Rally2 (ex-R5) News

[mknight]

Personally from following rallies and rumors from drivers my impression is that Fabia is the most allround car (= best in a mixed championship).

Polo seems better on fast and smooth rallies, especially those with constant conditions, less so if conditions are mixed (wet/dry) and/or if the road gets very rutted.

Thing is that after I wrote something similar before Estonia and Fabias won both WRC2 and WRC3 in Estonia, there were some loud voices how Fabia is best also on fast rallies. Gryazins and Suninens car choice in Finland contradict this.

[RS]

Mikkelsen has been testing the new Fabia too:

https://youtu.be/9v48u_tPz9c

[RS]

Personally from following rallies and rumors from drivers my impression is that Fabia is the most allround car (= best in a mixed championship).

Polo seems better on fast and smooth rallies, especially those with constant conditions, less so if conditions are mixed (wet/dry) and/or if the road gets very rutted.

Thing is that after I wrote something similar before Estonia and Fabias won both WRC2 and WRC3 in Estonia, there were some loud voices how Fabia is best also on fast rallies. Gryazins and Suninens car choice in Finland contradict this.

I'm sure Lukyanuk would have been very quick in Estonia in a Polo too, perhaps even quicker.

It makes sense that a car with a longer wheelbase would be good on fast rallies. On the other hand the Fabia looled very nimble on the twistier roads on Acropolis and Azores, quick direction changes.

[Mirek]

SRT=Gryazin, they don´t hire those cars, they own those.

Some places Fabia is better and some places Polo is better.

In theory (mine) Polo should be better for very fast gravel/snow while Fabia shall be better for rough, slow and twisty stuff.

But I guess that the main issue with Polo is the end of VW Motorsport development. Few people logically want to invest in a car with no future.

[RallyFan13]

Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 car Chassis 58 of Nasser AlAttiyah destroyed by fire in Cyprus Rally
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https://youtu.be/7s-TeZPdx9Q

[Jarek Z]

Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 car Chassis 58 of Nasser AlAttiyah destroyed by fire in Cyprus Rally
Subscribe on our YouTube channel for rally videos
https://youtu.be/7s-TeZPdx9Q

Yet another burnt Polo!

[Danny0405]

In theory (mine) Polo should be better for very fast gravel/snow while Fabia shall be better for rough, slow and twisty stuff.

But I guess that the main issue with Polo is the end of VW Motorsport development. Few people logically want to invest in a car with no future.

Personnally, I would say Fabia is a little more reliable and all-around but not a big gap and even now, I think it is quite equal (maybe reliability is still a little better for Skoda as I never heard main drivers complaining about it in Skoda whereas it is the most used car).

I think what really costs a lot to VW was the PR side: the VW was waited as a dominant car with Skoda experience + their WRC experience but it had some reliability issue at the beginning (logical seeing what happened to Hyundai and Citroen) and facing a car at the best of his development such as Skoda is not simple.
And the back-to-back fires for Camilli and a Portuguese driver (Meireles?) has costed a lot also I think because it didn’t given much confidence to the potential drivers.

[Sulland]

I am guessing the engineers for the new Fabia has taken the best from both, and will smash the opposition when it comes.

[RS]

I am guessing the engineers for the new Fabia has taken the best from both, and will smash the opposition when it comes.

I’m sure they will test thoroughly and when it debuts it will be ready, perhaps unlike some others.

Building a Rally2 car that is both fast and reliable seems to be very challenging.

[PLuto]

But I guess that the main issue with Polo is the end of VW Motorsport development. Few people logically want to invest in a car with no future.

Yes, this is big problem for Polo. There were much more drivers planning to use it this year, but with the end of VW Motorsport they changed for "cars with future". But still Polo is the best on tarmac and fast events.