The season consisted of thirteen rallies, including all twelve venues from 1985 plus the addition of the Olympus Rally in Washington State in the northwest United States — the first WRC event held on the western side of North America, and the only one to feature Group B competition on American soil. The December Olympus Rally was also notable for being the only WRC event staged in the United States.
By 1986 the Group B regulations, introduced in 1982, had produced some of the most extreme competition vehicles the rally world had ever seen. Mid-engined monsters such as the Lancia Delta S4 and the Ford RS200 had emerged alongside the evolution versions of the Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 and the Audi Sport Quattro. Power figures were extraordinary, traction and aerodynamics had advanced rapidly, and lap times through stages fell well below anything previously recorded.
Henri Toivonen opened the season with a dominant win at the Monte Carlo Rally in the Lancia Delta S4, establishing himself as an early title favourite. At the International Swedish Rally, Toivonen was forced to retire with engine failure and Juha Kankkunen won in his Peugeot 205 Turbo 16 E2.
At Rally Portugal, Joaquim Santos lost control of his Ford RS200 and plunged into a crowd of spectators, killing three people and injuring more than thirty. All factory team drivers immediately withdrew from the event, handing victory to local driver Joaquim Moutinho. The accident intensified debate around spectator safety and the regulation of Group B machinery.
Veteran Swede Björn Waldegård then won the Safari Rally in Kenya in a Toyota Celica TCT over Alén. The Lancia 037 was used by the team rather than the newer S4, which Lancia determined was not yet sufficiently developed for the Safari's extreme conditions.
The Tour de Corse on the French island of Corsica brought catastrophe. Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto left the road in their Lancia Delta S4, plunging down a ravine. The aluminium fuel tank ruptured and the car exploded. Both men died at the scene and there were no witnesses close enough to clearly identify the cause. The accident had no survivors and no definitive explanation was ever established.
In response, Jean-Marie Balestre and the FISA immediately froze Group B development and announced a ban on the class from 1987 onward. Audi and Ford chose to withdraw from the season entirely. Peugeot boss Jean Todt pursued legal action against the federation over the decision. The Tour de Corse itself was eventually won by Peugeot's Bruno Saby following the retirements of remaining Lancia machinery — Saby's first career WRC victory.
With the factory Audi and Ford programmes withdrawn, competition for the remainder of the season centred on Peugeot and Lancia. Kankkunen won both the Acropolis Rally in Greece and the Rally New Zealand. Lancia's Miki Biasion took his debut win at Rally Argentina, edging out teammate Alén. The Finnish Rally at Jyväskylä saw Salonen and Kankkunen deliver a Peugeot 1-2, with Alén third for Lancia.
The season's most controversial episode arrived at the Rallye Sanremo, where the Italian organizers disqualified the entire Peugeot team over alleged illegal side skirts. The FIA subsequently ruled the cars had been legal and blamed the Italian organizers for the disqualification. The FISA ultimately annulled the Sanremo results entirely.
The manufacturers' title was confirmed for Peugeot before the season's close, but the drivers' championship was not resolved until the RAC Rally in Wales and England. Salonen won that final European round with Alén second and Kankkunen third — a result that gave Kankkunen enough points to secure the title over Alén. The Olympus Rally in the United States closed out the season, with Alén winning and Kankkunen finishing second.
The 1986 season was the only year in which the FIA issued a separate World Championship for Drivers of Group A Cars. Swede Kenneth Eriksson, driving a Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V, took the title ahead of Austrian Rudi Stohl in an Audi Coupé Quattro. The championship was rendered unnecessary from 1987 onward when Group A cars became the primary class for WRC competition.
The 1986 season is remembered above all as the end of the Group B era. The deaths of Toivonen and Cresto at Corsica, combined with the spectator fatalities in Portugal, made the continuation of Group B cars politically untenable. The cars of 1986 — particularly the Peugeot 205 T16 E2, the Lancia Delta S4, and the Ford RS200 — are widely regarded as some of the most extraordinary competition vehicles ever produced. The season also marked the passing of a regulatory philosophy that had prioritised performance above almost all else, a philosophy that was not revisited at this level of severity in subsequent decades.
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