The new FIA WRC-car concept 2017

[AndyRAC]

Motorsport needs diversity - which is one if the things I love about the WEC. Audi, Toyota, Porsche and now Nissan will all have something different as a solution to the question. The WRC like F1, WTCC doesn't have this; all WRCars have a 1.6T engine with 4WD...... I know technology is expensive - but this is a World Championship - if the returns are better then it's possibly worth it. Which again returns us to the promotion problem.

[Lundefaret]

Motorsport needs diversity - which is one if the things I love about the WEC. Audi, Toyota, Porsche and now Nissan will all have something different as a solution to the question. The WRC like F1, WTCC doesn't have this; all WRCars have a 1.6T engine with 4WD...... I know technology is expensive - but this is a World Championship - if the returns are better then it's possibly worth it. Which again returns us to the promotion problem.

To achieve this one could go down a completly different route, and that is to give the teams a more difficult objective.
The problem with the lack of diversity is due to the high level of grip, with the 4WD, suspension travel, and tires, wich ends up with a situation where You have to take away more and more of the "bang" (Power.)

Alt 1)
- Rear wheel drive.
- Limited suspension travel.
- No rules for the engine. Only weight/hp/Nm
- Spaceframe of own fabrication
- No rules for aerodynamics. Only make a square, ex from 30 cm in front of the car, 10 cm to the side, 30 cm from the top, and a no go zone from the windscreen to the end of the hood.
- Limited top speed

Alt 2)
- Four wheel drive.
- Limited suspension travel.
- No rules for the engine. Only weight/hp/Nm
- Spaceframe of own fabrication
- No rules for aerodynamics. Only make a square, ex from 30 cm in front of the car, 10 cm to the side, 30 cm from the top, and a no go zone from the windscreen to the end of the hood.
- Very hard tires with narrow grooves to limit grip.
- Limited top speed

Here we could see pure prototypes, and a lot of different approaches to find the right formula.

ie. If You take away grip, You can ad a lot of power, aerodynamics, etc etc.

[skarderud]

If we thinking about environment, maybe the way of thinking should be favoring 1.0t engine since you can have lower weight, vs heavier car and 2.0t?
You have a certain amount of km's to drive with a certain amount of fuel. With lesser grip, aerodynamics like today, half the suspensiontravel, more sound, more sideways, more environment thinking and so on, maybe the package would fit public and media better?

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Rallying only became massively popular with the general public in the 1980's with the advent of Group B.

The only way it can do this again is with more spectacular 'supercars', not just shopping cars with stickers on.

Rallycross RX is going to overtake WRC rallying for TV and being popular with the public unless it competes using more exciting better looking cars.

I still follow rallying because I have loved it since Group B... but I dont expect many new young fans to do the same with the current cars.

[janvanvurpa]

Rallying only became massively popular with the general public in the 1980's with the advent of Group B.

Sorry, that's nonsense. It was popular in the days before---for example we had even heard of rally all the way over in the USA. We knew names of the drivers, we knew the cars---some of us even dug into crap like what final drive and gearbox ratios they used...we knew events...it came in different media---magazines and books and TV even and we could see BIG crowds in the woods in the background...

Perhaps you might be more accurate to say "I became a BIG fan when I saw the GpB cars"

[Mirek]

You are right. Actually here in Eastern block we had almost zero B12 cars as 99% of stock cars were built to be cheap small-engine ones with the only exception being limousines for government officials but rallying was still hugely popular sport here, definitely more than now (at least in Czechoslovakia), the same was before gr.B era. One of the reason is that rallying here in that time was really a motorsport for everybody, it was very cheap with large government support. There was a system of "leagues" where the base level was competing with almost stock cars and every advance to next level was allowed only for the successful ones.

[janvanvurpa]

You are right. Actually here in Eastern block we had almost zero B12 cars as 99% of stock cars were built to be cheap small-engine ones with the only exception being limousines for government officials but rallying was still hugely popular sport here, definitely more than now (at least in Czechoslovakia), the same was before gr.B era. One of the reason is that rallying here in that time was really a motorsport for everybody, it was very cheap with large government support. There was a system of "leagues" where the base level was competing with almost stock cars and every advance to next level was allowed only for the successful ones.

I was just explaining to a young guy---and showing him actual results of the Skodas back in "the bad ol days" *of the 'old regime" (how do you guys refer to that time?), and told him about a crazy Russian I met who came from near Leningrad and how in summer they would have short sprint-y rallys sometimes on a Thursday night (I think Thursday is Payday---maybe they were trying to give guys to do other than get totally drunk? Who knows) rally and he said "We have 320 cars entered. 95% were Lada but a few others, even a couple Skoda--they were GOOD! but most Lada home modified...but still 320!!!! and everybody has 5-7 friends and it was BIG show"

He went on to tell me of the methods used to get heads and carbs and shocks from Italy via extremely "un-official" means..

I had a good friend here in Seattle who was Polish and who told me about rally in Poland "in the bad ol' days"...VERY popular....and no Group B cars..and how there was big upswing when Group A came along..
And in all these there always was some government support.....even in Sweden where I spent a long time cities and counties gave support in the form of land and loan of equipment and even money direct to the motor-clubs..


All Power to the Motor-clubs!



* the guy was shocked to see how John Haugland did in 130 Super Estelle against GpB supercars!

[Zeakiwi]

Brundza and a few others from behind the iron curtain competed on the 1000 lakes, acropolis and sweden with ladas and moskvitch, The Ladas even took part in NZ. http://tinyurl.com/lhuzoaa
The Russian rally championship events limited numbers.
There is a skoda entered in this year's Silver Fern Rally.


Homolgation - How much does it cost a manufacturer to homologate a car for World Rallycross against the homologation cost of WRC ? Saab and Audi are in Rallycross but would be very unlikely to have an official car in WRC.

[makinen_fan]

Some news by Autosport on the planned changes for 2017
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/115101

To me if this concept gets the go-ahead it will bring some more interest into the sport. Although the big question is whether the manufacturers will like it to spend money on completely new concepts

[Eli]

If they let them have any engine they like and move to the d segment why did they bother with ristricting the engine capacity to 1.6 supermini????