Some years ago I wrote something similar to the following on this forum;

" In the 70's we had Grp 4. The cars were fast and spectacular and exciting to watch.
In the 80's we had Grp B. The cars were fast and spectacular and exciting to watch.
In the 90's we had Grp A. The cars were fast and spectacular and exciting to watch.
In the 00's we had WRC's. The cars were fast and spectacular and exciting to watch."

As somebody wrote in an earlier post, a Grp4 BDA or E30 BMW is still a good spectacle when driven well ... 4 decades later.

As much as rally cars ought look like rally cars, sound like rally cars and go like rally cars, it is the driver who makes them spectacular on the stages and, as can be seen by the videos of Panizzi & Ragnotti, even 2WD cars can be exciting in the right hands.

The spectators perception of speed and spectacle is not a year by year comparison, it's an on event observation comparing competitors to their rivals.

For me the 70's was the era, simply because not since the Grp 4 days have we had a credible competition which was both accessible and affordable to top domestic competitors as well as those with factory support.

Imagine if golf, the world's most popular and televised spectator sport, was played every week by just half a dozen 'paying' players (not necessarily the most talented) whose equipment was so superior to every other players ensuring no one else came within 10 shots of them.
The sport would lose credibility and popularity very rapidly and very soon vanish from the television screens.

Yet this is exactly the scenario we've had in WRC since the advent of Grp B over 30 years ago. And we cannot understand why the sport is not popular.

Now imagine if you will, if Grp N became the WRC formula tomorrow (No, I'm not at all suggesting it should be).
However, if it were, immediately you'd have a hundred or so compliant and competitive cars around the world capable of being driven to WRC victory, at an affordable level, and probably a couple of dozen competitors all equally capable of competing at the top level.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that, had Grp N been the WRC formula for the past 10 years, we would not have 10 consecutive engravings of Sebastion on the trophy. And the majority of the present and recently departed WRC drivers would not have been in sight of a podium.

You'd have a competition which was accessible to those with the talent, and the grit necessary to make it happen, and one with real credibility. Until the WRC moves to a formula also used in domestic championships and is accessible to more than a handful of 'selected' players and a few with rich daddies, it'll fail to gain any traction or popularity.

A modern day Grp 4 is what we need.