Friday 15th March 2013

Pic Of The Week: Latvala cleared for takeoff

Jari-Matti Latvala earns his wings on last weekend's Rally Mexico

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Comment threads that stem from most of our rally stories these days often result in a plethora of disappointed or irate posts about the demise of WRC and the paucity of the associated television coverage. And not without reason. But let’s put such concerns aside just for a second and be thankful for the fact that it does, at least, still exist – and in doing so, it gives us such spectacular images as this one.

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll recognise it from our WRC report at the start of the week. Can you blame us for posting it for a second time, though? Even the most hardened of modern WRC sceptics can still enjoy the sight of Jari-Matti Latvala’s Polo R WRC getting quite considerably airborne here, with a good couple of metres of clear air between him and the deck at least. Latvala's team-mate Ogier went on to take overall victory at Rally Mexico, giving him a 74-point tally in the driver’s championship and leaving him way out ahead of his nearest championship rival, Mikko Hirvonen.

OK, so modern rallying might not be as gripping as it once was, and British TV coverage has dwindled to a point where it’s virtually non-existent – but this picture does at least show there’s still some spectacle left in the WRC!

Traditional (4:3)
Computer widescreen (16:10)
TV widescreen (16:9)
Portrait (smartphone, etc)

[Twincam16]

Great stuff (although it is worth pointing out that ITV4 has an hour-long highlights show on the Tuesday following the rally, repeated the following Saturday morning, and will screen the Wales Rally GB day-to-day the way it covers the Isle of Man TT).

[Twincam16]

nickfrog said:

I assume you do realise it has nothing to do with a Polo, apart from those four letters.

IMO they should have based it on the Audi A1. Not only do you have the cache of all those Quattro associations, but the A1 Quattro is closer in spirit to a WRC car than the Polo R. And at the end of the day, all the money goes to the VW Group regardless so what difference does it make?

[Twincam16]

Baryonyx said:

Twincam16 said:

IMO they should have based it on the Audi A1. Not only do you have the cache of all those Quattro associations, but the A1 Quattro is closer in spirit to a WRC car than the Polo R. And at the end of the day, all the money goes to the VW Group regardless so what difference does it make?[/pic]

Brand positioning, for one thing. Now that Audi are supposed to be a premium brand, WRC doesn't really fit in with that image. Similarly, VW get an opportunity to boost the credibility of their hot hatches, which have undoubtedly taken some flak over the years for being boring.

The point about the A1 Quattro being closer to the spirit of a WRC car is moot, saying as the WRC cars are silhouettes that really have nothing to do with the road cars. Though if Ford promised a Fiesta WRC road car with a good engine and a light permanent AWD system I would be all over it.

Brand this, image that.

And I remember when car firms were all about engineering. There's a reason why the best Audis are 4WD.