A vision for WRC
Discussion
johnfelstead said:
22B wasnt a homologation special, it was the other way round with the 22B's design following the WRC cars basic profiles as a sales tool, all the panels are different on the 22B to the WRC car, it also has a 2.2 litre engine which wasnt allowed in rallying, 2.0 litre max at the time.
I stand corrected, I always thought Subaru used it to allow them to rally the wide body, but of course that makes no sense since the engine is a 2.2. I did know that, put never put the two together. D'oh.First of all, a good thread! Some good points & suggestions.
I find there is often a difference between what the normal Rallyfans wants, and what the ‘general Motorsport’ fans wants. Are they ever mututally exclusive?
Right, first, a bit of history/ background of the recent FiA/ WRC:
During the last 10 years, the sport has stagnated, and lost most of the things that made it great. The FiA President during that time, was one Max Mosley. Who, is quite friendly with Bernie – who happens to ‘run’ F1. Funnily enough, during the last 10-15 years, F1 has grown out of all recognition to become THE Motorsport. Yes, it’s always been the biggest, but not to the extent it now is. As a result, all the other Motorsport series have suffered. WRC is one of the victims.
Now we ask, in which countries is the WRC a top5 sport? In which countries is WRC the top Motorsport? I’d have thought Finland – but from what I’ve read and heard, not so – F1 is bigger in Finland than WRC.
Right, now we can see that the sport is not, and isn’t likely to be a 1st Division World sport – but there’s nothing wrong with that. Accept were you stand, and run the sport accordingly – don’t try to make it something it isn’t. Which is the mistake the recent stakeholders have made. Stop trying to ape F1 – The theory is fine, but hasn’t worked.
Have 10-12 different events, anything from 1 -5 days, sprint/ endurance, day/night – each with it’s own character. Simple, powerful, loud cars with more power than grip...
Get all interested Manufacturers round as table – and work out a future WRCar. It will likely be a Hot hatch 4WD – but who knows? What would happen if Lotus, Porsche, Toyota, Subaru, Nissan, etc all turned up wanting a RWD Sportscar formula?? Remember the Stratos, Alpine-Renault A110, Mazda RX7, etc
I find there is often a difference between what the normal Rallyfans wants, and what the ‘general Motorsport’ fans wants. Are they ever mututally exclusive?
Right, first, a bit of history/ background of the recent FiA/ WRC:
During the last 10 years, the sport has stagnated, and lost most of the things that made it great. The FiA President during that time, was one Max Mosley. Who, is quite friendly with Bernie – who happens to ‘run’ F1. Funnily enough, during the last 10-15 years, F1 has grown out of all recognition to become THE Motorsport. Yes, it’s always been the biggest, but not to the extent it now is. As a result, all the other Motorsport series have suffered. WRC is one of the victims.
Now we ask, in which countries is the WRC a top5 sport? In which countries is WRC the top Motorsport? I’d have thought Finland – but from what I’ve read and heard, not so – F1 is bigger in Finland than WRC.
Right, now we can see that the sport is not, and isn’t likely to be a 1st Division World sport – but there’s nothing wrong with that. Accept were you stand, and run the sport accordingly – don’t try to make it something it isn’t. Which is the mistake the recent stakeholders have made. Stop trying to ape F1 – The theory is fine, but hasn’t worked.
Have 10-12 different events, anything from 1 -5 days, sprint/ endurance, day/night – each with it’s own character. Simple, powerful, loud cars with more power than grip...
Get all interested Manufacturers round as table – and work out a future WRCar. It will likely be a Hot hatch 4WD – but who knows? What would happen if Lotus, Porsche, Toyota, Subaru, Nissan, etc all turned up wanting a RWD Sportscar formula?? Remember the Stratos, Alpine-Renault A110, Mazda RX7, etc
MrKipling43 said:
Apart from the NASCAR bit, I'd accept basically everything you've said there if it became the new WRC.
I did call the thread A vision for WRC, not THE vision for WRC.
I personally quite liked the original idea of much simpler cars, closer to showroom spec moving around more, but if we accept that we want to stick with something more like the purpose built weapons we have now perhaps we could look at what another popular series has done recently to control budgets and encourage new entrants.I did call the thread A vision for WRC, not THE vision for WRC.
NGWRC anyone? Could you produce a package (or set of packages to suit different layouts) of standardised components (engine, transmission, suspension parts, subframes, electronics) which could be made available to make it easier for newer/smaller, and in particular non manfacturer supported teams to produce a competitive car without going to the whole NASCAR "Car Of Tomorrow" spec chassis route?
NGTC seems to have done a good job in BTCC with new teams, cars, and manufacturers seeming to pop up all over the place - could something like it work for WRC?
ArnageWRC said:
Have 10-12 different events, anything from 1 -5 days, sprint/ endurance, day/night – each with it’s own character.
Yes. I felt that I'd probably start 'going on' a bit if I got in to the problems with the events themselves.I would hope that if you could reduce the cost of a WRC car from 400,000 to more like less than 100,00 and, in turn, lower the costs of running and maintaining the cars, longer events would become more feasible.
ArnageWRC said:
Simple, powerful, loud cars with more power than grip...
Yes.ArnageWRC said:
Get all interested Manufacturers round as table – and work out a future WRCar. It will likely be a Hot hatch 4WD – but who knows? What would happen if Lotus, Porsche, Toyota, Subaru, Nissan, etc all turned up wanting a RWD Sportscar formula?? Remember the Stratos, Alpine-Renault A110, Mazda RX7, etc
Absolutely right. I also think that Ford and Citroen should have limited involvement - they've got far too much vested interest in the sport remaining as it is and, if we're honest with ourselves, have't really done anything for it in recent years.Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff