How do you see the future of rally?

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Originally Posted by sollitt

You can bring the costs of the car down without completely throwing the baby out the window. Rallying is about innovation and inventiveness. It is also an exciting form of motor racing and cars should look and sound like racing cars.
Dumb it down to a production category and nobody will come. National series which have gone this way are testament to that.

In reality, do you know that it is the cost of engineering and production of the car which deters manufacturers, or is it the cost of infrastructure, manpower, compliance and logistics which won't reduce regardless of the formula?
What assurances are there that a reduction in the cost of the car will bring a wider entry?

I'm not saying nothing should change, but if you think bland, production based formulae are the panacea you are really on a different planet.

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Not on a different planet, I just have a different opinion to you, thats all ;)

Why you take seriously posts from Navtheace and plan9 ??? these guys are a bit strange, posting random stuff without any reason behind them...leave them alone to short their heads out....don't argue...

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Originally Posted by navtheace

It's time for a new start with rallying now.

1. Cancel body kitting - Road car bodywork only
2. No changes to driven wheels - As the road car is sold
3. No changes on engine to add turbo - Only if road car has it

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And what kind of engine cc limit? As if for example the WRC truned into a load of R3 DS3s then even less people would watch and it really would be the death of the sport!

We have all heard how Jean Todt wants to return to the old days with rallying, with longer linear routes and move away from the cloverleaf format which lets face it was the David Richards ISC formula. Now Jean Todt has not had it all his own way, with the current manufacturers (especially Ford?) favouring the paddock club type service park arrangements. A lot of us thought its going to get messy, with no doubt the manufacturers threatening to quit unless they have it their way. Now with the Antonov episode, NOS in administration, Eurosport seemingly gone cold (well they do have a vested interest in IRC) if FIA WRC dies as a championship will it be a convenient ?

What's the betting on a "new WRC" for teams / privateers being launched, quite possibly a soft merger with IRC so that Monte is in, that way a teams cup, non manufacturer powerbased championship will never threaten F1, and can live in the spirit of Jean Todt's WRC era, i.e. long routes, night stages, less service park paddock etc.

Is the current crisis the end game in killing off everything the DR era stood for?
I wonder if the future premier rally series will have Monte Carlo, Corsica, and San Remo as rounds?
Funny how this all happened after the jewel in the crown event of Monte finished.
In hindsight maybe this should have been posted in rally future media thread - if so can a moderator please move it?

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Originally Posted by Allyc85

And what kind of engine cc limit? As if for example the WRC truned into a load of R3 DS3s then even less people would watch and it really would be the death of the sport!

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In manufacturer competition it almost doesn't matter if the car is 1.0 FWD Toyota Aygo or the same car rebuild to two meters wide 3.0V6 RWD. Manufacturers will spend all their budget on it anyway.

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Originally Posted by Mirek

Do You really believe that making rules back to gr.A days would make manufacturers willing to spent billions on road-going rallycars which with the exception of the two Japanese died all over the planet? The answer is no, sorry. Things have changed.

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It's called R categories. As in make them the only categories you can rally and manufacturers will not need to spend anything.

Rallying now has to adjust to the road cars manufacturers currently make, ie let R1, R2, R3, R4 and R-GT be the only categories for rallying and watch the manufacturers adjust themselves.

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Originally Posted by navtheace

It's called R categories. As in make them the only categories you can rally and manufacturers will not need to spend anything.

Rallying now has to adjust to the road cars manufacturers currently make, ie let R1, R2, R3, R4 and R-GT be the only categories for rallying and watch the manufacturers adjust themselves.

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So again. You can build competitive R4 from two single cars in the world which are hardly more than last mohycans in a world which turned to another era. Any other manufacturer who would want to make something competitive against these two would have to spend billions in development, manufacturing, service, promotion, staff training etc. for a car which in current world can't make any profit and moreover makes problems with emission standards, corporate emission limits, too high fuel consumption. As a cherry on top of the cake is that most of the parts developed and manufactured for this car are useless for any other car. That's completely opposite to what manufacturers try - as much standardization across their portfolio as possible.

I agree that Your idea is nice but it's utopia in the year 2012. What must be found is real solution, not dreams.

Listening to Jean Todt's press conference in Monaco I thought it sounded really good and I really hope that his influence and attempts to get back to the "old" idea of rallying can come to fruition. I think the problem lies with the manufacturers and as we saw the comments from both Ford and Citroen about Monte being too long and having too many extra days which don't give anything extra for them in terms of extra exposure for the sake of it. I suppose I'd reluctantly have to agree with that, but again it is all down to the TV coverage to show the cars off on. The current issues really don't help, but if the teams were to get, say, 20% extra exposure on tv for an extra day of a rally then I hope they would think it would be worthwhile.

Certainly from my own personal (and purely selfish spectating) point of view, I would love for events to be longer with chances to go to watch more stages, and long for a "safari" type event. I was at the Classic Safari Rally last November and it was 2100km of stages (4000km total) in 10 days, and that was something very special indeed which will stay with me forever.

As for the cars, I don't mind too much what is used as long as it is NOT Group N, I have no time for them!! :s

Only good thing in this whole situation is that there's no more Quesnell. :D

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Originally Posted by Barreis

Only good thing in this whole situation is that there's no more Quesnell. :D

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Hahaha! +1 :up: