real life 2020 FIA World Rally Championship

[versedi 39]

KingOfCoins said:

So Mikkelsen is getting a drive in a C3 in Italy, replacing a certain frenchman. About time if you ask me

Source?

/e: nvm: http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Andreas-Mikkelsen-to-compete-for-Citroen-at-Rally-Italia-Sardegna,116890.html

[Dytut 89]

Finally we get to see him in a proper car! 

[KevM 44]

Be funny if he smoked Meeke!              

[YoMrWhite 11]

It will definitely be interesting to see where Citroen really stands. A little bit hard to judge with Meekes crashes and Breens inexperience. I don't think Mikkelsen will run away from them, but he'll surely be a huge upgrade from Lefebvre. And with a proven winner beside him, maybe Meeke can even relaxe a bit more. I hope so for him.

[RallyDriven 398]

Mikkelsen started testing for Citroen early by putting the Skoda on its roof in Portugal!

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Wow! Rally Portugal never fails to impress! That jump on the last stage is crazy. Glad that M-Sport got the win. This is turning into a very interesting championship.

[dwkGravey 0]

Glad to see Ostberg laughing again. He was one of my favourite drivers when I started watching in 2013, but hadn't been the same for quite a while.

[Dytut 89]

A bit off topic, but I've watched the season reviews from 97 to 07 on youtube and when seeing it as compressed as that I've come to notice that the Subarus of that era were notoriously unreliable with mechanical issues all the time. Were they really that bad? 

[SRD_SimVansevenant 863]

If I'm not mistaken, most Impreza WRC's lasted only about two years before being replaced by a new one. Pretty much all of them were completely new (on the outside and underneath) and with that came lots of new problems every single time. Every new one had different issues in their first competitive year. They would work out many of the issues but not all before replacing it with the next model. I remember Makinen having issues almost every single rally during his time with Subaru.

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Dytut said:

A bit off topic, but I've watched the season reviews from 97 to 07 on youtube and when seeing it as compressed as that I've come to notice that the Subarus of that era were notoriously unreliable with mechanical issues all the time. Were they really that bad? 

I'm sure if they came back now it would be different. They do have 3 World Championships in the WRC so they must have something right. It would still be cool to get more manufactures in the WRC.

[tbtstt 2,387]

Dytut said:

A bit off topic, but I've watched the season reviews from 97 to 07 on youtube and when seeing it as compressed as that I've come to notice that the Subarus of that era were notoriously unreliable with mechanical issues all the time. Were they really that bad? 

Subaru were among the first to adopt the World Rally Car regulations and they (or rather Prodrive) did push a lot of new technologies during that time: in pushing the limits they did suffer a lot of failures...

...but they also bagged two World titles in that time, so not all bad. ;)

[SRD_SimVansevenant 863]

DiRTKiNG808 said:

Dytut said:

A bit off topic, but I've watched the season reviews from 97 to 07 on youtube and when seeing it as compressed as that I've come to notice that the Subarus of that era were notoriously unreliable with mechanical issues all the time. Were they really that bad? 

I'm sure if they came back now it would be different. They do have 3 World Championships in the WRC so they must have something right. It would still be cool to get more manufactures in the WRC.

The question is with which model would they return? The Impreza and Evo won't work as a base for a current spec WRC car.
Actually Subaru has no car that would form a great base. Mitsubishi has the Mirage/Space Star which has been built into an R5 spec car by an independent motorsport company. If Mitsubishi returns that would be the car they'd use. If the R5 spec built car shows tremendous potential, it might turn some heads at Mitsubishi concerning a return to the WRC but that's a bit of reach. One can only hope though. 

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

SimVansevenant said:

DiRTKiNG808 said:

Dytut said:

A bit off topic, but I've watched the season reviews from 97 to 07 on youtube and when seeing it as compressed as that I've come to notice that the Subarus of that era were notoriously unreliable with mechanical issues all the time. Were they really that bad? 

I'm sure if they came back now it would be different. They do have 3 World Championships in the WRC so they must have something right. It would still be cool to get more manufactures in the WRC.

