Saving Group B: Meet the man who can revive your 205 T16

One infamously fluid area of its regulation was the policing of the mandatory 200 road car registrations needed to homologate each Group B competitor.

Perhaps nowadays car makers could easily make a healthy profit with the promise of rarity and artisanal construction, but the mid-1980s presented a different landscape.

Rumours of teams producing far fewer road cars than necessary and creatively subverting inspections to avoid FIA reprimand are rife.

Fewer cars to buy means higher values now and the desire of owners to properly fettle theirs as they roll out of hibernation. Which poses a conundrum for anyone looking to sympathetically tickle the performance or refinement of cars that weren't quite as untamed as their stickered-up siblings.

"Originality equals value, but anything is possible if you want to pay to do it," says Tolman.

"Fitting a modern engine management system unlocks a lot more performance, drivability and safety. Tyres and dampers have obviously undergone big changes in the past 40 years too. Generally speaking, Group B cars are racing cars, so their geometry is good, but they're still using a damper from the 1980s.

"We converted an RS200 to modern management, but it meant we had to change a lot of parts. We kept all of the originals and we even made a new wiring loom that plugged into the existing one, ensuring the work could be reversed, although I don't think anybody is ever going to put it back to original."

Wish to throw values to the wind in pursuit of bona fide Group B performance for the road? That's on the table too.

The darling of Tolman's affection, the 205 T16, produced around 200bhp in road-going spec for 0-62mph in 6.0sec figures half as impressive as those for the Peugeot Talbot Sport car that scooped consecutive WRC titles.

"They're all turbocharged and they were all built for it," affirms Tolman. "You can pretty much do anything you would like. Once you start putting five or six-hundred horsepower into them, they're ridiculously quick cars. And with no driver aids. Start pushing big numbers through them and they are terrifying."

As values soar, it's surely no surprise that Group B specials of any output are typically squirrelled away for winter. "Most people are quite scared of road salt and wet weather, which is ironic when you think about what rally cars are designed to do," smiles Tolman.

Keen to tap up his services? Allow up to 12 months for a full restoration and a budget potentially into six figures.

"If you want to keep it original," he explains, "you're talking about stripping the car down completely to make everything work safely and putting it back together without changing anything.

"It's a bit like art: the person who created the painting did it for next to nothing. Hundreds of years later it's worth millions of pounds. So how long does the person repairing it spend, and at what cost?"