Is this still the plan, for current Rally2 Cars to compete with the new 2027-spec cars ? I cant remember any more after this has changed so many times ! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by saco0o
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Is this still the plan, for current Rally2 Cars to compete with the new 2027-spec cars ? I cant remember any more after this has changed so many times ! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by saco0o
I think this will be the only option. But probably will not be any official manufacturer present, because let's face it. As soon there would be in any kind of form of Toyota, nobody would stand a chance. We don't have to worry about entries, because there would probably be too much of them. As other manufacturers who currently (still) produce those kind of cars are not interested for many years now, so I think this will not change.
I see the fears coming from M-Sport, but if they need those 2 extra months, just spend them on the front and the rear, since they have already the detailed rules. From August on, just work on the rest.
As for Hyundai, enough with their crying and rule changes. This is just the last excuse to justify something they already decided long time ago, but they didn't share yet.
I'd love seeing tuners like Prodrive partnering with a manufacturer rather than Hyundai's daily soap opera.
Also, it might open the door back for Lancia and Skoda as well. Since the costs are dramatically going down, if they manage to get on board some good heavy sponsors (Abu Dhabi, TotalEnergies or something like that) they could fund very efficiently their factory campaign. I'm just speculating, but Lancia's CEO told that with current Rally1 it was too expensive and didn't guarantee return of investment. Now, who knows?
The more I hear about 2027 and the fallout from the proposed new regs the more I think about what happened to the DTM race series. Once capable of drawing crowds as big or bigger than for F1 it fell from its pedestal thru bad promotion, falling out amongst the manufacturers and a shifting world outside of motorsport. You could quite easily say that the WRC is in the departure gate ready to follow. Whilst the following article doesnt necessarily fit completely it does raise some interesting points one of which is about being unique which certainly in recent years the top formula WRC 1 etc has been, with Rally 2 based kit that will be lost:
https://gprejects.com/centrale/opini...ean-motorsport
fia will redesign the rally pyramid for 2027
https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/fia-w...amid-for-2027/
does anyone know how cheaper would be to run something like this as an 'entry level' instead of rally4 and rally3?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/hwLMicOd-xw
this class is exploding in autocross/rallycross, with looooots of brands producing it.
just get them to produce 2 seaters, like this one
no? entry level
Look up SSV - side-by-side vehicle, they're not new in bajas or raids or in the Middle East and Africa. One came 6th in Rally Saudi over the weekend. More simple 2-seater carts/buggys like you linked are unsuitable for being European street-legal which you need for any significant rallying or influential support.Quote:
Originally Posted by saco0o
It should be cheaper, don't know if you saw this video but it could become more of a thing. In 10 years time why would anybody be building a brand new 15 year old car for the privateer? It doesn't make sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WRCStan
To the topic if private tuners can carry the championship - of course they can. Dakar/W2RC basically works like that. Dacia is Prodrive, which run their own team even before Renault entered, Toyota is Overdrive, Mini is X-Raid, and many of other cars without manufacturers' backing is there too. etc. etc. There always were and always will be bunch of privateers, full factory teams were really an exeption.
And as it was already mentioned in this thread, there were many attempts to build a rally car from private tuners, that ended on the need of manufacturer backed homologation.
I think that Toyota is running official Dakar/W2RC program with Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa and not Overdrive. Hilux is there for like million years already and they sell those cars to many privateers. How many rally1 cars are out there owned by privateers. I can only think about two and both by M-Sport. Also don't get why old spec WRC cars can't compete in WRC. Are they afraid that those cars would beat the "newest machines"? Also there is more or less open classes and not so strict about everything, that's why there are so many entries. Also it adds up, that "SUV" trend around the globe and amongst almost all brands are favourable here.
mmm "without manufacture's backing" is a long shot, I think it's far from reality. nonetheless, we have m-sport example of a privateer not much backed by many and we all see how it is struggling...Quote:
Originally Posted by Kenneth