, Audi blew the WRC scene up in 1982 with its four-wheel-drive Audi Quattro. It was a well-funded, factory team that featured a roster of incredible drivers, such as Michèle Mouton, Hannu Mikkola, and Stig Blomqvist. But for the 1983 season, Lancia decided it wanted to take on the dominant Audi with a rear-wheel drive Lancia 037. The Italian squad wasn't nearly as well-funded as Audi but it had a great chassis and brilliant drivers, such as now-legend Walter Rohrl.
The battle between Lancia and Audi was one of the best in racing history. At the time, rally racing was far more dangerous than it is today and both Audi and Lancia cars were sensational. But what made the rivalry more special were the big personalities of many of the drivers.
Mouton was the first woman to win a round of the WRC and she battled Walter Rohrl both on the rally stage and in newspapers. Both drivers were quick, outspoken, and determined to beat the other. Rohrl had even said that he didn't want to be the first man to lose the rally championship to a woman. Rohrl has since apologized to Mouton for the things he said about her back then, and they eventually became teammates at Audi, but at the time their rivalry was fierce.
Such a story has all of the ingredients for a brilliant movie: thrilling and dangerous racing, gorgeous cars, and—most importantly—fascinating people. Unfortunately, the official trailer seems like a collection of overused competitive platitudes, and it even quotes NFL's Vince Lombardi, saying "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." All typical macho-speak.
Of course, I'm still going to watch it as soon as possible because I love the story and it's a movie about the golden era of rally racing. When are we ever going to get that again? I hope it lives up to the hype because if it doesn't, it would be a huge disservice to one of the best rivalries in motorsport history.
Got tips? Send 'em to tips@thedrive.com
