Rally2 (ex-R5) News

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Has the Polo gotten any newer jokers or is this list complete?
https://autorally.lv/files/r198/R5-J...-VW%20Polo.pdf

I must say I am impressed that the Polo still seems to be one of the top two RC2 cars, long after VW left the sport.
The Polo still is the most stable and well balanced Rally2/R5 car, and performs well on all sufaces.

I am guessing the new Fabia will use lessons identified from the Polo to increase VAGs grip on the class.

In the MEM video above, they say how well-engineered the Polo R5 is (much being based on the Polo WRC) and the really high quality of its components (compared to their previous i20).

[tommeke_B]

The Polo R5 was according to many engineers/mechanics a bit like a "small WRC", it's a fantastic car, there's a lot to play with, but it has to be set up properly. Not everyone can jump in and be fast with it, while the Fabia has the reputation of being a much easier car to drive. Seeing the numbers it's clear which car is most successful. The Fabia winning many national events and championships all around the world. At Skoda Motorsport, it's more about having a profitable business with many customers rather than having a works team winning championships. It would make sense to stick with their philosophy and build another "user-friendly" car where it's easier for customers to extract the potential of the car.

BTW as the rumors say, Skoda's going to spend a whole week doing development tests in the Ypres region. They're really taking it everywhere.

[Danny0405]

I don’t have the same opinion on the Polo R5. For me, it’s a disappointment: it was VW car (big domination in WRC), the group had Skoda’s experience in R5 (and Skoda stopped their development with VW coming) and it was clearly customer-oriented as a project (except the first rally, they never had a team as Skoda had with Lappi, Tidemand, Kopecky or Rovanpera). So the goal was clearly to overtake the Fabia and to be the next big thing in this category.

And ok, they succeeded in matching the level of the Fabia but they didn’t manage to overtake it whereas the Polo was newer. Polo has some points better (more high-performance oriented) than Fabia and the contrary is true also (Skoda probably more polyvalent and easy to use).
And now, the Citroen is also at this level I think.
Probably the fires (Camilli, Kajto, one guy in Portugal) didn’t help them also to promote it.

So in the end, I would not say the Polo R5 is a failure but a disappointment, yes clearly: the ultimate proof is that the group decides to stop the evolution of the Polo and to come back to the Fabia as the main car to develop.

[Jarek Z]

Probably the fires (Camilli, Kajto, one guy in Portugal) didn’t help them also to promote it.

Apart from the fires

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-erD0PA8Hz...86225920_n.jpg

there were also rear suspension problems, at least for Kajto, Veiby, Saba and some other drivers:

https://static.motor.es/fotos-notici...01849670_1.jpg

https://twitter.com/PeAChapaRacing/s...201849670.html

http://www.kwa-kwa.pl/strona/images/...5/image008.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PMLX46MYO...56041216_n.jpg

so Polo R5 had quite a bad start which may have discouraged many customers...

[Danny0405]

Apart from the fires

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-erD0PA8Hz...86225920_n.jpg

there were also rear suspension problems, at least for Kajto, Veiby, Saba and some other drivers:

https://static.motor.es/fotos-notici...01849670_1.jpg

https://twitter.com/PeAChapaRacing/s...201849670.html

http://www.kwa-kwa.pl/strona/images/...5/image008.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PMLX46MYO...56041216_n.jpg

so Polo R5 had quite a bad start which may have discouraged many customers...

Ok, I made a confusion (Kajto had a fire but it was not a VW, it was Veiby with VW and the Portuguese guy I was thinking about was Meireles): but having two cars with a fire in the same rally (Veiby + Meireles in Portugal WRC 2019) and 3 in 2 months (including Camilli in Corsica 2019) is clearly really bad for promotion, especially when it happens in WRC with drivers in contention for class win.

Rear suspension issues has not helped for sure.
It’s always difficult to face a reliable car (as the Fabia is) from the beginning (neither VW, nor Citroen, Ford and Hyundai succeeds to do it and only VW and Citroen had matched it after some time).

