WRC mainclass from 2027

[Fast Eddie WRC]

DR's point is the i20 N went out of production a few years ago. They can and probably will extend the homologation, but that is hardly a boon for WRC unless it becomes a historic championship.

The i20N N may have gone off sale in Europe but its still on sale in Australasia.

And if the spaceframe is so cheap and easy, Hyundai still dont build one due to:

"...the running cost. It’s maybe OK to build a car for €345,000 euros, but maybe on those €345,000 cars, if a door costs €10,000, this is not acceptable in the customer world. And this is really what we need to pay attention to. What will be the price for the dampers? For the under-protection of the car? We consume all those parts quite a lot on Rally2. And we have to be cost efficient."

[WRCStan]

The i20N N may have gone off sale in Europe but its still on sale in Australasia.

Ok thanks.

[Steve Boyd]

There's no FIA source I can find directly

That's the problem with all of this. It's all "he said that she said that somebody in the next street heard that ......"

We're relying on sports journo's with no technical background relaying what the FIA publicity people say. The actual technical regulations are often hidden from us because they're in things like homologation application forms that are only available to manufacturers. Without direct sight of those rules it's all guesswork - and pretty annoying!

[OldF]

TThe actual technical regulations are often hidden from us because they're in things like homologation application forms that are only available to manufacturers. Without direct sight of those rules it's all guesswork - and pretty annoying!

It is (annoying). The only public regulations are the specific regulations but they do not include much technical details, mainly instructions for the user of the car which parts of the car has been homologated for rally use, how an original part can be modified etc.

Anyway, here is what the regulations said for 2011. In 2011 the idea was to use the same basic car for both regional and wrc rallies, but the car was too expensive for regional rallies.

2011 HOMOLOGATION REGULATIONS FOR SUPER 2000 KIT-VARIANT (RALLIES) / WRC
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aai...6-2654d73f06f0

7.1 The following parts may be homologated in the Super 2000 Rally Kit Variant (VK-S2000-Rally) under the following conditions: PAGE 4 (7.1.1 Engine pages 5-11)
This part is probably when using a production engine.

7.3 Only for a WRC Type car, the following parts may be homologated: PAGES 18-19
These are the parts that only WRC cars can use.

APPENDIX: ENGINE, PAGES 33-39
Global Race Engine.

Here is the M-Sport Ford Fiesta regional rally car (RRC). Regional rally cars were not an official name for the car but used by M-Sport. Note that it had a 30 mm restrictor compared to the 33 mm restrictor for the WRC version.
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aai...4-ce9bf672ab46

[Kenneth]

The i20N N may have gone off sale in Europe but its still on sale in Australasia.

And if the spaceframe is so cheap and easy, Hyundai still dont build one due to:

"...the running cost. It’s maybe OK to build a car for €345,000 euros, but maybe on those €345,000 cars, if a door costs €10,000, this is not acceptable in the customer world. And this is really what we need to pay attention to. What will be the price for the dampers? For the under-protection of the car? We consume all those parts quite a lot on Rally2. And we have to be cost efficient."

lmao idk if Hyundai is just trying to be stupid or what. They don't know how much dampers and under-protection cost in their Rally2? They don't know the doors cost on their cars? Because the costs for these things will be pretty much the same.

It's the same stupid act as when Cyril said that they don't have an engine when they have one in Rally2.

They could just straight say that instead of developing new space frame car, they want to continue with Rally2, because that car is close to being really fast, instead of all these non-reasons why they cannot build WRC27, which are borderline embarasing.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Maybe. But Benoit Nogier is the customer racing manager and he sees a better business case for upgrading / re-homologaing the Rally2 car than building a WRC27. New and existing i20 owners can both buy and upgrade cars bring in money.

Plus Lancia already has 30 order for their new Rally2 car, probably because Rally2 is a proven concept.

[OldF]

By the words of Christian Loriaux in this article 20.12.2024 https://dirtfish.com/rally/wrc/loria...eady-too-late/ both current rally2 engines and current rally1 engine are not options for wrc27 cars because of the Euro 7 emissions regulations.

“…. highlighting that making current Rally2 engines the basis of 2027 regulations was not an option long-term.”

“The 2027 regulations concept leans on road-going production engines, instead of the purpose-built race engines that have featured since the start of the last World Rally Car regulation cycle in 2017. That will make such engines beholden to Euro 7 emissions regulations once they are rolled out. All new consumer vehicles with fewer than eight seats built after November 29, 2027, must be Euro 7 compliant.”

The so-called global race engine (GRE) has been used in WRC cars from the beginning of 2011. It is hard to believe that similar “RALLY2 GRE” would not be used from 2027 onwards. This engine will be in use for 10 years and the manufacturers and tuners (constructors in the future) do not have to care what engines are manufactured and used in road cars.

[WRCStan]

Maybe. But Benoit Nogier is the customer racing manager and he sees a better business case for upgrading / re-homologaing the Rally2 car than building a WRC27. New and existing i20 owners can both buy and upgrade cars bring in money.

Even I can see that, as there's no obligation to enter WRC and do all the rallies. FIA are looking for more WRC manufs/constructor/team entrants, so it's obvious what they will have to do to Rally2. Long term it won't be the better business case.

[deephouse]

lmao idk if Hyundai is just trying to be stupid or what. They don't know how much dampers and under-protection cost in their Rally2? They don't know the doors cost on their cars? Because the costs for these things will be pretty much the same.

It's the same stupid act as when Cyril said that they don't have an engine when they have one in Rally2.

They could just straight say that instead of developing new space frame car, they want to continue with Rally2, because that car is close to being really fast, instead of all these non-reasons why they cannot build WRC27, which are borderline embarasing.

Is he the worst boss in history of WRC? What did he achieve in Caterham and Renault? And how the hell he did get the job at the top of one of the biggest WRC teams?

[Kenneth]

Maybe. But Benoit Nogier is the customer racing manager and he sees a better business case for upgrading / re-homologaing the Rally2 car than building a WRC27. New and existing i20 owners can both buy and upgrade cars bring in money.

Plus Lancia already has 30 order for their new Rally2 car, probably because Rally2 is a proven concept.

Yeah imo making upgraded Rally2 makes perfect sense for Hyundai, they made a good progress with it, and given how bad their newly developed cars usually are, continuing on developing it is just a no-brainer.

It's just their media statements that are embarrassing. Always acts like "I'm just a car, I don't know anything, everything is just against us :'("