The return of the Audi Quattro Rally car

[AnttiL]

Uh oh. I'm in a Finnish facebook rally group, where someone (who has been close to the Toyota team) posted this news with the comment "Audi is coming this spring with an R5 car". It has now 112 likes in two hours. People just eat this story without reading further. And of course the comments are filled with "this proves that R5 needs to be the main class" or "I wonder if the technology is shared from Fabia/Polo"

Meanwhile on twitter and facebook people are asking "will it be a 5 cylinder engine / why is it a 4 cylinder engine".

This has been a bad day of rally publishing.

[Jarek Z]

I've been saying this for years - this sport has become too complicated, if even the fans can't understand it anymore.

[TheFlyingTuga]

It is good to see such a project. I hope it succeeds. This overexpensive situation of "exclusively from factory" R cars must change. At least in two categories (e.g. Rally5 and Rally3 or Rally2) there must be a way to allow private developers to make rally cars, or even just parts for rally cars as in the past, at a lower cost. The costs are ridiculous these days, especially for young drivers.

I know that we'd probably get some variety out of it, but do you really think private developed cars could be a match for the factory developed cars? In WTCR even with BoP the Meganes are the slowest cars on the grid and the Ford, Subaru and Kia's have all disappeared with time. Same for GT3. Manufactures will always develop a better product as they have money to spend in R&D.

[the sniper]

Uh oh. I'm in a Finnish facebook rally group, where someone (who has been close to the Toyota team) posted this news with the comment "Audi is coming this spring with an R5 car". It has now 112 likes in two hours. People just eat this story without reading further. And of course the comments are filled with "this proves that R5 needs to be the main class" or "I wonder if the technology is shared from Fabia/Polo"

Meanwhile on twitter and facebook people are asking "will it be a 5 cylinder engine / why is it a 4 cylinder engine".

This has been a bad day of rally publishing.

Too true. Pretty incredible to see it spread from within minutes of WRC Promoter posting it. Wonder if we'll see many posts in a couple of years asking, 'weren't Audi coming back with an R5, what happened...?'.

Amongst other things, it's a damning indictment of the new clearer class structure...

I also don't think WRC Promoter have done the WRC any favours, beyond boosting their social media stats, with all the comments slagging off the main class and putting over 'R5' as the future because 'Audi chose it'! I'm almost surprised Audi haven't come out to distance themselves from this project, given what it'll look like when it's off the pace of the Rally2s and they've actually got nothing to do with it.

[scn]

I know that we'd probably get some variety out of it, but do you really think private developed cars could be a match for the factory developed cars? In WTCR even with BoP the Meganes are the slowest cars on the grid and the Ford, Subaru and Kia's have all disappeared with time. Same for GT3. Manufactures will always develop a better product as they have money to spend in R&D.

A. I said that at least two categories must remain open to private developers. The other two and Rally1, of course, can remain only for the factories, if they survive the financial competition with the categories free to private developers.
B. Don't underestimate private developers. Especially in rallying, a private developer can do miracles. Have you seen a Saxo Kit Car 1,6 lt engine giving 261 bhp?

What happens now is a slow death of the sport. Witness how many old cars we still have in French, Italian, German, Spanish and British rallying. Actually, these old cars keep the sport alive. Without them, rallies would not have enough participants to be financially viable. But, for how long? And for how long can the sport afford to have only rich young drivers in it?

[Steve Boyd]

This overexpensive situation of "exclusively from factory" R cars must change.

These cars have to be made using an expensive and "exclusively from Oreca" engine, transmission and suspension kit. That kit then has to be built, by a developer, into the bodyshell of the car you want. They are no cheaper to buy than a year or two old R5 (Rally2) car and just as far out of the reach of young drivers.

[TheFlyingTuga]

A. I said that at least two categories must remain open to private developers. The other two and Rally1, of course, can remain only for the factories, if they survive the financial competition with the categories free to private developers.
B. Don't underestimate private developers. Especially in rallying, a private developer can do miracles. Have you seen a Saxo Kit Car 1,6 lt engine giving 261 bhp?

What happens now is a slow death of the sport. Witness how many old cars we still have in French, Italian, German, Spanish and British rallying. Actually, these old cars keep the sport alive. Without them, rallies would not have enough participants to be financially viable. But, for how long? And for how long can the sport afford to have only rich young drivers in it?

I understand your point, especially regarding point B. But, basically, M-Sport or Prodrive is a private outlet. What would be the impediment to having them built cars for that category? And regarding the kit-car and S1600 regs I know that some private turners had done wonders with those motors... but, were they legal?

And, for all the matters, I do believe that you have two R categories that could be developed by private tuners. The Rally5 class and the R-GT and yet, the only cars that seem to be appearing are manufacturer made (except for the Porsche and the AM).
On top of that, you still have the point of Steve Boid. A totally built and ready to race Rally2-kit cost around 180k... and on tarmac is fighting with the Rally4 for a place in the leaderboard.

But I do understand what you mean about the slow death of rallying. It is uninspiring how this sport as spectacular as it is failed to attract new brands over the last 20 years or so. I not old by any means, but I still remember the times that everyone had a Kit-Car or an S1600 (with better or worse results). Now, all the categories seem to be dominated by the same 4/5 brands that have a tradition in rallying. But that could also be the fault of the big brands swallowing the smaller ones to create a big group. What is the point of having Seat and Skoda, or Peugeot and Citroen fighting for the same championship if they are basically the same?

Cheers

[Arnold Triyudho Wardono]

TBH, I'd like to see EKS installing S1 RX running gears into that body..

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[cali]

So here we go again. We just had rally classes redone. Rally 1, rally 2, rally 3 etc and now we have again Rally 2 Kit Car.... Oh man oh man FIA keeps making the same mistake over and over and over again.

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[AnttiL]

So here we go again. We just had rally classes redone. Rally 1, rally 2, rally 3 etc and now we have again Rally 2 Kit Car.... Oh man oh man FIA keeps making the same mistake over and over and over again.

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This class was already introduced a few years ago. Originally it was called R4 Kit. It's just been very unpopular so most of us have never seen these cars in action.

This class is problematic because currently it's in the same RC2 category with Rally2 cars, but the performance is closer to Rally3 cars. However, like it's been explained elsewhere, the main reason for this kit are regional rally championships outside Europe, where it's very expensive to import a complete Rally2 car from Europe, compared to building one of these to a car bought from your native country.