Quote Originally Posted by Mirek View Post
You are a good example that people quickly forget. Gr.N rules in 2006 and now are significantly different.

Those days when S2000 came the gr.N had these limitations:
- suspension was mounted in rubber silent blocks
- cars had small brakes
- cars had maximum 17" wheels
- engines had 32 mm restrictor

- the S2000 had 1100 kg

It was actually the faster S2000 which made FIA to try to make gr.N cars somehow competitive. They tried to make gr.N quicker and S2000 slower (by adding 100 kg in 2009). They ended with the unsuccessful R4 attempt after which they finally stopped trying.

I do believe that today with 2006 spec. gr.N car You would be slower than R2 on quite a number of stages.
You are partly right-but the brakes were already bigger-I remember for 110% as I was guest in the Aimont team, who was responsible for Piero Longhi's Impreza. Piero was very happy for the new item, but one day later he (and other N4 drivers) realized, that the S2000 spec car is a different world.
What I want to say (and you are always commenting and finding excuses...), gr.N4 made a very small progress in last ten years (the basic cars are still the same), where as the R5 group is a ''missile technology'' compare to N cars....
And about R2 being faster than N4 : nothing unusual in Slovenia, where Rok Turk with P208 R2 is constantly faster than N4 drivers.....