[WRC] News & rumours (part II)

[RS]

I believe next year will be very exciting because of the amount of changes of teams and drivers. If drivers develops and suits into their new teams we might see a bit more competition than in 2013. Also I believe Hyundai will be very strong from the beginning of the year which underscores my prediction of 2014.

I believe it will be more interesting and exciting than this year, but I also believe Ogier and VW will be champions again at the end of the year.

[PLuto]

I believe next year will be very exciting because of the amount of changes of teams and drivers. If drivers develops and suits into their new teams we might see a bit more competition than in 2013. Also I believe Hyundai will be very strong from the beginning of the year which underscores my prediction of 2014.

I am afraid Hyundai will not be so strong from the beginning...

[janvanvurpa]

I believe next year will be very exciting because of the amount of changes of teams and drivers. If drivers develops and suits into their new teams we might see a bit more competition than in 2013. Also I believe Hyundai will be very strong from the beginning of the year which underscores my prediction of 2014.

ÄÄÄäääsch tror int'.
Looking back, every time teams from Asia decide to do everything themselves it is a katastrof. Or 'une grand bordell'
Look back at Mazda, then especially Nissan with their GTI-R. wrong wrong wron, heavy, no power more in the Group A than the Group N, complicated...and no results so they quit...
Look how Hyundai themselves did when they were last around....tsk tsk tsk, inte vackert, pojke.
From the propaganda i read, they seemed to be saying "We do everything in house" I guess only thing we can say what they say in California: Like, whatever, dude.

And of course rotsa rucka

[tommeke_B]

Completely disagree with you janvanvurpa. Except for Mazda all you typed is BS imho. How about Mitsubishi and Toyota?
Hyundai WRT in early 2000's was run by MSD and has no relation to the current team. The team is based in Germany, they recruited many talented people who already gained experience in other (factory) teams, so the knowhow is there. Being one of the biggest manufacturers in the world, money can't be an issue either. It reminds me about TTE (Toyota Team Europe) in fact.

[dimviii]

Completely disagree with you janvanvurpa. Except for Mazda all you typed is BS imho. How about Mitsubishi and Toyota?
Hyundai WRT in early 2000's was run by MSD and has no relation to the current team. The team is based in Germany, they recruited many talented people who already gained experience in other (factory) teams, so the knowhow is there. Being one of the biggest manufacturers in the world, money can't be an issue either. It reminds me about TTE (Toyota Team Europe) in fact.

agree.

[janvanvurpa]

Completely disagree with you janvanvurpa. Except for Mazda all you typed is BS imho. How about Mitsubishi and Toyota?
Hyundai WRT in early 2000's was run by MSD and has no relation to the current team. The team is based in Germany, they recruited many talented people who already gained experience in other (factory) teams, so the knowhow is there. Being one of the biggest manufacturers in the world, money can't be an issue either. It reminds me about TTE (Toyota Team Europe) in fact.

Oh for chirst sakes. Ove Anderson TTE operation was Asian ? All the accents I heard were all Swedish and English when talking to them at WRC events. Andrew Cowan from Rugby was Japanese? Dave Richards, I though he was English? Gartrac is in Surrey,

I said "What I have read--propaganda---they said they will do EVERYTHING in house"..
That is the gist the essence of what I have READ..
Don't say BS.. that's rude..
Now what I read MAY be BS...now way of knowing who is going to do engine development for them, who will make suspension for them---I said when JAPANESE/Asians have retained control, it has been......"
I am speaking in the LONG term--all the back in the old days of Group 1/2/4 into the Group B days and the early Group A days.
Until the factories hired experienced English and Swedes, they did very little results and a lot of wrong things.

But what I have SEEN both in this sport and in the sport I did so seriously years ago is what I said...when it comes to that eventually ALL the Japanese motorcycle companies ALL hired Swedes --who were all ex-Husqvarna people--to do development on their MX bikes--only after 3-5 years of this were the Japanese bikes sold to the public any good for the job.
Same thing...The competition at home is simply not intense enough that the engineering staff and the designers have grown up understanding how hard it is...

Thus they hire experienced Europeans, then things happen.

We'll see. No need to call BS

[Rallyper]

I guess it´s not about who´s doing what. It´s about brands and they are one more next year. And drivers swapped between teams. Some newcomers and some who hasn´t had the opportunity to do full season until now. That´s what I call exciting. And you´ll have to agrre many things has changed for next year.

I do think the Japanese/Korean carmakers has understood it´s not just coming and winning. Huyndai for sure has a bit another focus this time. Let´s hopr they´ll succeed.

And John, Mazda did win a lot, only Huyndai did a miserable try last time. This time they have a quite different approach...

BTW, nice to hear from you mate Janvanvurpa. Hur mås det?

[Mirek]

Janvanvurpa, almost all You wrote is soooo much misinformed that it hurts.

First You write about how Asian companies who decided to do all themselves failed and than You name Hyundai first attempt while that one was exact opposite. They did nothing themselves that time!

Than You answer to Tom that what they do now is different to what TTE did. No, it is not different. In fact it is totally same. What they did? They created a European based team (same as TTE), hired all best possible people mostly Europeans (same as TTE) and gave them virtually unlimited resources (same as TTE).

Hyundai team principal is French Michel Nandan (he was co-creator of Peugeot 206, 307 WRC and also underfunded Suzuki SX4 WRC), technical director is French Bertrand Vallat (co-creator of 206, 307 WRC, 207 S2000, 208 R5, and I believe also Citroën cars C4 and DS3 WRC and DS3 R5). Another team manager is Belgian Alain Penasse who is another quite well known person in the rally world. Further as far as I know some dozen of people left Škoda Motorsport for Hyundai (from Škoda alone!), most of them were external guys and the best known one is Belgian Yannick Willocx (car engineer who came with Loix and later worked with Hänninen, Kopecký and Lappi).

Which test drivers they hired at the start? Hänninen and Bouffier. Hänninen worked on Fabia S2000 and Polo WRC development. Bouffier on all PSA cars.

Now let's have a look on what they use...

There was a lot of pressure to use Hankook tyres as the company is global partner for Hyundai but hey, there are Michelins on the WRC. Why? Because they are the best. Which electronics they use? Italian Magnetti-Marelli which is without doubts one of the very best suppliers in the world. Which dampers they chose? Dutch Reiger. Why? Because those are well known as perfectly suiting for rallying. Which transmission they use? British X-Trac. Which brakes? Italian Brembo. Who prepares the engine? I don't know who does it now but at least at the start it was French Pipo Moteurs.

Another example that they know what they are doing... They have stock 1.6 turbo engine, pretty good one I have to say (over 200 Hp in stock variant) but they decided for a purpose built unit made new from scratch. Why? Because it's better for racing use, especially for reliability and for better bore/stroke ratio. VW and Citroën use purpose built short stroke units. M-Sport has engine based on stock two liter I believe (so they could shorten the stroke to something similar to VW and Citroën) while Mini (BMW) based the engine on stock long stroke 1.6T EP6CDT with completely opposite bore/stroke ratio to all others.

[vkangas]

Who prepares the engine? I don't know who does it now but at least at the start it was French Pipo Moteurs.

According to VM the current one should be in-house-built unit right now. Previous versions were by Pipo before they got their own operations running.

Mirek spot on in general - as usual . Hyundai does the right things to be very successful 2015-->.

[Mirek]

Thanks