Walter Röhrl

Walter Röhrl (German pronunciation: [ˈvaltɐ ˈʁøːʁl] (listen); born 7 March 1947) is a German rally and auto racing driver, with victories for Fiat, Opel, Lancia and Audi as well as Porsche, Ford and BMW. Röhrl has scored 14 victories over his career, with his notable achievements including winning the World Rally Championship twice: in 1980 in a Fiat Abarth and in 1982 while driving for Opel. He has also competed in other forms of motorsport, such as endurance racing, winning in the GTP +3.0 class in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1981 with the Porsche System team. Röhrl also set the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb record in 1987 driving an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2. He is often regarded as one of the greatest rally drivers of all time.

Walter Röhrl

Röhrl at Retro Classics Stuttgart, Germany 2012-03-23
Personal information
Nationality	German
Born	(1947-03-07) 7 March 1947 (age 76) Regensburg, Germany
World Rally Championship record
Active years	1973–1987
Co-driver	Jochen Berger Claes Billstam Willi-Peter Pitz Christian Geistdörfer Phil Short
Teams	Porsche, Fiat, Opel, Lancia, Audi
Rallies	75
Championships	2 (1980, 1982)
Rally wins	14
Podiums	31
Stage wins	420
Total points	494
First rally	1973 Monte Carlo Rally
First win	1975 Acropolis Rally
Last win	1985 San Remo Rally
Last rally	1987 Acropolis Rally

Career

Röhrl grew up as the youngest of three children of a stonemason in Regensburg, Bavaria, near Munich. His parents separated when he was ten years old. From then on he lived with his mother. After leaving school he completed a commercial education at Bishop's Ordinariate Regensburg.^[1] At the age of 16, Röhrl began working for the commercial director of a company that legally represented the Bishop of Regensburg along with six further Bishops in Bavaria, and skied in his spare time. In time he became a qualified ski instructor and a keen driver, and became the chauffeur to the commercial director, covering up to 120,000 kilometres annually. Some unqualified reports have stated he was once the Bishop's own driver, but this has been acknowledged as untrue. Having also now been active in sports like skiing, Röhrl was invited to drive his first rally in 1968.

Röhrl was a World Rally Championship favourite throughout the 1970s and 1980s, winning the Monte Carlo Rally four times with four different marques. His co-driver for many years was Christian Geistdörfer. His Fiat 131 Abarth carried him to the 1980 title, clinched with his victory in that year's San Remo rally, but it was arguably his equivalent success in 1982 that impressed most of all, with Röhrl fending off audacious four-wheel drive opposition, led by Audi's resurgent Michèle Mouton, to take the title, by virtue of consistency, in his increasingly outmoded rear-drive Opel Ascona 400. It was also during this time that he won the African Rally Championship, in 1982.^[2] However, shortly after winning the championship he was fired from the team by team manager Tony Fall because he disliked competing in the RAC rally (the rally he had little success in).^[3][4] Röhrl had already had severe arguments with Tony Fall about publicity activities for the team sponsor, tobacco company Rothmans. Röhrl, as a strict nonsmoker, simply refused to do any filming for Rothmans publicity spots, claiming that he had been hired as a driver, not an actor, and that he could not see any sense in promoting tobacco as a nonsmoker anyway.^[5]

 

Audi S1 Pikes Peak

In 1983, he joined Lancia to pilot the new, rear-wheel drive Lancia 037, before finally changing his machinery, in 1984, to the four-wheel drive Audi Quattro, an automobile actually produced in his home state of Bavaria.

In 1987 Röhrl set up a new record in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb for being the first driver to cover the 12.42 miles (19.99 km) long mountain track to the Pikes Peak in less than 11 minutes. In his 600 hp (440 kW) Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 he did the famed American hillclimb in 10 minutes and 47.850 seconds^[6] to reach Pikes Peak on the road which at that time was mainly covered with gravel.

Despite being selective in his choice of top-level events (he declined to do the famed 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland due to his dislike of jumps and cars getting airborne,^[7] he did the RAC Rally in Britain only once more after 1979 and he only did the Swedish Rally twice, despite finishing third in 1982) albeit during a time when this was a less unusual occurrence for top-line drivers in the championship, Röhrl still scored 14 WRC victories in his career.

Röhrl was also successful in road racing events, and was called "Genius on Wheels" by Niki Lauda. In the 1992 24 Hours Nürburgring race which saw fog and heavy rain in the night, he hardly slowed down, anticipating the corners by timing. The race was nevertheless interrupted for hours.

In Italy, he was elected "Rallye driver of the century". In France he was elected "Rallye driver of the millennium" in November 2000. A jury out of 100 worldwide motorsports experts meeting in Italy elected him "Best Rallye driver ever".

In recent years, he has been retained as the senior test driver for Porsche road cars, famously setting quick laptimes for them testing round the famous Nürburgring Nordschleife, for example with the Porsche Carrera GT.

Röhrl was expected to make his competitive return to the Nürburgring 24 hour race in 2010 at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. However, he was forced to withdraw from the event due to a back injury.^[8] It was to be his first 24-hour race in 17 years, since his last start in 1993. In 2011, Röhrl was inducted into the Rally Hall of Fame along with Hannu Mikkola^[9] and in July 2016 was inducted into Germany's Sports Hall of Fame.^[10]

Complete WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	WDC	Points
1973	Irmscher Tuning	Opel Commodore GS/E	MON 45	SWE	POR	KEN	MOR	GRE	POL	FIN						N/A	N/A
		Opel Ascona									AUT Ret	ITA	USA	GBR Ret	FRA
1974	Opel Euro Händler Team	Opel Ascona	MON C	SWE C	POR Ret	KEN	GRE C	FIN	ITA	CAN	USA	GBR 5	FRA			N/A	N/A
1975	Opel Euro Händler Team	Opel Ascona	MON Ret	SWE	KEN	GRE 1	MOR Ret	POR Ret	FIN							N/A	N/A
		Opel Kadett GT/E								ITA Ret	FRA	GBR Ret
1976	Opel Euro Händler Team	Opel Kadett GT/E	MON 4	SWE	POR Ret	KEN Ret	GRE	MOR	FIN	ITA Ret	FRA Ret	GBR Ret				N/A	N/A
1977	Opel Euro Händler Team	Opel Kadett GT/E	MON Ret	SWE	POR	KEN	NZL	GRE Ret	FIN				GBR Ret			NC	0
	Fiat S.p.A.	Fiat 131 Abarth								CAN Ret	ITA Ret	FRA
1978	Alitalia Fiat	Fiat 131 Abarth	MON 4	SWE	KEN	POR Ret	GRE 1	FIN	CAN 1	ITA Ret	CIV	FRA	GBR 6			6th	13
1979	Alitalia Fiat	Fiat 131 Abarth	MON Ret	SWE	POR	KEN 8	GRE	NZL	FIN	CAN	ITA 2	FRA	GBR 8	CIV		9th	21
1980	Fiat Italia	Fiat 131 Abarth	MON 1	SWE	POR 1	KEN	GRE 5	ARG 1	FIN	NZL 2		FRA 2	GBR	CIV		1st	118
	Jolly Club										ITA 1
1981	Eminence	Porsche 911 SC	MON	SWE	POR	KEN	FRA	GRE	ARG	BRA	FIN	ITA Ret	CIV	GBR		NC	0
1982	Rothmans Opel Rally Team	Opel Ascona 400	MON 1	SWE 3	POR Ret	KEN 2	FRA 4	GRE 2	NZL 3	BRA 2	FIN	ITA 3	CIV 1	GBR		1st	109
1983	Martini Racing	Lancia 037 Rally	MON 1	SWE	POR 3	KEN	FRA 2	GRE 1	NZL 1	ARG	FIN	ITA 2	CIV	GBR		2nd	102
1984	Audi Sport	Audi Quattro A2	MON 1	SWE	POR 6	KEN			NZL Ret	ARG	FIN					11th	26
		Audi Sport Quattro					FRA Ret	GRE Ret				ITA Ret	CIV	GBR
1985	Audi Sport	Audi Sport Quattro	MON 2	SWE Ret	POR 3	KEN	FRA Ret	GRE Ret	NZL 3	ARG	FIN					3rd	59
		Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2										ITA 1	CIV	GBR Ret
1986	Audi Sport	Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2	MON 4	SWE	POR Ret	KEN	FRA	GRE	NZL	ARG	FIN	CIV	ITA	GBR	USA	22nd	10
1987	Audi Sport	Audi 200 Quattro	MON 3	SWE	POR	KEN 2	FRA	GRE Ret	USA	NZL	ARG	FIN	CIV	ITA	GBR	11th	27

