[WRC] News & rumours (part III)

[Mirek]

Do you know who owe them now ?

Unfortunately not.

[Munkvy]

Rewatching those clips I think it is definitely clear that these days WRC is far too clinical and boring. Back in the 90s (and I imagine the 80s too), there was far less predictability to the results, the cars and the drivers. The driving was much more obviously on the limit and the cars broke down too, so plenty to mean that there really was many options as to who could win. And the ability to even upset the top guys from time to time in a privateer or 2WD car.

Now, well it's either VW or Citroen dominating. And no personalities or crazy antics. It's all a bit PC, like a lot of this world!

[sollitt]

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.

[Mirek]

The problem with something like gr.4 or gr.A is that the world has changed through the years. Dozens of manufacturers all over the world have been connecting into few huge corporations. They've been standardizing production towards the biggest possible masses of simple parts. Marketing values changed from performance to safety and ecology. Even the audience have changed. While thirty years a go every teenager was dreaming about having his own car now it's not like that. For majority of people cars are just goods. Very few people are interested in knowing how they work and what is under the bonnet. For us motorsport freaks it's sad but unfortunately it's reality. What once worked sometimes work again but I'm afraid it doesn't apply for motorsport.

[Eli]

http://www.rallye-magazin.de/rallyes...uts/index.html he is going to ruin the sport, the drivers are against it, and no he wants to continue with the idea. i'm sorry for saying this but god this man is stupid!!!

[Mirek]

Out of curiosity... has anyone of You ever met a single person who likes the idea? I haven't...

[Juha_Koo]

This discussion (as a larger phenomenon, not this thread) has three major problems:

1. Fans don't understand the marketing needs of manufacturers/teams.
2. Manufacturers/teams don't do the circus for the hardcore fans but for average joes - and the subsequent failure to understand this.
3. Longing for the past times that won't return. World has changed.

I'm in no means in favour of Capito's shootout idea, in my opinion it isn't rallying at all. But to my knowledge, VW has been quite disappointed to the media coverage and promotion of WRC. We have to understand them a bit, they pour in millions for what? Lousy promotion and media services like crap? If promotion would have been and would be done in a correct way, Capito wouldn't need to ask these spectator-magnets to be made.

[dimviii]

http://www.rallye-magazin.de/rallyes...uts/index.html he is going to ruin the sport, the drivers are against it, and no he wants to continue with the idea. i'm sorry for saying this but god this man is stupid!!!

lolololol

[vino_93]

To be honest, I've never seen any publicity of VW talking about rally. Except maybe something in Autohebdo (but I'm not sure it was VW and not a partner using a pic of the VW). But people who read Autohebdo know perfectly that VW is doing rally, and is winning...

[Mirek]

I'm not really familiar with commercials of various carmakers as I have no TV (really ) but it's true I don't remember any VW rally related one. On the other hand there has been a lot of those from Škoda (at least here in CZ).