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Rally Monte Carlo 1976 - Stall order, Munari and the P7

Name: Fiat 124 Abarth 1976
Brand: Fiat

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Created on January 21, 2011

Text:

Bernhard Brägger

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Rally Monte Carlo 1976 - tire war without end

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Lancia Stratos at the 1976 Monte Carlo Rally - Winner of the 1976 Monte Carlo Rally

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Lancia Stratos - Silvio Maiga and Sandro Munari drove the victorious Stratos in the 1976 Monte Carlo Rally

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Walter Röhrl in the Opel Kadett GTE - driving fast at the 1976 Monte Carlo Rally - 4th place directly after the three best-placed Lancia Stratos

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Summary

The 1976 Monte Carlo Rally turned into another tire war. The new Pirelli P7 tires, expensive one-offs, were the only way to win. Munari is waved off as the winner in the Lancia Stratos thanks to a stable order ahead of Waldegard.

Estimated reading time: 3min

Preview (beginning of the article)

In no other rally is so much time and money invested in rubber compounds and in no other rally is the choice of tires so decisive for victory or defeat. Remember: in 1963 and 1964, Hakkapeliitta worried the established tire companies. In 1970, Porsche fitted Dunlop M+SE with 540 trident studs made of a cobalt alloy. This absurd result of performance-mad tire engineers is stopped by restrictive regulations. In 1976, new regulations set the tire roulette in motion again. The organizers allowed a single type of tire. Only one brand, only one tread, only one dimension. But the factories find a weak point in the regulations and produce tires with identical tread and dimensions, virtually by hand. Pirelli's miracle tire is called the P7. For the different road conditions to be expected, different, sinfully expensive rubber compounds are used. These custom-made products are only available to a few factories. P7 for the two Stratos of Sandro Munari/Silvio Maiga and Björn Waldegard/Hans Thorszelius, P7 for all Abarth Spiders from Fiat and also P7 for Walter Röhrl, the up-and-coming star in the Opel Kadett GT/E.

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