Older WRCars are becoming cheaper but; they are hard to set up, maintain and get the best out of.
I really hope the new R5 class will look good, sound good, be challenging to drive, easy to set up and cheap to buy !!!!
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Older WRCars are becoming cheaper but; they are hard to set up, maintain and get the best out of.
I really hope the new R5 class will look good, sound good, be challenging to drive, easy to set up and cheap to buy !!!!
You can only hope. :D
In this days you didn't have to go to some M-sport to buy a car, there were tuners around to prepare it for much less money (just like M-sport when they started):
CUNICO - SCALVINI FORD ESCORT COSWORTH GR.A - YouTube
Is it possible to take a FIA homologations papers and to prepare WRC car in some tuner's workshop?
Looking closely on wrc history, apart some few exceptions, and Borehams customer policy was a huge one, rally top cars were always prepared by manus themselves or a restricted number of selected tuners. That's a normal procedure in order to get technical and economical control over their rally programmes and lets not forget these programmes happens in order to sell street cars.
In GrA days if you wanted a competitive Delta you had to go to Abarth, a winner Celica could only be supllied by TTE, the same with Prodrives Legacys and Imprezas, not to mention Ralliarts virtual exclusivity on Galants and Lancers.
Even considering that 1.6tWRC was a good move from FIA in order to regain manufectureurs interest over the main series, there are serious concerns about the sport development.
The low number of homologated cars in Gr.R it's dramatic. It's not a question of remarking the lack of asiatic manus, because even european makes seems reluctant to homologate rally cars.
We don't need manus to homologate their full range of veichules, as in Gr1 or GrA early days, but having only 15 cars from a single hand of makes reveals FIA's inhability to democratize the sport.
It's urgent to simplify Gr.R rules and promote R5 over manufactureurs, in order to get a decent N4/S2000 replacement and spread amateurs rallying choice over the world.
I agree, that's my problem with the current regs. If I want a Fiesta WRC, there's only one place to buy it. Completely wrong......But they're not going to change the regs, are they? Business and making money comes before the health of the sport.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barreis
The sport isn't as attractive to Manufacturers as it once was....hence the lack of homologated cars.
And, as I always say, national championships in many countries where they used to be strong are now of no consequence whatsoever.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
+1 I agree. You can also see it in APRC. I think they were affected when people like Possum Bourne and Kenneth Eriksson could not longer enter factory world rally cars. Much less spectacular in some ways but still fun to follow.
Mitch, you've lost your way with this post.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mitch555
I think you're confusing what's happened in Australia with the rest of the region where things are, and have been, quite different.
In reality Aussie shot it's bolt years ago, all it's own doing. You found the biggest rock to stand on and, in typical Aussie style, shouted to anyone within earshot that you had "the best domestic championship in the world".
On the other side of the ditch we went about our business with a wry smile knowing that you were wrong.
Believing your own press you engaged the manufacturers which disenfranchised anyone who couldn't play at that level ... which was the majority. Then, when the manufacturers had enough of being milked as the cash cow, they walked and you were left staring at empty fields.
Mirek is absolutely correct.
The FIA provide a platform for competition sanctioned by themselves. What occurs in domestic series is the domain of the individual ASNs which can choose to follow an FIA formula or do something entirely different.
The fact that few manufacturers outside of Europe homologate cars is not the fault of the FIA. The facility is there for them to do so should they feel the desire. The issue is that the countries, or regions, you speak about haven't created the environment that would entice a manufacturer to go through the process.
The fault here is at local level. And it may not necessarily be the failure to entice manufacturers to homologate through the FIA but rather the failure to recognise our differences with the European scene and tailor the sport accordingly, either within, or independant of, FIA involvement.
The S2000 was a formula which, had it been adopted as the WRC spec, could have brought more privateer involvement at the top level and encouraged manufacturers along. In my view it is an opportunity lost.
Nevertheless, in New Zealand competitors are perhaps more selective about where and how they play than previously however the sport remains strong and, with sensible management, will actually grow. The Hayden Paddon effect is certainly not doing any harm but he is the creation of a strong sport, not the reverse.
New Zealand and Australia have done themselves no favours clinging to the WRC round which, while nice to have, has exposed our sport to political machinations we could well have done without and has locked us in to an FIA mindset. That has, and always will have, it's proponents and it's detractors.
When all is said and done, the biggest threat to the sport of rallying in this country is not money, nor officialdom, nor policy. It is simply the continued access to suitable venues which becomes more and more difficult every year. If we can maintain that the sport will live as long as they continue to make cars with a wheel in each corner.
Yep, R category cars are the way to go. Lets hope the FIA are strong now to say NO to Citroen and M Sports requests for body kitted and 4wd converted cars like S2000, World Rally Car and Regional Rally Car.Quote:
Originally Posted by AndyRAC
Sorry, I've only just come back to this thread, and ought earlier to have commented on a most interesting and well-thought-out post by sollitt, much of which I agree with.
A few points, though.
Where, given what you say in relation to Australia, does the fault lie in relation to national championships in other countries which are also shadows of their former selves? Yes, national federations could decide to go down a route different to that followed by the WRC in terms of the cars used, but I believe this is the last thing the sport needs, for if public and media interest is to be built and maintained it is surely difficult to do so with machinery 'inferior' to that run at the top level. This, to me, is where the FIA's stewardship of the sport has gone wrong, especially in allowing costs to rise quite so much and not taking into account the effect this would have on the wider sport. The problems that have afflicted the WRC are, in my view, symptomatic of a wider malaise which includes the poor state of many national championships.Quote:
Originally Posted by sollitt
In mine, too, for the reasons given above.Quote:
Originally Posted by sollitt
It is a concern in the UK, too. But all of this is rather academic, surely, if there is no interest in seeing the cars run at those venues that are available, by virtue of poor entries and just a few top-level runners?Quote:
Originally Posted by sollitt
Hi all
First time on here so hello to all. I was on the start of SS1 for the Severn Valley yesterday and we had no marshals throughout the stage we had just over the minimum of radio cars who doubled as marshals. This to me is the biggest threat to all Motorsport in the uk as the cost of getting to events as a volunteer marshal is expensive and without marshals you can't hold the event no matter what discipline or location