Quote Originally Posted by Fast Eddie WRC View Post
Talking of levels of professionalism, remember when the Teams each had spotter helicopters in the Group B days. The costs were crazy and the modern teams do it on the cheap in comparison.
Let's do a comparison table

Number of events - now 14, then you could only count 7 best from 12-13.
Length of an event - now 300-350 km, then 500-1000 km (and then the African rallies were something else)
Number of tyres allowed - now 32 per rally per car, in two compounds - back then you could change all tyres after every stage, in unlimited types and compounds.
Number of services - roughly two hours per day, back then a quick service between every stage
Type of service - now persistent service park with lots of buildings that take days to put up and tear down, back then the service vans ran after the rally cars
Recce length - now 2 days, back then unlimited, typically several weeks
Testing days - now basically one day per driver per rally, back then teams had dedicated test drivers doing long test periods and tyres had to be tested separately
Limited parts - Only three engines per season is now allowed - back then no limits.

the list goes on...