Quote Originally Posted by Lundefaret View Post
Nice summary of almost every post about this subject on this forum

Only one thing I would like to add. The Xsara WRC was also the first car that almost never had a mechanical failure. I was watching some old rallies from the '90s recently. It was quite surprising how many times Carlos Sainz retired or lost time when he was leading only because of mechanical issues. He could have been the Loeb of the '90s if he had the indestructible cars of today.
Rallies used to be a balance between reliability and speed. Now all the cars, and especially the VW Polo, can drive a whole season without any problem. Of course if nobody retires, then the fastest guy will always end up on top.