[Jarek Z]

Ok, I made a confusion (Kajto had a fire but it was not a VW, it was Veiby with VW and the Portuguese guy I was thinking about was Meireles): but having two cars with a fire in the same rally (Veiby + Meireles in Portugal WRC 2019) and 3 in 2 months (including Camilli in Corsica 2019) is clearly really bad for promotion

There was also a Spanish driver Daniel Marban in Rally Islas Canarias in ERC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrhxpbymfmU

[RS]

Ok, I made a confusion (Kajto had a fire but it was not a VW, it was Veiby with VW and the Portuguese guy I was thinking about was Meireles): but having two cars with a fire in the same rally (Veiby + Meireles in Portugal WRC 2019) and 3 in 2 months (including Camilli in Corsica 2019) is clearly really bad for promotion, especially when it happens in WRC with drivers in contention for class win.

Rear suspension issues has not helped for sure.
It’s always difficult to face a reliable car (as the Fabia is) from the beginning (neither VW, nor Citroen, Ford and Hyundai succeeds to do it and only VW and Citroen had matched it after some time).

When even teams who have won at WRC level struggle, it just goes to show how difficult it is to make a competitive and reliable R5 car and why proper testing is essential. The new Fiesta was not good ‘out of the box’ either despite MSport’s experience with a first generation R5.

[wwbroe]

First day of a five day test for Skoda in Ypres Region. Today they are testing in Wervik with Jan Kopecky. They are testing latest prototype (PT3) of the new Fabia R2.

[AnttiL]

I don’t have the same opinion on the Polo R5. For me, it’s a disappointment: it was VW car (big domination in WRC), the group had Skoda’s experience in R5 (and Skoda stopped their development with VW coming) and it was clearly customer-oriented as a project (except the first rally, they never had a team as Skoda had with Lappi, Tidemand, Kopecky or Rovanpera). So the goal was clearly to overtake the Fabia and to be the next big thing in this category.

And ok, they succeeded in matching the level of the Fabia but they didn’t manage to overtake it whereas the Polo was newer. Polo has some points better (more high-performance oriented) than Fabia and the contrary is true also (Skoda probably more polyvalent and easy to use).
And now, the Citroen is also at this level I think.
Probably the fires (Camilli, Kajto, one guy in Portugal) didn’t help them also to promote it.

So in the end, I would not say the Polo R5 is a failure but a disappointment, yes clearly: the ultimate proof is that the group decides to stop the evolution of the Polo and to come back to the Fabia as the main car to develop.

I would disagree with you guys, I think Polo was a fast car out of the box but had some reliability issues, all of which were rectified quickly. As for posting that picture of rear axle getting loose in the tests, this is why they do tests, to see how far they can push the car before it breaks. And then fix that.

But to me it's quite amazing that after several years of no active testing, the car can still win its class in WRC. We must remember that the factory stopped supporting the car right as it was released. There has been some updates but likely the development budget has been relatively small.


Also remember that after Polo came the Fabia Evo, and Skoda has still a big motorsport department doing the development all the time. Citroen has also been developed constantly, and the new Hyundai had an extensive development program.

As for being "difficult to jump into", how about Lappi and Suninen jumping into the car and winning instantly?

[wyler]

As for being "difficult to jump into", how about Lappi and Suninen jumping into the car and winning instantly?

they're top-tier drivers.
instead, i think that's very true for gentlemen and middle-tier drivers, some local drivers i chatted with -that tested and raced almost all r5- confirmed so. they said is very "professional" oriented car, that needs huge competence to get 100% potential, but also to find the soft spot around 80%-90%, while fabia on the opposite is easy to bring 80-90% with confidence.
that's for the average customer, not a big deal for professionals stepping down from wrc, extracting easily the top performance.

on a curious side, they reported fiesta mk2 as to have huge potential, but no feeling at all. they said you have to trust the car a lot, something they can't do, and nearly impossible for a driver doing few days in the car a year.