The 2016 Rallying thread (WRC, ERC, RX, etc)
Discussion
Not sure that stacks up, just look at the other forums within the Motorsport heading. Also why have one for Club Motorsport, isn't pretty much ALL Motorsport 'club' apart from International stuff and even that is often organised by a 'club'.
Mind you I do't expect it will happen as we've had this discussion loads of times.
Mind you I do't expect it will happen as we've had this discussion loads of times.
MG CHRIS said:
Because there simply aint enough interest in rallying on here if they did I take a full year just to fill one page. If you have on for rallying then may as well have one for the touring cars/wec etc etc. General motorsport works well as it is with f1 a separate section.
Too true!! Compare a F1 race thread to a WRC thread.....you're lucky if a WRC event thread makes 2 pages. The interest simply isn't there. And with 2016 likely to be another VW/ Ogier cakewalk, it might not get any better. Maybe with a new BRC there will be slightly more.....
Alex Langheck said:
MG CHRIS said:
Because there simply aint enough interest in rallying on here if they did I take a full year just to fill one page. If you have on for rallying then may as well have one for the touring cars/wec etc etc. General motorsport works well as it is with f1 a separate section.
Too true!! Compare a F1 race thread to a WRC thread.....you're lucky if a WRC event thread makes 2 pages. The interest simply isn't there. And with 2016 likely to be another VW/ Ogier cakewalk, it might not get any better. Maybe with a new BRC there will be slightly more.....You coukd buy road going versions of rally cars and they were damned popular.
Now its just a space frame chassis with a hatchback body stuck on top. No road going version available and so the body is just a meagre attempt of manufacturers to relate it to a car on sale. Pathetic. This killed rallying.
rb5er said:
Alex Langheck said:
MG CHRIS said:
Because there simply aint enough interest in rallying on here if they did I take a full year just to fill one page. If you have on for rallying then may as well have one for the touring cars/wec etc etc. General motorsport works well as it is with f1 a separate section.
Too true!! Compare a F1 race thread to a WRC thread.....you're lucky if a WRC event thread makes 2 pages. The interest simply isn't there. And with 2016 likely to be another VW/ Ogier cakewalk, it might not get any better. Maybe with a new BRC there will be slightly more.....You coukd buy road going versions of rally cars and they were damned popular.
Now its just a space frame chassis with a hatchback body stuck on top. No road going version available and so the body is just a meagre attempt of manufacturers to relate it to a car on sale. Pathetic. This killed rallying.
Yes a bit simplistic but in my eyes it was at its peak with the Audi quattro, Lancia Delta Integrale, Celica gt4's, Cosworths, imprezas and evos and a few others. All cars with proper road going versions.
Nobody watches it these days as cars are too far removed from what a dealer offers.
Rally used to sell these cars and it was an awesome era.
Nobody watches it these days as cars are too far removed from what a dealer offers.
Rally used to sell these cars and it was an awesome era.
rb5er said:
Now its just a space frame chassis with a hatchback body stuck on top. No road going version available and so the body is just a meagre attempt of manufacturers to relate it to a car on sale. Pathetic. This killed rallying.
They're about as close to their road car counterparts as touring cars, and they don't seem to be suffering.Its much much easier to 'package' circuit racing for the modern worlds way of 'consuming' it, which is one of the problems but I guess to bring up a few others;
Bad TV coverage, even when WRC is on it often looks boring because they use the same Camera angle for each car. They don't 'follow' cars much any more, concentrating on jumps and single corners. Just watch some of the older coverage which crops up now and again, they used to follow cars for long distances through a whole series of corners. In car shots whilst sometimes very good are frequently hopelessly repetitive as you can't see what's going on properly.
The events are a series of short sprints, ostensibly it's what the TV coverage and the top manufacturers want, but gone are the days when a WRC event was about endurance as much as performance.
Some of the stages don't come across well on TV, not sure why. Watch some of the Closed Road stuff in Ireland to see how it can still look exciting on TV.
The concept of Racing on Sunday selling on Monday doesn't cut with the manufacturers any more, it's hardly relevant that a remote derivative of the Car was very fast over a patch of gravel when it's far more important what the IPOD connectivity is like.
Spectating is too difficult for modern attitudes and unfortunately some 'fans' are just ruining the sport by their irresponsible actions. We have lost this countries best Rally this year indirectly due to their actions, (The Roger Albert Clark lost the Yorkshire forests due to the litter left by spectators, it withered and died as a result). I expect this problem has always existed, but the modern world is simply not prepared to put up with it any more.
It's difficult to make the Sport 'safe' by modern standards. The Tragic events in Scotland and Ireland recently are still reciprocating around the sport. The insurance companies particularly in Ireland are starting to play hard ball.