WRC victories

 

Röhrl's final WRC victory came at the wheel of an Audi Sport Quattro S1 E2 at the 1985 Rallye Sanremo. The car was paraded at the Ignition Festival of Motoring in 2017.

#	Event	Season	Co-driver	Car
1	Acropolis Rally	1975	Jochen Berger	Opel Ascona
2	Acropolis Rally	1978	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
3	Critérium du Québec	1978	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
4	Rally Monte Carlo	1980	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
5	Rally Portugal	1980	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
6	Rally Argentina	1980	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
7	Rally Sanremo	1980	Christian Geistdörfer	Fiat 131 Abarth
8	Rally Monte Carlo	1982	Christian Geistdörfer	Opel Ascona 400
9	Rallye Côte d'Ivoire	1982	Christian Geistdörfer	Opel Ascona 400
10	Rally Monte Carlo	1983	Christian Geistdörfer	Lancia 037 Rally
11	Acropolis Rally	1983	Christian Geistdörfer	Lancia 037 Rally
12	Rally New Zealand	1983	Christian Geistdörfer	Lancia 037 Rally
13	Rally Monte Carlo	1984	Christian Geistdörfer	Audi Quattro A2
14	Rally Sanremo	1985	Christian Geistdörfer	Audi Quattro Sport S1

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1981	Porsche System	Jürgen Barth	Porsche 944 LM	GTP +3.0	323	7	1st
1993	Le Mans Porsche Team	Hurley Haywood   Hans-Joachim Stuck	Porsche 911 Turbo S LM-GT	GT	79	DNF	DNF

References

1. de:Walter Röhrl
2. African Rally Championship Website – PastChampions 2012-06-11 at the Wayback Machine
3. Video on YouTube
4. "Drivers - Walter Rohrl". Juwra.com. 1947-03-07. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
5. Walter Röhrl, Aufschrieb. (Autobiography) ISBN 3-927458-04-X
6. . Archived from the original on 2013-03-21.
7. "The 1983 Rally Rivalry". The Grand Tour. 2018-02-27. Archived from the original on 2021-12-12. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
8. AUSmotive.com – Injury forces Walter Röhrl out of Nürburgring 24 hour
9. . Neste Oil Rally Finland. 9 February 2011. Archived from the original on 30 April 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
10. . www.hall-of-fame-sport.de. Archived from the original on 2016-07-17. Retrieved 2016-07-17.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walter Röhrl.

• Webpage from Walter Röhrl
• Walter Röhrl at rallybase.nl

Sporting positions
Preceded by Sandro Munari	European Rally champion 1974	Succeeded by Maurizio Verini
Preceded by Björn Waldegård	World Rally champion 1980	Succeeded by Ari Vatanen
Preceded by Ari Vatanen	World Rally champion 1982	Succeeded by Hannu Mikkola
Preceded by Shekhar Mehta	African Rally champion 1982	Succeeded by Alain Ambrosino
Preceded by Marc Duez	Race of Champions Classic Master 1997	Succeeded by Miki Biasion
Records
Preceded by Björn Waldegård 36 years, 32 days (1979 season)	Youngest World Rally champion 33 years, 232 days (1980 season)	Succeeded by Ari Vatanen 29 years, 212 days (1981 season)