A very good move as far as I'm concerned, keep the cars much more standard like in the good old days, hopefully the WRC will become a bit more relevant to the production cars again.

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=51371 :rolleyes:

maybe we'll see the return of some more major manufacturers etc (crosses fingers for Toyota) The only upside i can think of at the moment is the lower cost of rallying...and hopefully the increase in competitors..

Other than that it will make it a boring sport for the trainspotters. Safety nazis have really really ****ed shit up in the last few years.

no reason why it should be boring, the power may be more peaky but the cars will be more powerfull than the works escorts, fiats or porsches of the 70s and most of the stratoses (strati ? where's tris when you need him?). the kit cars of peugeot and renault were some of the most spectacular things to watch in their time just because of the commitment of the drivers and the noise. as long as they ensure the tyres are a sensible size so that grip is at a premium most people won't be able to tell how fast they are to compared to the current WRC cars, if you can watch some of the modified tarmac cars in irish rallying, they certainly are not boring after all if you are really bothered about power remember that WRC cars are guttless compared to some of the group B cars

if they are grippy they are boring. The whole reason Group B was so much fun to watch is cos the cars were almost always scrabbling for grip like a dog on lino....

NA cars (4cyl generalization) don't have the power to break grip mid corner easily, altho on gravel the odds increase. However its still boring if the cars are TOO well balanced weight/power wise. and can take most corners smoothly

Quote from senn :

if they are grippy they are boring. The whole reason Group B was so much fun to watch is cos the cars were almost always scrabbling for grip like a dog on lino....

IDK about you and the Group B era fans but when I watch Rally I watched it cause it was fast on poor or no roads. That in itself is an excitement I couldn't care less whether or not the cars were power sliding. I normally saved the sliding for D1GP (which i watch like once a month).

Not bashing you or anything just trying to point out a different perspective.

don't get me wrong rally drivers are still the best in the world but....its not fun to watch anymore IMHO.....too sanitized etc, but like i said thats just IMHO. Have you watched much Group B btw? its pretty spectacular even on the straights

I'm too young to really get to know of that era. Interestingly enough, based on what I know from footage, sims and documentaries, I'm very impressed by the cars and would give a lot to go see atleast one group B rally race.

Also interestingly enough, I personally dont feel that WRC has a problem right now. Could be the newer generation of racing spectators . If I was around in the group B era I might share your opinion. But again, as of now I personally dont see a problem.

Also, you do have to admit, the crowds were pretty insane as well. I'd probably rather see it "sanctionized" than having 40 deaths each race

WRC's problem is the lack of revenue and very high cost. The cars cost several million dollars under the current regulations, and manufacturers aren't willing to shell out that much money on a series which provides very little public exposure.

Rallying just doesn't lend itself to convenient TV coverage, which means less exposure, therefore less marketing potential.

The switch to S2000-based cars aim to reduce the cost by an order of magnitude. WRC needs a revival, or it will surely become extinct.

I think this is a very, very good idea.

The cars will be cheaper, so we should get a lot more entrants. They'll be more similar to road cars as well so perhaps we'll actually get to see some of the models transfer to the real world, instead of just Subaru giving us something.

Also, it could hopefully make the stages longer again. Teams have been trying to make the stages shorter and shorter because the new cars just can't run the huge stages they used to.

Quote from senn :

if they are grippy they are boring. The whole reason Group B was so much fun to watch is cos the cars were almost always scrabbling for grip like a dog on lino....

NA cars (4cyl generalization) don't have the power to break grip mid corner easily, altho on gravel the odds increase. However its still boring if the cars are TOO well balanced weight/power wise. and can take most corners smoothly

Ever watched the PWRC? They don't seem to struggle to break traction, and they're still pretty damn fast.

Group B cars may have been amazing, but it was them that pushed rallying too far, and made it too expensive for everyone involved.

thats something that is missing nowadays, personal responsibility. If you stand right next to a race track/road where a race is taking place, odds are you might get hit. It's not the drivers, or the sports fault.

and it was only one race where spectators were killed....rally of portugal IIRC, when an RS200 left the road?

quoted from Wikipedia - Thirty-one people were injured and three were killed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_B#1986

IIRC i have heard that Group B cars were CHEAPER than current Group A cars...but i'd have to find the quote to prove that

Quote from senn :

IIRC i have heard that Group B cars were CHEAPER than current Group A cars...but i'd have to find the quote to prove that

In terms of raw dollars, yes they would have been much cheaper. But if you calculate inflation into it, probably not.

Group B cars were cutting-edge at the time, much like WRC cars 3-5 years ago.

Quote from senn :

don't get me wrong rally drivers are still the best in the world but....its not fun to watch anymore IMHO.....too sanitized etc, but like i said thats just IMHO. Have you watched much Group B btw? its pretty spectacular even on the straights

"Too sanitized" could be said about nearly every form of motorsports excluding drag racing. F1 cars, sportscars, touring cars, all were more exciting to watch in 70s, 80s or 90s. Tyres and eletronics have advanced so much and you can't stop evolution unless you copy Nascar rule book. Altough last year thanks to TC ban, F1 took a weird step backwards in this sense.

Quote from spookthehamster :

Group B cars may have been amazing, but it was them that pushed rallying too far, and made it too expensive for everyone involved.

Expensive? Which one of the teams quit because of costs?

Quote from deggis :

Expensive? Which one of the teams quit because of costs?

The series lasted three years, the major teams had barely joined when it finished. The attitude of the Group B teams however laid the groundwork for the insane spending that would follow in rallying.

Blame Ford, they made baby jesus cry and they made Group B end

Quote from spookthehamster :

The series lasted three years, the major teams had barely joined when it finished. The attitude of the Group B teams however laid the groundwork for the insane spending that would follow in rallying.

"Attitude of teams"? How about this way: presence of major manufacturer teams laid the groundwork for what WRC rallying IS today (or was until 2008). Top class motorsport in general was getting more professional and more expensive around that time.

Not sure if Group A really any cheaper. Not to mention the planned Group S which was supposed to replace Group B in 1988. Ironically the planned rules for Group S had some ideas very common to modern WRC regulations.

why can't they just form a reglement like "300 whp/power to weight ration limited, base chassis must be from a production modell" etc.
I think its a bit boring that every manufacturer runs its 2litre inline 4 N/A \Turbo, I'd like some variation, like back in the Group B days, inline 5s, V6s, supercharged inline 4s.

Even Mazda could enter one of its Wankels *dream*