Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
Is it? I'm not sure about that. I see R5 class living a successful and healthy live everyhere and I am not sure if R4 with the expected price and running cost can succeed because it is not a top a tier class in any championship and as such it looks too expensive to me. I'm afraid that it will only parazitize on the R5 class, i.e. making number of R5 cars slightly lower (by taking some money available in the sport away) while not adding anything significant to any championship.
I remember you weren’t sure about having ’17 WRC cars and guess what; they’re the best thing it happened to WRC for ages...

The need for a 4wd entry class has been undisputed. Through R4 many importers and big dealers of brands currently not involved in rally will get the chance to join the sport, while a lot of privateers will be able to replace their aging Evo’s and Impreza’s with a interesting alternative to the used R5’s market, which in many cases wasn’t really an alternative due to R5 running costs.

To base a new category on a mandatory mechanical kit may eventually shock the purists, but it makes sense having in mind private tuners will have a major role on the class development and R4 isn’t supposed to be a leading category in national or international series.

For sure there are still some reasonable doubts on R4 future, mainly due to FIA’s inability to fix a fair price for the kit (108k seems too much for what you get) and having a single worldwide supplier (which can raise availability and even reliability issues) but, hopefully, they won’t stop R4 from being a success and provide a larger range of exciting rally cars. Fingers crossed!