Enthusia Tasso Tipo B

The **Enthusia Tasso Tipo B** is a fanonical Rally Car created by JustAlex93.

In the later games, it is re-classified as a Carlo Runner due to its RWD set-up.

## Details

Italia began development in 1980 on a new rally car for the upcoming Group B regulations for the 1982 World Rally Championship, to be the successor to the Maestro, which had dominated the rallying scene worldwide since its debut in 1976 in the Group 4 era. In a shrewd move, they invited Enthusia to co-develop the new rally car with them, aware of the 209 Rallye, which had also participated in world rally under the Group 4 regulations. The result of this alliance was the Tasso Tipo B, a mid-engined racer with a silhouette body style. Despite the fact that it was Italia that began development of the car in the first place before inviting Enthusia to collaborate with them, it was agreed that the latter's name would be attached to it.

It has subframes attached to the front and rear of the chassis. It has lightweight body made of fibreglass and kevlar with a large rear wing stabilize the car at higher speeds. The engine is a longitudinally-mounted 1,995cc 16-valve four-cylinder twin cam, the same type as the one in the Maestro, with a supercharger making 250 horsepower. The supercharger was implemented to prevent turbo lag and improve throttle response. Delivering power to the rear wheels is a 5-speed YE manual gearbox with a ceramic disc clutch.

The Tasso Tipo B made its debut in 1982, with that year having been run as a partial program to put what was essentially a basic model of the car through its paces and iron out whatever technical issues that came up. Indeed, after a 9th place finish at the 1982 Tour de Corse scored by Finnish driver Mikko Kuisma in his Tasso, the rest of the 1982 season was plagued with retirements stemming from engine failures.

With Wulff and Logan battling it out, Italia and Enthusia took the initiative to make improvements to the Tasso Tipo B in the form of the Evolution 1 model. These improvements include the switch from a carburetor to mechanical fuel injection, a new water injection system to boost power, and a new venting system with a larger supercharger to improve reliability, to which the released air is fed to a transmission cooler when the throttle is lifted. The engine's power rating now ranged from 290 to 315 bhp. The aerodynamics were also given slight improvements.

Italia and Enthusia's shared faith in the car would be rewarded in the 1983 season, when cars driven by Mikko Kuisma and Piet Waldner (signed away from Logan) gave them several victories amidst very heated battles against the Wulff Bolter, enough to give them the 1983 manufacturers' world championship title. Being a rear-wheel drive car, the Tasso Tipo B performed better and more nimbly on tarmac stages to make up for its lesser traction on dirt and gravel. In doing so, the Tasso Tipo B would become known as the last-ever RWD rally car to win in the WRC, even though the Italia-Enthusia alliance and Wulff both missed the final round of the WRC. Being a rear-wheel drive car, the Tasso Tipo B performed better and more nimbly on tarmac to make up for its lack of traction on dirt and gravel.

*MOre to be added*