Quote Originally Posted by WRCStan View Post
What is a manufacturer to you?

I made a list of 10 manufacturers of rally cars that'd be available for sale to the public (hypothetically). They'd all be manufacturers, manufacturing manufacturers' wares. You might say "but I can't buy one". Yes you could. "You don't see anybody driving them on the roads". How often do you see a Rally1/2/3/4/5 being driven?

Lancia built 100 Rally4s already? Great, why not allow low-volume car manufacturers in to that market? Why does there need to be 25,000 similar looking cars of a different construction, different fuel type, sharing little comforts and components... etc.. it doesn't make sense. It would only make sense if Lancia/Stellantis were pouring enough bucks into the FIA coffers, but it appears the manufs are all in crises.



This is a long term reset and transformation for sustainability into the next decades, not a 'how do we scrape through another season with the existing players'. The 'touring car' is dead, going rallying with a 'modified series-production touring car' is dead, and there's zero link between a rally car and 'SUV' mobility vehicle/android phone on wheels.
to me, and to most of people in the rally world, a manufacturer is a company that produces road cars.
but we can also refer to company/entity that builds their own shells, works the same, as the majority of names you did are just tuners, or company/entity that uses others' shells to prepare a race car. in the space frame era, maybe this can change, but till now, i don't see anyone other than a manu producing space frame chassis. (and that works only for rally1, minor category still refers to a legal road car as base.) so, i see the road version of every rally2/3/4/5 being driven, and also we can say that yaris gr and i20n are base model for rally1 ( the puma is a bit different...)

honestly, i don't get all the part about lancia. if u are saying that fia must change the homologation standard, i can agree. anyway, the minimum quantity for rally2 (and lesser) is 2500, not 25000, that is not that far from low volume to me. rally1, as being a space frame doesn't have a minimum quantity.

i don't get also the last part. long term reset and transformation is about the strategy and the direction of the championship, not so much about the technicalities of the car. if an existing car class can fit the strategy, then it's ok, no need to look for a revolution. and as you can see, we were very close to base this "long term reset" simply on the rally2 cars, now it looks like we will have a rally2mod or rally2+ for 2027 on, with balanced performance with the current ones.