http://homepage.ntlworld.com/timothy...arter(web).jpg
Hmm . . . tasty - but will it keep up with those cheeky 206 WRC cars next year?!

Pic courtesy of SWRT.com

NO...it won't.

Nor will it keep up with McRae in a Xara! ;) :D :D

Or even with McRae in a Xsara! :D:

what is the black pig logo on the wrc carbon fibre mirrors stand for?

What wheels are they ??

Interesting...a long wheel base car as all others are switching over to the 206 small wheel base size.

the focus is a longer wheelbase than the Impreza, always has been!

whhat should they use as a comparable 206 base then? a Justy :)

JF, correct, but isn't that one of the reasons why the Focae ( :) ) are even less competitive than Subaru against the Pugs ?

BTW, also heard that Peugeot had to slap on big silly bumpers to meet the minimum length requirements... is there any truth in that or is it b0llox ? Wich makes me wonder: are the WRC rules available anywhere on the internet ?

It's true, they had to fit bumber extensions to meet the minimum length. Seems stupid to me that the don't set a minimum wheel base rather than overall length of car.

yes, thats true theo, they did a 2500 homologation run of the 206 called the GT, only available in LHD in france. It has longer front/rear bumpers.

Wheelbase being short is not always the answer, on high speed events like Finland and Safari you want a long wheelbase for stability, on twisty events like corsica you want short wheelbase for agility.

It's just one of many hundreds of factors that determine how good the car is. As a layout, the Impreza is superior to them all, it's just that it's aplication isnt as good at the moment, prodrive have some catching up to do! It seems part of the design of the MY03 is determined by a need for improved CD, that should help on the fast events.

There were 4000 206GT's built at 4.03 meters in length for homologation... Actually a 206GTi with the bigger bumpers and fully colour coded

2500 LHD for europe and 1500 RHD for the UK..

The two door impreza was used before 2001, and was shorter but they found that it made no difference or even improved the car to have the four door. The MY01 followed suit with no two door made available. The thing they didnt think of was looks, i would like to see a two door bug eye or MY03, even a two door rally car. But i guess that the rally car designers do know what they are doing. :)

The pigs are something to do with Petter Solberg(sponsers or a mascot i think)

Scott

That logo first appeared on Toshihiro Arai's Allstars car in 2000, and transferred over to the works cars last year along with the Spike and Sammy sponsorship when Arai was promoted.

Forget exactly what it is, but pretty sure it's a Japanese company, rather than something directly connected with Solberg.



[Edited by Spooky - 9/28/2002 5:23:00 PM]

[Edited by Spooky - 9/28/2002 5:23:27 PM]

Couple of 206 GT pictures

http://www.autorevue.cz/Images/164/11.jpg
http://www.autorevue.cz/Images/164/33.jpg
http://www.autorevue.cz/Images/164/22.jpg

I think the WRC rules and regs are on the FIA.com site

Scott

[Edited by src - 9/29/2002 12:04:27 AM]

[Edited by src - 9/29/2002 12:05:52 AM]

Uh, those are some ugly pictures u hav there. THat pug makes the new rex look like the perfect car.... which it is :D

Could not agree more, Funny thing is the real 206 WRC's look better, But of course not as good as the new 2003 Impreza WRC.



[Edited by src - 9/29/2002 3:05:57 AM]

John,

"As a layout, the Impreza is superior to them all"

Do you feel this is solely due to the boxer engine? Or do you have some other reason?

Thanks, JL

Boxer engine because it lowers the CG, but more importantly as it's an inline engine it's easier to package, and less transmission losses. the other thing is because the rotational masses are at 90 degrees to the direction of travel the car tends to "fly" more evenly on the yumps.

Did you know that the transverse engine / inline gearbox used by Peugeot and Ford was actually developed by MSD (runners of the Hyundai WRC) and Xtrac for a Russian Lada Samara rally car, and paid for by the EEC foriegn aid development budget. So it just goes to show the EEC is useful for some things - but not many!!

Griff, Thanks. Whats your opinion about where the engine should sit(front-mid, mid-rear?)
What do people think about the ultimate rally design being also the perfect road car design, would it be? Or, do road car designs need to have more neutral or more progressive traits?

Thanks, JL

Like SCOOBYDOO22B, I'd like to see a 2-door rally car enter the fray, despite supposedly not having any performance advantage - so whilst I was banging around with a stinking cold, I thought I'd do this . . .
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/timothy...reequarter.jpg

You know you want one!

Good Effort, i like it, but obviosuly subaru don't......

TimC: Nice one mate! Theres a job for you at autoexpress no doubt faking spy shots!! LOL :)
Seriously, good job and yup, 2dr 03 would be niiiiice :)

Thanks fellas! Perhaps it wasn't a bad way to spend 3 hours after all!

The only problem with the 2 door is changing the rear struts, becomes a complete pain in the bottom, as you can't get at the tops easily, with the 4 door it's fairly straight forward job. SWRT actually homologated the last 2 door (P2000) with removable rear windows for this very reason.

with the current WRC regs, rally cars will continue to be front engined, as they have to be based on a 4 seat saloon shell.

the other telling factor is that front engined cars have much better transient handling charecteristics than mid-engined cars, ie they are much more adjustable on and around the limit.