Rally2 (ex-R5) News

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I hope I am wrong; I'm only going on what I remember from a few car magazine articles when the Mk3 was announced. Though a Skoda UK spokesman said "We wouldn't say never, though".

I said a while ago that it seems strange that Skoda are so heavily involved in rallying with the Fabia yet dont have a hot-hatch of the same model to buy...

How many rally fans will buy a 'normal' Skoda due to the promotion of the brand when they could have a high-performance Ford, Renault , Peugeot etc ?

[RS]

I said a while ago that it seems strange that Skoda are so heavily involved in rallying with the Fabia yet dont have a hot-hatch of the same model to buy...

How many rally fans will buy a 'normal' Skoda due to the promotion of the brand when they could have a high-performance Ford, Renault , Peugeot etc ?

The point you are missing here is that rally fans are a tiny part of the market. Having a motorsport programme still reflects well on Skoda as a brand but the amount of people who actively follow rallying, especially in the UK, is minuscule.

[Mirek]

How many rally fans will buy a 'normal' Skoda due to the promotion of the brand when they could have a high-performance Ford, Renault , Peugeot etc ?

We discussed that already several times. Marketing works different way than You think.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

We discussed that already several times. Marketing works different way than You think.

I do understand the general marketing and publicity they gain, I just think they could get even more by having a road car that would also give the model a 'halo' effect.

[AdvEvo]

I do understand the general marketing and publicity they gain, I just think they could get even more by having a road car that would also give the model a 'halo' effect.

Yep excactly. I loose interest in rallying because i can't buy and Evo RS like car from brands who are active in rallying nowadays.

It's like holding some meat in front of you're dog. He can smell it but that s about it. If you hold that same meat ten times before him then the 11th time he doesn t even look up anymore.

Rallying has become a party for themselves. We customers can buy boring FWD cars with WRC sticker on the side. They can keep that piece of junk and stick up where the sun does not shine.

We customers finance the whole motorsport activities. If you don t buy new cars they don t make money. So it s about time to give us something in reward like mitsubishi did with the Evo RS series. Mechanical Diffs and 300 hp 4wd.

[tommeke_B]

Yep excactly. I loose interest in rallying because i can't buy and Evo RS like car from brands who are active in rallying nowadays.

Time for you to find another sport with nice cars then.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Ford is a bit strange too... they rallied the Fiesta for 5 years before bringing out a real performance version (Fiesta ST 1.6T). They could have sold thousands of these if they had brought something like it out earlier, so they lost all those sales to Renault, MINI, Vauxhall, etc.

[Mirek]

How do You know that ST is profitable at all? What if it's only an image maker? I believe they know what they are doing.

[RS]

Ford is a bit strange too... they rallied the Fiesta for 5 years before bringing out a real performance version (Fiesta ST 1.6T). They could have sold thousands of these if they had brought something like it out earlier, so they lost all those sales to Renault, MINI, Vauxhall, etc.

I am not sure I have seen even one Fiesta ST in real life, nor (m)any of the others you mention. I believe the second Fabia RS actually outsold the Polo and Ibiza equivalent in the UK at least, but even they are not continuing with that.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

I am not sure I have seen even one Fiesta ST in real life,

Seriously ? There are absolutely loads of them around where I live. My local tuner had about 25 there the other week for a RR day:





I'd say they are outselling other hot-hatches in the UK hands down.