How do you see the future of rally?

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Originally Posted by J4MIE

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.

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I too would agree with it, but largely on the grounds that the two extra days added very little to the challenge of the event. To me, if a rally is to be long it needs to have the stage mileage to match (and without too much repetition, too.)

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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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I couldn't agree more, though while pure production cars may be dull in rallying terms, I think there is a place for retaining the link between competition cars and production models through homologation. Group A, in itself, was not a bad formula.

Agreed.

Yes defo :)

GpA was an excellent formula. When it was around, no manufacturer complained about not being able to put on a body kit. They rallied what they sold as the road car.

They complained and that's why WRC formula was created. It wasn't a whim of FIA.

It was in days when cars suitable for gr.A rules were ending their production with no successors - Escort Cosworth, Toyota Celica GT-Four or Lancia Delta Integrale.

If I remember right Ford and Peugeot were the main forces to support WRC - which turned to be one of the most successful formulas the rally world ever saw. In my opinion it later started to die not for cost reasons but for their ban in regional and national championships.

Group A was much better then WRC. In Italy it was at least 10 tuners for making very good group A cars. 300 000 DEM (150 000euros) was excellent group A escort cosworth. Now nothing.

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Originally Posted by Barreis

Group A was much better then WRC. In Italy it was at least 10 tuners for making very good group A cars. 300 000 DEM (150 000euros) was excellent group A escort cosworth. Now nothing.

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OK. Now tell me from which Ford You would build a gr.A car from in 1998? By that time Cossie was history and Ford didn't plan anything like that for the future. Development of Focus started many years before and I believe it was since the beginning developed as FWD only.

From focus ST with 4wd. :D

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Originally Posted by Barreis

From focus ST with 4wd. :D

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A serious answer, please.

You just don't see the causality. 4WD sport cars didn't disappear because gr.A was turned into WRC but vice versa. Gr.A disappeared because car makers were no longer interested in 4WD sport cars.

Don't no but now it's so expensive top rallying.