The efforts by MSA in the UK to make it 'safe' are not helping. You can see what they are trying to do, but when you see people having to dump perfectly good seats, harnesses, helmets etc for no tangible reason you do have to feel for the people who's pocket it is hurting. Stupid stuff like not allowing split fields for spurious reasons will mean a lot of interesting Cars will not be out again.
There isn't much awareness of the sport amongst the general population any more, even amongst the 'Car' enthusiasts that post on here. Very few youngsters are coming up through the Club Rallying scene, its mostly the older end who have been doing it for decades. Like I said earlier up the thread it's not all about WRC, how many people are aware that they can go out just about any Saturday night through the year and compete on a Rally, no it's not WRC, but with a cheap car a few quid for a licence and entry fee and you can go out and compete in the Lanes against some seriously competitive people. If you look back in History that was the route most of the UK's rallying stars used.
Bad TV coverage, even when WRC is on it often looks boring because they use the same Camera angle for each car. They don't 'follow' cars much any more, concentrating on jumps and single corners. Just watch some of the older coverage which crops up now and again, they used to follow cars for long distances through a whole series of corners. In car shots whilst sometimes very good are frequently hopelessly repetitive as you can't see what's going on properly.
The events are a series of short sprints, ostensibly it's what the TV coverage and the top manufacturers want, but gone are the days when a WRC event was about endurance as much as performance.
Some of the stages don't come across well on TV, not sure why. Watch some of the Closed Road stuff in Ireland to see how it can still look exciting on TV.
The concept of Racing on Sunday selling on Monday doesn't cut with the manufacturers any more, it's hardly relevant that a remote derivative of the Car was very fast over a patch of gravel when it's far more important what the IPOD connectivity is like.
Spectating is too difficult for modern attitudes and unfortunately some 'fans' are just ruining the sport by their irresponsible actions. We have lost this countries best Rally this year indirectly due to their actions, (The Roger Albert Clark lost the Yorkshire forests due to the litter left by spectators, it withered and died as a result). I expect this problem has always existed, but the modern world is simply not prepared to put up with it any more.
It's difficult to make the Sport 'safe' by modern standards. The Tragic events in Scotland and Ireland recently are still reciprocating around the sport. The insurance companies particularly in Ireland are starting to play hard ball.
The efforts by MSA in the UK to make it 'safe' are not helping. You can see what they are trying to do, but when you see people having to dump perfectly good seats, harnesses, helmets etc for no tangible reason you do have to feel for the people who's pocket it is hurting. Stupid stuff like not allowing split fields for spurious reasons will mean a lot of interesting Cars will not be out again.
There isn't much awareness of the sport amongst the general population any more, even amongst the 'Car' enthusiasts that post on here. Very few youngsters are coming up through the Club Rallying scene, its mostly the older end who have been doing it for decades. Like I said earlier up the thread it's not all about WRC, how many people are aware that they can go out just about any Saturday night through the year and compete on a Rally, no it's not WRC, but with a cheap car a few quid for a licence and entry fee and you can go out and compete in the Lanes against some seriously competitive people. If you look back in History that was the route most of the UK's rallying stars used.
sfaulds said:
They're about as close to their road car counterparts as touring cars, and they don't seem to be suffering.
Sales of the cars they are based are not suffering no. People still buy cooking polos, fiestas etc as they do leons and vectras etc. Neither are particularly popular forms of motorsport anymore and neither spawn interesting road cars anymore. This imo is a big factor as to why they are no longer popular Touring/Rally racing is nowhere near the peak it used to be, which is sad. Imo the end of homogolation has helped this happen hugely
velocemitch said:
The Roger Albert Clark lost the Yorkshire forests due to the litter left by spectators, it withered and died as a result
I've heard this said before but I'm not convinced. In my experience the litter in Yorkshire on the RAC was no worse than that on the Trackrod/Malton events yet these still continue. The event has gradually been dumbed down from four days in Yorkshire/Kielder/Cumbria/SW Scotland to less than two days pretty much all in Kielder. The competitors wanted a shorter event (in time) and road miles apparently. A shame these competitors didn't enter when the organisers put on such an event. Ultimately it is this that caused the event to die. I gather it might come back in 2017 but I can't see it happening. 
Alex Langheck said:
MG CHRIS said:
Because there simply aint enough interest in rallying on here if they did I take a full year just to fill one page. If you have on for rallying then may as well have one for the touring cars/wec etc etc. General motorsport works well as it is with f1 a separate section.
Too true!! Compare a F1 race thread to a WRC thread.....you're lucky if a WRC event thread makes 2 pages. The interest simply isn't there. And with 2016 likely to be another VW/ Ogier cakewalk, it might not get any better. Maybe with a new BRC there will be slightly more.....Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff