The best things to do rallying in are small

[Flynn]

Well, sadly it looks like the demise of the times when sports cars and small saloons used to go rallying, and now there are new kids on the block: small hatchbacks. Every major player has now gone with the hatchback formula, but this begs the question; what is there to stop them from going one step smaller!? Could we soon see the W.R.C. full of superminis dancing around? :eek: The manufacturers and (understandably) drivers want to win no matter what the car they use to win the rallies looks like. It has just been a coincidence that almost everything that has gone rallying these days has had basic good looks enabling it to look awesome with a W.R.C. body kit on it.

[Mirek]

Small cars have all pros on their side. Less mass, less innertia, bigger sales etc. As the passive safety of road cars is growing the mass is growing as well and in our days it is much harder to make the car as light as FIA limits allow.

But anyway don't forget all cars are growing up and today's small hatches as Peugeot 207 are far larger than for example Golf II which was in a higher class those days. Peugeot 206 was in production version more than 150 mm shorter than 207. It is not that bad as it looks overal. Anyway there still must be some volume in the car to place the engine, gearbox, differentials, the crew and keeping some safety. I don't think we could see even smaller cars than we see now in S2000 class. WRC class has minimum length 4000 mm but Peugeot 206 was about 3850 so they used biiig bumpers (Fabia was also smaller than 4000 mm in basic variant). S2000 cars have minimum 3900 mm but so far noone used a car which is in production variant smaller than the limit (Polo is the smallest with 3916 mm, Punto 4030 mm, 207 also 4030 mm).

[OldF]

IMO there could be different weight limits so as the manufacturer could use any car as a WRC car. It seems that all future WRC cars based on S2000 will be small cars. Allowing bigger restrictor for more power for bigger cars would give us more variety. Keeping the weight / power ratio equal would make any car competitive.

[jonkka]

]Small cars have all pros on their side.

Except one, small cars are mostly very ugly.

[jonkka]

Keeping the weight / power ratio equal would make any car competitive.

Actually no. There's more to being competitive than mere power to weight ratio. Smaller overhangs mean straighter lines through tight bends. The closer the mass is to centre of gravity (cog) the nimbler the car is (ask Pentti about polar inertia, one of his favourite topics). However, larger car does allow freedom with component placement, something that was a big problem with 206WRC, Peugeot engineers had to put stuff where it fit, not where they optimally would have wanted those to be.

[Zico]

Actually no. There's more to being competitive than mere power to weight ratio. Smaller overhangs mean straighter lines through tight bends. The closer the mass is to centre of gravity (cog) the nimbler the car is (ask Pentti about polar inertia, one of his favourite topics). However, larger car does allow freedom with component placement, something that was a big problem with 206WRC, Peugeot engineers had to put stuff where it fit, not where they optimally would have wanted those to be.

Thats it in a nutshell... the teams have to balance the pros and cons of chassis design and wheelbase size within the technical constraints of the WRC regs, the advantages of a smaller car are offset by the weight distribution and PMI penalties due to the very reasons mentioned above.

[OldF]

I don’t think the overhang itself has so big effect on the drivability of a car but if that space is filled with heavy components like fuel tank, radiator etc. it certain have. There was a good article of PMI in VM 13/2004.

[Zico]

I don’t think the overhang itself has so big effect on the drivability of a car but if that space is filled with heavy components like fuel tank, radiator etc. it certain have. There was a good article of PMI in VM 13/2004.

Whats VM? If possible Id love to read that..

[OldF]

Whats VM? If possible Id love to read that..

VM = Vauhdin Maailma is a Finnish motor sport magazine. Sorry, only in Finnish.

[Flynn]

Except one, small cars are mostly very ugly.
Agreed.

Yes, the compnents should be more comfortably available to drivers because they always need it in a emergency purpose, and in smaller cars its main drawback of component placing. Eventhough its not tough job for skilled professional driver