WRC 2017, remember group B?

Have you seen the new WRC?! From this new season, +80hp (near 400) and a lot of new aerodynamics... soooooo damn FAST!

 

The new cars do look great. On the road they've looked a bit underpowered for quite a few years. It was getting boring.

I still have issues with the modern WRC though. Being an old git I still find how short the events are now difficult to deal with. Most of the events are less than 20 stages now, the Tour de Corse is 10... in the 80s you'd have 30-50 stages. 10 stages is like a weekend club event...

Mostly I really miss the old RAC with 50-60 stages covering the whole country

 

I was surprised when i read that the cars get more horsepower. It kind of objects the reason why the group B cars were banned in the first place. A dead spectator on day 1 of the Monte didn't really help much to build confidence that that was a good decision... don't get me wrong, i think the new cars are nice, but, rallying is a dangerous sport, and i hope this was not a bad decision, to make the sport more "thrilling". For me, the old cars were thrilling enough, especially when you watch the onboards, you do realize that it is should be one of the most adrenalin producing disciplines. When i watch the video above, and also the footage from the Monte, i must admit that i'm a bit concerned that we enter an era again, where the cars become too dangerous, and uncontrollable. Hope i'm wrong.

 

No, we need even more HP if spectators die, it's their foult. The more crazy and dangerous, the more people will watch, sounds ridiculous, but it's true.

 

That spectator was a dumbass, nothing to do with the car or driver. If you're gonna stand at the exit of a turn on the outside, you have to expect to be nailed.

 

I am very excited about the new cars! Just so fricking sticky cars! Many of us will be blown away how fast these cars will be on proper tarmac rallies like Catalunya or Germany. Just unbelieveably sticky. Also I like the way these cars have to be driven. In a quite a lot more aggressive way.

And last but not least.. ..can't wait to see (and hear) these monsters on stages in Rally Finland!

 

banning group b.. worst decision ever. That was the baddestass drivers and cars... stupid crowd people, are still stupid these days, that aint gonna change.

 

There are also some interesting design choices teams have made.

Citroen and Toyota both have gone totally nuts with very steep blown diffusers where Ford chose to use a lot smaller but still blown one. Hyundai on the other hand have done moderately steep but not utilizing exhaust fumes at all (edit: significantly less than others).

Front aero is also very different between the teams. Ford have gone nuts there with wide "wings"-like wheel arches, where others have gone with much more modest dive plane solutions (single or double). Hyundai actually has a bit similar solution to Ford.

Toyota has interesting "arrow"-shaped side skirts and side mirrors are actually wing-like aero devices. Very unique stuff.

Overall where the Toyota looks like Frankenstein made in a small garage for Time Attack tracks, the Ford looks almost as aggressive as the Toyota but in a lot more mature way. Citroen and Hyundai looks more conservative to the point where Hyundai looks a bit like the old cars.

I think the regulations were designed to made different looking cars and there is a slight chance that teams are gone different routes when balancing between mechanical and aero grip. Really interesting to see how the performance looks after a few, more traditional rallies. Monte didn't show much because of the tricky conditions and therefore always wrong tyres and when slicks on tarmac, possibly below operational temperatures.

 

Rallying was attracting massive crowds at the time and controlling them was proving difficult. It's hard to imagine now how popular rallying was, I'd certainly say it was much bigger than F1. Communications are so much easier now, you can quickly get the stage stopped if things get out of hand, as happened on the 2017 Monte, back then giving everyone radios and training them to use them was difficult.

The cars were definitely unsafe but that could have been addressed. When he was killed Toivenan was sat on an aluminium fuel tank and the car was packed with combustible materials.... Now the fuel tank is in the rear of the car iirc, made out of rubber and Kevlar and almost everything in the car is incombustible. Iirc there was a compromise suggested for 1987, group S. Similar cars, less power, crash and fire tests but quite like group B, unfortunately the knee jerk reaction was group A which felt very boring compared to group B.

 

WRC became boring when all teams had to use the wife's shopping trolly to remain competitive. I want to see cars like the Impreza return.

 

+ No more 'homologation rule', killed lot of interest.

 

Opening shot had the hairs standing up on my neck. Beyond awesome!

 

Homologation used to exclude a lot of manufacturers that didn't produce a suitable car. It's also a bit daft having to produce 2500 cars because you want to run a particular design of bumper or somesuch.

 

Not necessarily. If you take a look at even the assigned spectator zones, then it's rather a wonder that so few accidents involving spectators happen. There are quite a few though, in rallying in general. In this case, the spectator was outside of the assigned spectator areas, yeah, but, even the assigned spectator zones can be pretty dangerous. Faster cars will surely not minimize the risks, that's for sure.

Anyway, i'm not entirely against it. Just wondering. Why did they ban group B cars, just to return to faster cars 30 years after that. Seems a weird decision.

 

Well, i wouldn't exactly call a Ford Fiesta ST the "wife's shopping trolly". I'm not really interested in the Impreza, or the Mitsubishi Lancer either, they never really played a role here. Why would you want to market something which doesn't play role on the market?

 

WRC has been great for years - yes, the events are shorter, but the drops off the cliffs are no shorter and the roads are no wider. These new cars add a new sense of spectacle and anytime someone says "well, not as spectacular as Group B" I say go see them in person; they will blow you away.

The only issue I have is that the engines are too close to each other. The regulations would be better served opened up a bit more with regards to engine types IMO. They sound great, but too alike.

 

the biggest issue is imo TV coverage. Over here its like 10 minutes netto each night at 23:30, right before "adult" ads start running. IRC did it different some years ago, with actual live coverage of stages, which was really great

 

Red Bull TV covers this years events, with half an hour recaps of every day, and a Live special stage (i think): https://www.redbull.tv/live/AP-1Q84GQNEN1W11/fia-world-rally-championship I don't know if it is watchable in all countries though, may be restricted where you are.

 

I dont even know which UK station has the WRC any more, it seemed to flip from one station to another. It was BBC for years, then it moved to Eurosport, then Channel 4, now I dont know who has it...?