Exactly 50 years ago today, Walter Röhrl won his first major title: together with his co-driver Jochen Berger, he won the European Rally Championship in an Opel Ascona on October 13, 1974 - with the maximum achievable score of 120 points.
From young talent to rally ace
Röhrl's breakthrough, which turned him from a "nobody" (as he himself once said) into a surprise candidate on the rally circuit, came in 1972 when he dominated the Polish Rally, the Baltic Rally and the Olympic Rally. From 1973, the then 26-year-old drove for Opel. At his side was Jochen Berger, who from then on read him the so-called "prayer book", the route instructions for the driver, and thus played a decisive role in his future successes. Even back then, the co-driver was sure of Röhrl's driving qualities: "Driving through a special stage with Walter is safer than crossing the road in the city."
He was proved right: In the same year, with just a few starts and almost as many overall victories in an Opel Ascona, the two became European runners-up - not a respectable success, but an announcement! For Röhrl, these were the best prerequisites for the coming season with the newly founded Opel Euro Dealer Team.
1974 European Championship title in the Opel Ascona
And so Walter Röhrl and Jochen Berger set off on the hunt for points in 1974 with great ambitions. Their car is once again a factory Ascona, equipped with a four-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft and cross-flow cylinder head that has been enlarged to two liters. This gives the Group 2 car between 192 and 212 hp. Special springs and shock absorbers as well as ventilated disc brakes at the front and ventilated drum brakes at the rear adapt the chassis to the tough competition conditions. In his biography "Aufschrieb", Röhrl recalls: "The engine was easy to drive. Power came from around 2000 and was available up to 7600. But I refrained from revving it that high. My moral limit was 7000. Most of the time."
However, Röhrl/Berger will have to be patient until their first major success of the season. At the 8th International Firestone Rally - the 5th round of the European Rally Championship at the end of March 1974 - the time had finally come. As the top team of the Opel-Eurohändler team, the two drivers achieved a superior start-finish victory after 1517 kilometers and 19 special stages in the northern Spanish mountains. From then on, things went from strength to strength: just four weeks later, Röhrl/Berger took the lead from the start at the Tulip Rally in the Netherlands. After 1250 kilometers and 38 scored special stages, they drove their Ascona to another commanding overall victory.
The local authorities cause a moment of shock: They suspect Röhrl of having clearly exceeded the permitted speed limit. Fortunately, this turns out to be a mistake. The law enforcement officers had not "flashed" the German duo with start number 1, but the Polish team with number 7.
Further victories followed with the Hesse Rally, the Moldova Rally and the Danube Rally in Romania. The Opel drivers are clearly leading the overall standings when the 13th Rallye Internazionale di Lugano is scheduled for October 11-13. Röhrl/Berger can already secure the European Championship title early here. Right from the start, they again take the top position among the 52 competitors.
The 28 tough special stages in the mountains between Lugano and Lake Maggiore take their toll: only 18 teams cross the finish line on October 13. At the top: the Opel Ascona with Walter Röhrl and Jochen Berger. After 1000 kilometers, they are more than ten minutes ahead of the second-placed team. With their sixth overall victory and 120 points - the highest number of points ever scored to date - they won the 1974 European Rally Championship and became European Drivers' Champions with three races still to go.
Röhrl and Opel's rally career
But Walter Röhrl had even greater ambitions after this success. "With the European Championship title, I had achieved what I wanted. But one dream wouldn't leave me alone: to win the Monte Carlo Rally once in my life."
In 1975, Röhrl achieved the first victory in a World Rally Championship race for himself and Opel, but in 1977 the exceptional driver and the brand with the lightning bolt initially parted ways. At this time, nobody suspected that their greatest joint sporting triumph was yet to come.
Röhrl returned to Opel in 1982. While Jochen Berger is now team manager of the motorsport department, his new co-driver Christian Geistdörfer and the 260 hp Opel Ascona 400 also make a decisive contribution to the success of the "Mission Monte-Carlo". With him, Röhrl wins the Monte-Carlo Rally for the second time, and for the first time in an Opel. A perfect start to the rally season, which ultimately led to Röhrl winning the 1982 Drivers' World Championship title - the last in a rear-wheel drive car.
