Pace of new Subaru

[Finni]

Well someone may say that Subaru's speed was promising. I think that this is not possibly the case. I don't believe that Subaru is on the same level with Ford and Citroen. Atkinson was setting excellent stage times in Mexico even in his rookie season. If the Subaru was good he should have beated at least Sordo.

Petter has always been strong in Mexico - so it was not suprising that he was strong again. However it would have been difficult to beat Loeb even with excessive risks. In the morning Petter got quite nicely leading place but last year the situation was the same - even with crappest Subaru ever. In the afternoon Petter was slightly slower than Loeb. That was better compared to last year when he lost a lot of time during afternoon (however, do we know if it was due to Pirellis?).

To sum up: we have not yet perfect picture from the new Subaru but early signals are not utterly good. They have some work to do. The car is already slight step ahead from older crap-model but unfortunately they seem to be behind others.

[SubaruNorway]

Realy hard to say because everything was so new for them in this rally. Atkinsons car was a rebuildt 06 but i don't know how much of the old car was still in it.

[MJW]

From the little tv coverage I have seen the car definately seems to handle better than the previous few versions. It looks to be handling similar to teh Ford Focus, the obvious understeer has gone, also teh new Bos dampers look to be working more efficiently. I still think it is probably giving many BHP's away to Citroen and still some but less to Ford. I think the manufactureres best cars still are Citroen #1, Ford #2 and Subaru#3 but a LOT closer than the sh*t cars of the past few years.

[Tomi]

It does not really matter, their chances for any championship for are gone allready, Subaru allways launches new cars with much noise and far too early, maybe they get the package together and some results at the end of this year.

[MJW]

It does not really matter, their chances for any championship for are gone allready, Subaru allways launches new cars with much noise and far too early, maybe they get the package together and some results at the end of this year.

You are correct I think SWRT are targeting 2008 when the real "new" car comes out. Sure there will be wins in 07, but in reality 2007 is between Bosse and Loeb.

[koko0703]

From the couple video I've seen, the new Impreza seems to be handling alot better than the last one even for my eyes. I must say WRC2007 is a big improvement from WRC2006 but that does not mean Impreza is competitive against Citroen and Ford. I hope they can get some more improvements and at least get a win (with alots of luck ) before the first half is over 'cuz when Ford introduces new car in Finland, Subaru won't have any chance with Marcus & Mikko in a new car with Henning & Latvala upgraded to a current works Ford car....

[FrankenSchwinn]

Subaru allways launches new cars with much noise and far too early, maybe they get the package together and some results at the end of this year.

i think this year they just could not wait to get rid of last year's evolution.... cant blame 'em really.

[turves]

Sure there will be wins in 07

I wouldn't be so sure. I have no doubt that the cars before the Subaru's sweeped the road clean, and based on that, if the new car was fast, I'd say Petters lead should have been bigger.

[jens]

New Subaru is closer to the top than the previous one, but is still a bit behind. The start of the rally was great, but then after Solberg's retirement also Atkinson started to drop gradually backwards. Probably they were so quick thanks to start position on Day 1?

[RALLY TEAM GB]

for Subaru to get any chances of success this yr, i really do think that they should get rid of Solberg im afraid to say....he spends more time in the service area than on the stages

I mean Atkinson is driving better than Solberg...