[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[Mirek]

Guys, have You realized that all car classes have grown through the years? Recent superminis are not so small in term of the rally history. See...

Lancia Stratos 3,71 m
Audi Sport Quattro 4,16 m
Peugeot 205 3,70 m
Lancia Delta 3,90 m
Toyota Celica ST165 4,17 m
Lancia 037 3,92 m

Polo WRC 3,98 m
Fiesta WRC 3,96 m
DS3 WRC 3,95 m
i20 WRC 3,94 m
Mini WRC 4,11 m

It's almost same as You can see. Only the two-litre generation of WRC and gr.N brought much bigger cars such as Impreza, Lancer or Octavia.

[Doon]

Guys, have You realized that all car classes have grown through the years? Recent superminis are not so small in term of the rally history. See...

Lancia Stratos 3,71 m
Audi Sport Quattro 4,16 m
Peugeot 205 3,70 m
Lancia Delta 3,90 m
Toyota Celica ST165 4,17 m
Lancia 037 3,92 m

Polo WRC 3,98 m
Fiesta WRC 3,96 m
DS3 WRC 3,95 m
i20 WRC 3,94 m
Mini WRC 4,11 m

It's almost same as You can see. Only the two-litre generation of WRC and gr.N brought much bigger cars such as Impreza, Lancer or Octavia.

Yes, and the Lancer, Impreza and especially the Octavia were the most ugly WRC cars ever made! The new superminis all look good as road cars and look fantastic in WRC trim close up.

[stefanvv]

Guys, have You realized that all car classes have grown through the years? Recent superminis are not so small in term of the rally history. See...

Lancia Stratos 3,71 m
Audi Sport Quattro 4,16 m
Peugeot 205 3,70 m
Lancia Delta 3,90 m
Toyota Celica ST165 4,17 m
Lancia 037 3,92 m

Polo WRC 3,98 m
Fiesta WRC 3,96 m
DS3 WRC 3,95 m
i20 WRC 3,94 m
Mini WRC 4,11 m

It's almost same as You can see. Only the two-litre generation of WRC and gr.N brought much bigger cars such as Impreza, Lancer or Octavia.

You're completely right. Mini cars as they were initially used to be like Polo for example are not so mini anymore. They're replaced by other mini models, Up in case of Polo. In fact there are not so big size differences between segment B and C currently, the biggest differences seems to be the engines.

[pantealex]

Bigger cars with 15" (gravel)wheels, forget it!!!

[Jack4688`]

Did you have the old 205s and Renault 5s the same way? I like the current generation of cars, really twitchy and look on the edge because of their short wheelbases. Much prefer this generation to the C4/Focus one before it.

Good to see Toyota trying out so many of the talented youngsters, although I hope they're thinking about a 2016 entry rather than later; it'd be ridiculous to have these guys 'stuck' in RWD R3 cars for two years waiting for a chance to compete.

OK you've got me there. Not the biggest fan of the 205 T16 or Renault 5 GT Turbo but they did look good. Possibly beacuse not all the other manufacturers at the time were making the same size car. I also agree about the C4 and MkII Focus - they are probably the worst looking generaton of WRC cars!

Sorry, bad joke. I also prefer bigger cars as I think are more difficult to control, and so often are more spectacular, so You have my thumbs up here. Let's hope for some positive development of the idea of segment D cars.

I read that in Autosport a few months ago but I think D segment is too far - a Passat or Mondeo WRC would look ridiculous... and not in a good way! I think C segment cars would look just right - Peugeot 308, Audi S3 (I can only dream) and maybe a few odballs like GT86 and Scirocco.

Guys, have You realized that all car classes have grown through the years? Recent superminis are not so small in term of the rally history. See...

Lancia Stratos 3,71 m
Audi Sport Quattro 4,16 m
Peugeot 205 3,70 m
Lancia Delta 3,90 m
Toyota Celica ST165 4,17 m
Lancia 037 3,92 m

Polo WRC 3,98 m
Fiesta WRC 3,96 m
DS3 WRC 3,95 m
i20 WRC 3,94 m
Mini WRC 4,11 m

It's almost same as You can see. Only the two-litre generation of WRC and gr.N brought much bigger cars such as Impreza, Lancer or Octavia.

Yes they may have grown but for example the differences between a Lancia 037 and a Hyundai i20 WRC is much more than 20mm in the overall length. The fact is all the current generation of cars are more or less the same, there's no variety in body shape. The only anomaly in today's WRC cars is the Mini Countryman but look at the variety in the cars you listed above, and that's just in terms of overall length. Granted they're not all from the same era but I think the point is still valid.

That Yaris just takes it too far - that thing is teeeeeeeny tiny and is surely not worthy of being a WRC car? Especially over a GT86! The cars competing in the WRC should be desirable, maybe exotic, cars that we aspire to buy. Not the car your granny drives to the shops!

[Gregor-y]

Yes, and the Lancer, Impreza and especially the Octavia were the most ugly WRC cars ever made! The new superminis all look good as road cars and look fantastic in WRC trim close up.

Yes, but those 'ugly' WRC cars were all available with four wheel drive as road cars. Today's rally cars don't bear much resemblance to what you can buy.

[jbmarcus21]

Citroen in Condroz.. Full Album http://planetemarcus.com/citroen-au-...droz-huy-2014/

[Mirek]

That Yaris just takes it too far - that thing is teeeeeeeny tiny and is surely not worthy of being a WRC car? Especially over a GT86! The cars competing in the WRC should be desirable, maybe exotic, cars that we aspire to buy. Not the car your granny drives to the shops!

Actually I agree with You that the recent supertuned shopping bags sometimes look funny (Yaris definitely) but there are two very valid reasons behind them.

First small cars are better suitable for rallying (not always but mostly they are). It's not the rules what makes the car small. You can make a Mondeo WRC if You like. The rules allow it. The problem is that Your car will be useless. The first reason why all use same size of cars is that it works.

Second point is that marketing guys of the big car makers want to promote what they sell the most. I seriously doubt Toyota makes any reasonable profit out of GT-86. That's more an image-maker than a bestseller. On the other hand they sell millions of Yaris. Also it's important if the cars fight with their counterparts on the market. Do You think it was a good PR for Subaru when Impreza was regularly beaten by C4? Impreza, the Japanese tecno-rocket, blue dream of every petrolhead loosing with some stupid French shopping bag Your neighbour's mother drives? Sure not. For the same reason it's purely stupid for Porsche to loose with Hyundai.

[AndyRAC]

I'll be honest, I've no wish to buy a DS3, Polo, Fiesta or a i20....I'm sure they're nice cars, but a bit 'bland', and hardly jaw dropping. They're not really cars one aspires to owning, are they? However, I know I'm in the minority.

[Eli]

I'll be honest, I've no wish to buy a DS3, Polo, Fiesta or a i20....I'm sure they're nice cars, but a bit 'bland', and hardly jaw dropping. They're not really cars one aspires to owning, are they? However, I know I'm in the minority.

well count me in, i'm sorry but the Impreza for all it's generations (until '08) was a very cool rally car and so was the focus the Xsara and the C4, and to say the C4 coupe WRC car was ugly????!!!! no, if they make the cars bigger make them C segment like they used to be. how cool would it be to see 308R-WRC Golf-(next gen) WRC and etc. again i know i'm apart of the minority but that's what i think