Dytut

Damn VW :-/ Hope they can just mothball it for one season and return in 2018 at least.  But the drivers... Don't think Hyundai will snatch anyone, might be that M-Sport will try to get one (Ogier + Tänak would be a killer lineup if Ford would want to get a new title). Mikkelsen might go to Citroen, or can Neuville scrounge up a Hyundai seat for his friend? Wonder if Latvala won't just quit, felt like 2017 will be his last bid for a world title but not sure if he can reload his batteries for a new team. Or... will Mäkinen get his fellow Finn a Yaris?

Seems rather unlikely that VW would just throw away all that work on the 2017 car. But then again, you never know. Really hope that's not the case.

sort of far away? This can only mean Argentina! It's far away, but just next door to the Falklands ;-)

Silence in the gossip thread means NDAs have been signed ;-)

The Yaris has already won my heart simply by sounding awesome. 

I do hope Codies give all the invitees a proper "license to troll" at the event :-) 

Could be true, Kubica has a lot of experience (mostly in how to crash). Might be that he'll share a car with one of the WRC2 guys.

I am quite certain that nothing has ever been overanalyzed in this thread.

But what's that handwriting in the book in the left corner?

Non-exploding cars confirmed!

Do not trust anything. They are watching.

Hänninen confirmed for Toyota. No big surprise since he's been testing. Not that exciting per se, probably a stability choice. Hopefully the other two spots will be up and coming WRC2 drivers. Lappi and Tidemand would be great, but I suspect it will be Suninen and Lappi.

Well this year many have shown they have the speed to battle with Ogier, but none have had the consistency to battle for the championship. But I'm cautiously optimistic for 2017. Latvala is fast and crashes. Been doing this his whole career, don't think he'll do better next year. Mikkelsen goes either a bit too slow or crashes out. Quite consistent but often not fast enough to challenge Ogier. Neuville got back to form in the latter half and can be a real threat next year. Paddon has been steadily getting better, still not fast enough of tarmac.  Sordo is consistent like Ogier, but usually not as fast as him. Much like Mikkelsen. Meeke is a wildcard for 2017. He's shown a really impressive pace on all events he's entered this year. Still a bit prone to crash, but if he can keep his wits about him it's going to be interesting. Breen and Lefebvre will probably not be competetive next season but will probably reel in points for citroen. Tänak show great speed at times, but so hard to judge how fast he can be since the DMACKs puts him in a different situation.  Östberg is pretty much just... average.  We have no idea what the Toyota drivers will do next year, but doubt they'll be challenging Ogier for the title. I still think Ogier will win in 2017, probably with Meeke and Neuville challenging him a bit more tightly than this season. Mikkelsen (if he can get a slight speed boost), Latvala (if he stops breaking the car) and Paddon (if he can get the speed up on tarmac) might challenge them. That's my gut feeling at least.

Still better than having him win every single round though, at least in my opinion. Yeah. I've treated this years WRC as a series of individual events rather than a Championship. The overall result was a foregone conclusion, but the individual event results where interesting.  I hope all the winners from 2016 will be able to consistently challenge in 2017. Same - Meeke's performance in Finland was amazing though, as well as Paddon's in Argentina. Tänak in Poland before his tyres gave up aswell.

Yup. Most interesting part has been to see how, and which, drivers do well in preparing for 2017. Feels like noone but Latvala really tried to go for the championship at the onset of the season. Think 2017 will be a well needed mental reboot for all drivers. I'm hopeful of a tighter championship at least.

Could be a ping-pong simulator. Physics engines has to start somewhere.

https://twitter.com/thierryneuville/status/783578658426544128 Well I'll be damned, thought Neuville was going to switch. So, the Hyundai primary drivers are all done then (guess Abbring and maybe someone else will get a shot in a fourth car from time to time).

And they’re not just busy eating teacakes. Or Yorkie bars. Can anyone shed some light on if this is clever gossip or just random stuff? :-)

Print it and keep it as a book in the office toilet. Good for feature ideas and house prices!

i20 concept car. Looking good imho. Hope they're going to use a color scheme kinda like that for the real car. https://twitter.com/HaydenPaddon/status/781436414042963968

I think it's more of a technical proof of concept/new generation engine with the new physics that's done. 

The twittter action seems to be a lot about coding gods and stuff working the first time. Codies either found a cocaine fountain in the office or they're really excited about something :-)

They might just have been out drunk driving and swerved into a milestone. Otherwise I'd be forced to get hyped, and I can't stand being hyped. I'm not saying you should be hyped but... ;) (sorry for late teasing, I've been far far away) So it's time to get on board the hype train? I think we need a slight touch more imagery before we start shoveling coal in there ;-)

They might just have been out drunk driving and swerved into a milestone. Otherwise I'd be forced to get hyped, and I can't stand being hyped.

Now that we've seen some footage of all the new 2017 cars... how do you feel they rack up? The i20 is the one that looks fastest so far imho, but that has no bearing on the real speed. Best sound so far has to be the Yaris though.