What a Difference Three Decades Makes

What a Difference Three Decades Makes

The Audi Quattro was a revolution in rallying in the 1980s. Do high resolution low noise images taken today evoke the same response as the grainy mono images from the time?

Progress Through Technology, that certainly applied to a make of rally car forty years ago. You're more likely to recognise that saying in its original Teutonic language. Photography would wait 20 years before its major change in technology. That said, motorsport will, over the next decade, be transformed yet again. We already have Formula E well established and Extreme E will start this year.

I'm not trying to highlight the advances made in automotive or photographic technology over this time. By all means do some research on the Sony Mavica if you want. Rather the portrayal of that sport and technology in images and the response it creates in the viewer.



An Audi Coupe Quattro at the Weston Park stage of the Lombard RAC Rally. Driven by David Llewellyn of Wales with British co-driver Phil Short. Ilford XP1 400 chromogenic monochrome film rated at ISO 1600


I'm coming at this as someone who remembers the time. Those with longer or shorter memories may well feel different but at least I hope I'll give you something to think about.
Rallying is a gritty sport and not just for those on the outside of a bend when the gravel starts to fly. Inclement weather and at the extreme ends of the day play their part too. That's from a UK perspective of course, events like the Acropolis Rally and Rally Australia had better weather, though you'd still get a mouth of grit.

Photographically, this meant extreme measures too. High ISO film was required with the accompanying high levels of grain. And it's this aspect of the images I'm talking about. You've endured the rain, mud, gravel and various levels of darkness, then waited possibly a week or so to see your results. You watched the nightly reports on television (do I remember it correctly as William Woollard presenting?) shot on grainy 16 mm film (video cameras were only just starting to be used but still produced rough results compared to what we're used to now). Memories and imagery were both gritty and grainy. They left a lasting impression, especially if they were part of your formative years. You never thought you were living through history.



Stig Blomqvist driving an Audisport Quattro in the Live Action arena at Autosport International 2010, NEC Birmingham. 16 January 2010


Fast forward past the end of the Cold War, Britpop and the Conservative Lib Dem coalition. Those rally cars are still around and to be seen in action. Despite the later Toyotas and iconic Subarus taking the technology further they still impress. For sport and entertainment value that's good. They'll certainly bring a lot back. Take some photos on a modern camera. No longer gritty black and white or grainy weak colour. You have vibrant accurate colour, sharp images and no grain (ISO 6400 or higher with much less noise than ISO 400 of the time).

You may even add noise and desaturate the images for a 'retro' look. So which images do you really think capture the atmosphere?


All text and images © Keith Rowley 2021