posted Dec 15, 2008

comment by F1Hornet (U10637606)
posted 53 Minutes Ago

They need to get back to what rallying is about. I want hard, endurance events, night stages, proper marshalling so that stages aren't cancelled for being too popular, long rallies, traditional names (e.g. 1000 lakes), traditional rallies every year not every other year. Ok, some new rallies can come along and be short and sweet like the current format, but who gives a damn about a few sprints through some Welsh woods rather than a proper RAC rally?

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Amen to that, Loeb's a class apart from the current field but rallies being what they are these days he's never faced anything like the challenges faced by drivers like Alen, Mikkola and Kankunnen. Driving at night in an icy Grizedale in a group B monster, that sorts the men from the boys. As does getting up at silly o clock in the morning to yomp through Grizedale to find a vantage point with a camera and a thermos / hip flask.

Driving fast on gravel is an undoubted skill, but rallying should be about driving fast enough top win AND make your car last the distance.

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posted Dec 15, 2008

No big suprise that they have pulled out and I think it will not be long before other Japanese companies will pull out of their respective motorsports.
The Japanese have a different way of thinking to the rest of the world and will not waste millions on showcase activities like F1 and WRC only to put their long term survival at risk.
It has nothing to do with current cash flow or being bankrupt, they just have sense to quit while they are ahead and protect their future.
The only exeption to this will be Suburu as their reputation (and car sales) are built on the back of the WRC but even they may think twice if thing improve.

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posted Dec 15, 2008

Just a side note to F1Hornet's comment (which was on the whole correct). The marshaling on these events (to which I am one) is not a problem, it's the FIA Health and Safety inspectors who are the problem. The marshals are happy to let people use common sense regarding where to stand and when to move between cars but these FIA high and mighty clowns just like bossing people around and threatening to cancel stages if spectators don't do what they're told. It's a pain in the back-side for all involved.

Suzuki's pullout? A shame if you ask me. Gone are the days of multiple teams fighting it out for the constructors title (Toyota, Ford, Subaru, Mitsubushi, Skoda, Peugeot... all putting in competitive cars in the same season). The WRC will survive but we'll have to ride it out for a championship with multiple teams and constructor dog-fights again.

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posted Dec 15, 2008

comment by unclearengineer (U12846201)
posted 1 Hour Ago

Sorry I'm a bit of a duffer with Rally, but do Suzuki supply customer rally cars?

Anyone who reads Evo Magazine will have seen one of their writers competing in a few British Rallies in a Suzuki Swift - are these affected too?

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Suzuki entered a works 2 car team for the 2008 season with PG Andersson and Toni Gardemeister as their drivers, there were no other "semi-works" or "privateer" SX4s entered.

I believe they will continue to support the JWRC entrants and UK/Europe Swift Cups in 2009.

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posted Dec 15, 2008

Sorry Moz, I know marshals do a very good job and can't be thanked enough for what they do, I more meant the rules governing crowd control. Perhaps more thought needs to be put into theses stages that end up getting cancelled, because there seems to be at least one each rally. Some spectating at rallies seems dangerous to both spectators and drivers (idiots throwing rocks!) and the recent deaths in the Czech Republic show spectator safety is important.

On a similar note, why were so many stages shortened on Wales Rally GB? Isn't the point that sometimes conditions are bad and drivers need to deal with it if its icy?

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posted Dec 15, 2008

No worries chief. There were a lot of criticisms over the crowd control rules and the rally itself this year. One which was apparent to me was that spectators were designated a car park where the only legitimate path up to the rally road was between spectator viewing points. The FIA inspectors on site would then stop their jeeps before the start of the stage (practically at ever corner) and complain to both spectators and marshals that there were, I quote the man's megaphone announcement, 'people are walking, we can't have that'. That's silly enough in itself and would have been met with ridicule back in the RAC days, but it was the rally organisers and FIA people who put those people there with shoddy car-park and walkway planning. How are people supposed to get to spectator points but to walk there?

/rant.

As for the shortened stages? FIA Health and Safety and the ridiculous one tyre rule. Kankkunen and Vatanen would be rolling around on the floor laughing at the thought of canceling stages because it was 'a bit slippy'.

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posted Dec 15, 2008

I really dispair of the people in charge of motorsport.

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posted Dec 16, 2008

subaru have gone as well.

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posted Dec 16, 2008

How sad. I was watching a video last night of 1986 Group B footage and had it somewhat loud. My mother heard it and commented 'Is it McRae era?' When I told her it wasn't, she then pulle dout a few names. She'd watched it on telly all those years ago, isn't a car fanantic at all (horses are her game) but she pulled out names like Mankkunen, Alen, even Bjorn Waldegard. She couldn't name the current champion.

It summed up how I feel about rallying now and motorsport in general. I feel so lucky to have grown up in the late 80s and 90s to have seen the best F1 (Senna, Mansell, Prost), the best BTCC (the days of the supertourers ruled) and the best of the WRC. All three disciplines of motorsport now bore me. With Subaru going as well, one has to wonder how the WRC will survive.

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posted Dec 16, 2008

Just heard that Subaru have also withdrawn their works team, this news just gets even sadder. You know where you heard this first...

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