[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[stefanvv]

How important is it for an event to take place in a specific country to boost sales in this country?

That's a good question. PSA should already should have some calculations on how WTCC/Loeb influence has on the market. China is important for VW/Ford as well, but I guess they don't fight for survival as PSA do. Or they believe WRC will make more influence on the market than WTCC?

[Mirek]

That's a good question. PSA should already should have some calculations on how WTCC/Loeb influence has on the market. China is important for VW/Ford as well, but I guess they don't fight for survival as PSA do. Or they believe WRC will make more influence on the market than WTCC?

Matton commented for Belgian Auto-news that according to their marketing studies WRC is a lot more popular than WTCC. Only F1 is above WRC in terms of global popularity. PSA is disappointed with the WTCC.

[AL14]

I really can't understand what's the problem with China. Is it far? Far from where? Europe? We have 10 rounds here, and we are a dying continent. I think it is more than enough. Don't we want more attention to the sport? How about 1 billion and a half people that don't have a clue of what rally is and maybe if only the 0,01% of them will appreciate it they will attract more manufacturers, drivers and therefore more challenge?
Of course, hosting a round there is not enough, you need good promotion, good organization, better concept of the sport in general, but that's a start.

You want to come back to 90's? Find a time machine or move on to other solutions. Asia and Chine are, or at least can be, on of them in my opinion.

[stefanvv]

Here it is another puzzle - would a Japan round will make it more attractive to more Japan manufacturers to return to WRC? At least Mitsubishi & Subaru....

[AL14]

Japan is a crazy state, Tokyo is a metropolis and they have not house numbers. It's impossible to make a prevision when it comes to Japan.
Just kidding.

[stefanvv]

Japan is a crazy state, Tokyo is a metropolis and they have not house numbers. It's impossible to make a prevision when it comes to Japan.
Just kidding.

yes it is, but wrc had good times with them

[stefanvv]

I really can't understand what's the problem with China. Is it far? Far from where? Europe? We have 10 rounds here, and we are a dying continent. I think it is more than enough. Don't we want more attention to the sport? How about 1 billion and a half people that don't have a clue of what rally is and maybe if only the 0,01% of them will appreciate it they will attract more manufacturers, drivers and therefore more challenge?

I don't have problem for China round, just not on the expense of Wales GB, no matter how pale shadow it is of the "old" RAC rally. There should be more rounds, or just let Corsica go

[Jack4688`]

So there are 1.5 billion, or thereabouts, people in China, spread over the 3rd largest country by area. Agreed, if even a small percentage of that population has interest in motorsport that's still a large number, but how does that translate to a potential event in one small pocket of a huge country?

And what's better for the manufactuers to sell cars? Look, we won this event in your country.... buy our VW Lavida, which has very little tangible link with our Polo R WRC. Or would it be better to have the best rallies available (providing there was promotor interest and sufficient funding for such events) so they could say we won the toughest rally of the year while the others didn't get close to us.

I find it hard to imagine and event with an eager promotor and plenty of local and national funding like Wales would drop off the calendar anyway, more likely Tour de Corse won't have FFSA backing after this year to continue as a WRC level event.

[janvanvurpa]

I really can't understand what's the problem with China. Is it far? Far from where? Europe? We have 10 rounds here, and we are a dying continent. I think it is more than enough. Don't we want more attention to the sport? How about 1 billion and a half people that don't have a clue of what rally is and maybe if only the 0,01% of them will appreciate it they will attract more manufacturers, drivers and therefore more challenge?
Of course, hosting a round there is not enough, you need good promotion, good organization, better concept of the sport in general, but that's a start.

You want to come back to 90's? Find a time machine or move on to other solutions. Asia and Chine are, or at least can be, on of them in my opinion.

Hang on a second.. I have been going to China since 03 since i married my cutie pie wife and we go back cause her family loves me and the the 2 cutie pie girls so we go as often as we can. I happened to meet a guy who runs a tuning shop who it turned out was sponsoring 3-4 cars in the Chinese Rally Championship...So I asked more people and was really surprised how many guys under 35 have a reasonable clue of what the WRC is
Now generally some might come from the a guy described as "probably the world's most poplular blogger --popular on Wi-chat----just happens to be doing Chinese Rally Championship, some Asian Pacific rounds and in 09 WRC Australia
His name is Han Han or 韩寒 and i was reading some of his really quite sharp and thoughtful and critical books on life in China now and flipped the page to a hilarious faux-complaint about how pooor they must be in Australian when he went to drive WRC.
talk about surprise!

From wiki:

In May 2010, Han Han was named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine.^[5] In September 2010, British magazine New Statesman listed Han Han at 48th place in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".^[6] In June 2010, Han Han was interviewed by CNN as China's rebel writer who has become the unofficial voice for his generation.^[7]

After his experiences at the WRC Rally Australia in 2009, he wrote a blog post entitled Report on supervision and guidance work in preparation for the WRC in Australia (赴澳大利亚监督指导世界拉力锦标赛的工作报告), using irony to express dissatisfaction with China's standards of race management, economic conditions, political consciousness of the population, etc. in comparison with Australia.^[45]

I
The guy is very funny and very popular and I wish could find an English translation on-line so you could see his criticism..one of which is "not enough naughty girls"...

So instead of a Billion and a 1/2, maybe its more like only a billion....but boy do they read and watch TV, ideal for media.

[Mariusz]

I find it hard to imagine and event with an eager promotor and plenty of local and national funding like Wales would drop off the calendar anyway, more likely Tour de Corse won't have FFSA backing after this year to continue as a WRC level event.

They cannot just replace Tour de Corse with Rally China which I presume would be another gravel rally. And with 1,5 tarmac rallies out of 13 I wouldn't even dare to call the series World Rally Championship but more like World Gravel Rally Championship.