B9GLY

Another terrible rally for him! good position and threw it away!

noobscoob

Pah i don't watch rally no more..least not the WRC. its like formula one on gravel. the cars are so detached from their road going models now it doesnt intrest me .

bring back the days when colin mcrea used to drive a gc8 round with a 5 speed manual box now that was worth sitting up till 3 am for.

RUDDY

the rally is getting very disapointing!
we want Burns back
rally gb gets worse every year too!

B9GLY

plus, i love the way it has been ditched to ITV4 lol

nardoblue

iTrader: (1)

Sack Solberg.
I think we should get a petition up and get the looser kicked out

marmski

I really think the WRC needs to be run by a stonger organisation, and completely agree that the cars featured should resemble their road going counterparts in most major areas.

Focus with 4WD? Citreon with 4WD?

Would be awesome if the Manufacturers like Ford and Citreon were actually forced to produce a limited run of these 4WD beasts just so they could compete.

Credit to Subaru and Mitsi for actually producing a car that is fairly close to the rally variant.

Engine (Size and Stoke should be the same as Retail) (Uprated Internals allowed though)
Drivetrain (Base plan should be the same) (Modified gearing / Internals allowed)

It would be alot more fun if this was the case, and we would have some pretty awesome motors to sit alongside the Imprezas and Evos on the road as rally inspired road cars.

scotthldr

Can't blame the driver for what is basically a sh*t car, the Hawkeye just hasn't made it as a rally machine. If they were to sack him who would people like to replace him with? I would like to see brother Henning behind the wheel

EV2

So what your saying is go back to the Group A days of the late 80s early 90s.

The only problem with this is enviromental concerns and the costs of producing road cars to meet the CO2 regulations,This is going to be tightened even more in the future, We would lose the manufacturers as the cost of building road going versions on what is a niche market to prohibitive for most,I think for a car to be holomogated into Group A there had to be 5000 examples but i may be wrong on that,The ford Escort cossie was a victim of this.
Subaru and the EVO has survived because the jap market demanded it, The Euro manufacturers are not so compliant.
WRC cars are cheap to develope and run in terms not having to produce road going versions, and more manufacturers will be joining the WRC during the year, wait for 2008 with the new scooby in the pipeline things might change.

Personally I dont like the new sprint format that WRC rallys now run to,They are sprint cars now and not rally cars, bring back the 4 day and night events that tested Man and machine and get rid of pace notes, and reduce the calender to 8-10 events.

craigdmcd

iTrader: (2)

EV2, you are right, bring back longer rallies, that don't use the same stages over and over again.
As for the cars, it is natural evolution to change and go faster, and even when you simplify the rules to allow less development, it always eventually will end up the same again.
Mr Solbergs (Jnr) biggest problem is that he cannot realise when he is fighting a losing battle that should be conceded to gain valuable championship points. This though is a trait that made Colin McRae the hero that he is (think how many more championships he, Subaru and Ford would have won if HE had screwed the head on a few more rallies!!!). I just wish Petter would realise that a top 6 is better than a DNF.
Nobody really remembers who won a individual rally, but a championship is a different matter

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Very true!

KiwiGTI

The WRC has pretty much been destroyed from what it used to be. the organisers have taken much of the "spirit" as they can out of it and tried to turn it into some trendy corporate type thing, which hasn't worked.

Stage re-use sucks and the way that they often try to herd spectators into tiny little spots, expect you to stay all day there to watch the cars come back, and then charge you a ridiculous amount of money for it.

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

You know - if Citroen made a 4wd turbo car I probably wouldn't have the Impreza now. I am unashamed to admit that I loved my little Saxo, and sorely wish that I could have continued Citroen ownership. Screaming around in a 4wd Turbo Zsara or C4

Has to be said that there was a column in Evo I think last month pleading for the return to the days where WRC and BTCC were common(ish) with road going cars. If only that would happen.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

The WRC for me has now turned into a sprint rather than it being a rally as such, i watched an interview where Malcom Wilson talked about the changes to rallying over the years and he said their is far less influence from the driver now than their was back in the days when rallying was rallying.

Only 3 manufacturers can win the constructors title these days so the results are getting as predictable as forumla 1.

An idea for me to test to see who is the best driver would be to have the drivers appearing in each of the manufacturers cars throughout the season, i have no idea how you would do it but it certainly would make for better viewing and it would be interesting to see how each driver got on in a different car.

You would get a true world champion that way rather than the cars having a large say in who is the best driver.

urban

iTrader: (1)

OK, the group N version is.

The WRC car - well I suppose it looks the same as the road car, but that's about it really?

Shaun

monkeyboy840

i rememebr such a rule it was either 500 or 5000 as you stated. delaers had to be able to sell you that general transmission/engine and general body shape for it to be able to compete.

i remember the renault megane wide arch because there were a couple of road versions round here when i was young.

must admit though I watched the rac revival rally the other day with ford compteing in a 'works' stobart mk1 escort. the rally was excellent. loads of tail sliding. back to what it used to be. there was even a rear wheel drive gartrak escort competing.

marmski

The drivetrain and engine layout is also the same. (which as detailed is the minimun it should need to be)

Subaru and Mitsi manage it... the other manufacturers should be forced to do the same. Maybe the Euro demand needs to be expressed in a Japanese way?

To say in todays world we cant make a car that can meet the ever tougher CO2 regulations is a joke. Their are many alternative fuels around now beside petrol.. the problem is that no-one is being forced to use it yet... and development will continue to be at snail's pace until someone does.

Try this as an example: Tesla Motors

If a small company in the states can produce this for the road... then a large company in Europe can produce a version that could dominate WRC.

WRC needs to be pushing the envolope again, and making our road going versions evolve with it... not going after hybrd motors that have no benefit or effect on the cars we spend our hard earned on.

F1 technology in a Ferrari, i want WRC technology in a Ford/Citreon thanks.. whatever it may be.

rallying1

Unfortunatly as some of you have already touched on , Petter was trying too hard in an old car!! simple as that really. Chris Atkinson will never set the world alight with his driving but he is a steady guy who is quick enough to grab a few points here and there for the team.

To be honest I was completely priced out of rallying a few years ago now and only do a few events in a friends car to keep my hand in, but when I was competing all the time I used to mix it with all of the 'big names' Jimmy Mccrae, Tony Pond, Russel Brookes, Malcolm Wilson, (am I showing my age yet) but anyway you would see these guys on a lot of events.

The trouible now is the evil media and how it destroys grass roots sport. They wont cover 4-5 day events anymore it costs too much, they now pull the strings big time, so do the sponsors of the major teams, for instance how often do you see positions 5-10 thoughout the event unless they are factory cars??? NEVER!

My other passion is rugby and they have even started on that now, I never went to a game 3 years ago that started at 4pm or whatever, but now Sky telly are in there the teams have to pander to when they can fit them in the schedule, pee's me off big time.

The thing is though if you want to see rallying at its best, get off yer butts when you can and get out and watch a UK event for real, there are still a lot of good events being run by Motor Clubs throughout the UK, contact your local Motor Club and find out where they are.

GazTheHat

Similar to the race of champions then.

Rob_Impreza99

iTrader: (3)

Yeh along that line, to me the WRC has got very predictable and it needs spicing up in some way. I just think that the best driver especially these days does not win the world title which is similar in F1, it would be great viewing to see the drivers tested in different manufacturers cars throughout the season.

The manufacturers would still be fighting for their title in the same way but the drivers skills would be more tested in driving another package which will test their skills a lot more than it would do being in the best car for the whole of the season. We know it wouldn`t happen but it would be great viewing if it did.

rpw

thats one thing that was winding me up watching it last night was the fact that he admitted that he made the mistake but the commentator liked to keep muttering the fact that there waiting for the new impreza! if he made a mistake then he made a mistake its nothin to to with what car he was driving. i have a thread on here about someone who hit my car yesterday in a van if he had turned round to me and said damn it if i was driving my car instead this would never had happened i would probably of let him off, not!! lol

daddyscoob

Subaru need to get Loeb behind the wheel he would be awesome and put Subaru back on top.

Nicci

Petter is making too many mistakes regardless of how good or bad the car is.

I hope he sorts himself out soon (and I miss his cheerful interviews).

B9GLY

i think solberg is a great guy when interviewed etc, he just needs to bloody finish! how many times has he crashed in the last 2 seasons???? doesnt matter how bad the car is, i bet its alot better than some of the others but they manage not to crash?

scoobynutta555

I've been saying for years that the WRC cars are too far removed from what the ordinary guy on the street can get from a dealers. Ok even 10-15 years ago there was a big difference between what was rallied and what was sold in showrooms, but I suspect that gap is nothing like it is now.

I gave up watching WRC rallying years ago, I have no interest in it what-so-ever now and couldn't even tell you who won the championship for the last few years, and don't even care if Subaru win anything. As for the poster above saying go and watch the smaller events, I recommend it, much more fun and less commercial.

GazTheHat

Good post. (and i agree!)

SirFozzalot

It's interesting to see that when he won the 2003 Drivers Championship he actually only won 4 events that season. Solberg just needs to finish some rallies.