The question is with which model would they return? The Impreza and Evo won't work as a base for a current spec WRC car.
Actually Subaru has no car that would form a great base. Mitsubishi has the Mirage/Space Star which has been built into an R5 spec car by an independent motorsport company. If Mitsubishi returns that would be the car they'd use. If the R5 spec built car shows tremendous potential, it might turn some heads at Mitsubishi concerning a return to the WRC but that's a bit of reach. One can only hope though. 

  Couldn't Subaru use the STI platform? Like they did in 2007.

[SRD_SimVansevenant 863]

No because regulations have changed since then. 
First of all there's the size of the car. It's too long. All manufacturers use smaller compact cars and not sedans.
Secondly there's the engine. The current WRX STI has a 2.5 litre turbo charged engine while according to the regulations a 2017 spec WRC car has to have a 1.6 litre turbo charged engine. An STI is built to fit the 2.5 litre engine perfectly and the car plus loads of components are built around that specific engine. Swapping it with a 1.6 litre is not really something that makes sense and is something they are interested in. Back in 2006-2007 they were able to swap the 2.5 litre engine from the WRX STI with a 2.0 litre engine because they had used 2.0 litres in their previous WRC cars for many years. They had a lot more knowledge and experience with it. They don't have the experience with racing 1.6 litre engine race/rally cars. 

[gfRally 449]

I think there is something that eliminates the boxer engine too, which their whole brand is based on.  

I think they are smart enough to develop a 1.6 liter boxer.   It seems the 2017 cars are bigger maybe that size isn't an issue?  

Subaru did compete very well in Wales last year with Higgins/Drew in a NR4, its a real shame they couldn't take over the current VT16r SRTUSA car, it would have been interesting to see were they placed.  

[Dytut 89]

I can't really remember anything that disqualifies the boxer in itself. I think the biggest issue right now is that they have no model that's small enough to make a competitive rally car. The only car small enough is the BRZ, and rebranding that from a RWD fun car to an AWD car doesn't seem likely. It's usable for the RGT class, but that's it.
All other models are simply too big.

[Dytut 89]

Do we have any gossip about new marques thinking of gettting into the WRC17 spec cars btw?

I wager that VAG cars are out of the question, and doubt PSA will have more than Citroën. Subaru doesn't have a fitting model. Any word on Suzuki or Mitsubishi?

[versedi 39]

Dytut said:

Do we have any gossip about new marques thinking of gettting into the WRC17 spec cars btw?

I wager that VAG cars are out of the question, and doubt PSA will have more than Citroën. Subaru doesn't have a fitting model. Any word on Suzuki or Mitsubishi?

Proton set for WRC return in 2018 with new Iriz R5
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/129574

[dwkGravey 0]

Dytut said:

I can't really remember anything that disqualifies the boxer in itself. I think the biggest issue right now is that they have no model that's small enough to make a competitive rally car.

WRC started requiring a transverse gearbox, which the boxer engine doesn't use, so that effectively wrote Subaru out of the competition AFAIK.

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

Possible other manufactures could be

Honda
Mazda
or Peugeot

[tbtstt 2,387]

Dytut said:

Do we have any gossip about new marques thinking of gettting into the WRC17 spec cars btw?

I wager that VAG cars are out of the question, and doubt PSA will have more than Citroën. Subaru doesn't have a fitting model. Any word on Suzuki or Mitsubishi?

It was rumoured that Skoda might consider jumping up a class in 2018 (using the 2017 Polo WRC as a base but in a Fabia shell). Not sure how likely that is though, as it would require a significant chunk of cash!

Volkwagen are still talking about the Polo R5 debuting later this year, so that's another new car in WRC2. 

[RallyDriven 398]

Also Citroen are building a new C3 R5 from scratch, but their C3 WRC isn't doing a great job of advertising that right now

[pigloaf 236]

hooooooly sheeeeeeeit 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPxFmYVsGaE

body 18 characters too short

[DiRTKiNG808 15]

edgenz said:

hooooooly sheeeeeeeit 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPxFmYVsGaE

body 18 characters too short

Headphone users rest in peace. I am now deaf because of the awesomeness I have just witnessed.

[bogani 756]

edgenz said:

hooooooly sheeeeeeeit 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPxFmYVsGaE

body 18 characters too short

Dust is one thing @urgaffel, but creating the barrage of gravel thrown from the tires would be great challenge for you ;)