Former Mazda factory rally team driver Ingvar Carlsson has died at the age of 62

The Swede, who won two World Championship rallies in 1989, passed away last week after a short illness. Carlsson was born on 2 April 1947 in Orebro, the same town where eight months earlier Stig Blomqvist, the 1984 World Rally Champion, was born.

Carlsson began his rallying career in the late 1960s, tackling national rallies at the wheel of a Volvo PV544. Having established himself as one of Sweden’s leading drivers, he was offered factory team drives with BMW (2001 Ti), Datsun (260Z) Fiat (Abarth 124) and Mercedes (450 SLC) on many rounds of the WRC, but especially the rounds in Sweden and Great Britain.

However Carlsson was best known for his seven-year association with the Mazda World Championship Rally Team he joined in 1984.

Initially he played a key role in developing the short-lived rear-wheel drive Group B RX-7, but from 1985 he worked on the development of its successor – the four-wheel drive Group A 323 4WD – which made its WRC debut, with Carlsson at the wheel, on the 1986 Monte Carlo.

The Mazda always struggled against rival Group A cars from Lancia and Ford, introduced in 1987 after the banning of Group B cars, but in 1989 Carlsson took the 323 4WD to two rally wins. His first WRC victory came at home on Rally Sweden, when he was 41 years old, while the second was achieved on the other side of the world on Rally New Zealand.

Carlsson stayed with Mazda for the next two years, but retired when the Japanese manufacturer pulled the plug on its rally programme at the end of the 1991 season.

source: wrc.com