A calendar shake-up shifted Olympus ahead within the schedule, with June changing the weeks earlier than Christmas. Toyota returned to Seattle in 1987, nonetheless depending on massive energy via the rear wheels, however with the Celica Twincam Turbo confined to Group B historical past, Björn Waldegård and Lars-Erik Torph had been handed a Group A Supra apiece.
Predictably, neither discovered the weighty straight six, three-liter engine machine notably appropriate to the Washington woods. Massive Björn was 18 minutes down in sixth, whereas Torph’s engine let go on the Smith Creek stage north of Raymond.
That was the final time Toyota Workforce Europe ventured to Tacoma.
Nissan added an extra European-Japanese dimension to the 1987 occasion, bringing a trio of 200SXs for Mikael Ericsson, Shekhar Mehta and Per Eklund. Ericsson’s automobile suffered an engine failure whereas the opposite two completed eighth and ninth respectively.
The European pressure which hit a Stateside candy spot was Lancia. After that brawling 1986 win (Alén’s S4 defeating Kankkunen’s 205 T16), the Delta HF delivered in 1987. 5 Group A automobiles had been flown west out of northern Italy, two of which had been run by Jolly Membership (for Jorge Recalde and Paolo Alessandrini) and all of them completed within the high seven.
