Forum: Off-topic

No Mitsu this year either.... Sad

It's basically a 5-horse race...well 4 really, Skoda has a LOT of work to do.
Privateer teams? You kidding me? 80% of the field is privateers. Course, you only hear about the works cars....because they're the works cars. A rally typically has anywhere between 40-80 cars in the field, but you really only hear about the top 10-20. It's hard to see it, but rally is much much bigger than just the works cars, yet it's all the works cars....if that makes sense.
As far as Toyota making a return....pffft! Forget it, they've got F1 fever. They've pulled out of every major racing series to concentrate fully on F1. Their learning curve has been huge, as you can tell from their mediocre results. Of course, they anticipated this, so they figured the best way to succeed was to save money by pulling out of everything else and sending a large portion of their motorsport money to F1 development. You remember the Toyota TS-020 GT1 car for LeMans? What a beast that was eh? Dumped it.... The Corolla rally car....dumped it...... It's all about the TF cars for them now. I'd love to see them return too, would add another dynamic to the rallies, but that won't happen for a while. I'd also love a return of Audi to the fold...a TT rally car would be teh shiznit! In fact there was a guy runing a white TT at Rim last year. But alas, they're gung-ho LeMans, and have enjoyed unparalelled success with the R8...and now the Bentley Speed 7...make no mistake about it the Bentley is all Audi engineered.

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I hate to point this out to you Habu, but Toyota is making a run at NASCAR. They'll be running a Tundra in the truck series and then looking to come into Busch/Cup with probably the Camry (body style since there is nothing stock about a stock car, or truck for that matter). And, they dominate the IRL (though I was impressed that Honda gave them the challenge they did). So, they haven't totally gone F-1 mad. But, yes, I see your point that they've pulled the plug on alot of stuff to concentrate on F1. Yeah, the TS-020 was impressive, but they couldn't win LeMans with it! Shift linkages, tire failures, drivers that suffer from red mist. Everything went wrong for them. I was being kinda sarcastic about the privateer teams in the WRC. But seriously, when was the last time a privateer won? Also, aren't there other classes all running at the same time? Like, isn't there a junior WRC or production WRC or whatever? Do you go to Rim of the World every year? I'd like to go to that sometime to actually see a rally. How do the SCCA Rally cars compare to the WRC cars?

woo hooo!! I'm now a "frequent poster". . . Cool

Well I bet if a privateer could pony up $100 million, it's possible they could win :p
Yes, they run the JWRC and the PWRC (Group N), concurrently with the WRC class.
I've been to Rim every year since 2001. Last year was miserable though...the worst weather for the rally in 20 years. Rain, wind and mud, I was doing stage setup, we cancelled 3 stages. Over half the stages were cancelled for the whole rally. After my volunteer duties were over, I managed to meet up with a few friends, and spent the rest of the day with them trying to spectate. And I mean trying....they closed half the road to the viewing area, which meant there was a 2 mile walk to it in the pouring, driving rain and mud. We got lucky and got picked up by somone in a Blazer. We spent the the next two hours waiting for the cars to show. We got so soaked and cold, we just forget it. I saw not one rally car on stage the whole weekend. It blew balls.... On the bright side, hanging out with my friends being miserable was a great experience, we were laughing about it that night already....good times...good times...

Hmm, sounds like that was a real party. So, how do the SCCA cars compare? I always assumed they were like the Group N cars (the big boys in WRC are Group A right?). Is that one guy still running the VW Beetle? The privateer teams in WRC, do they get the year old works cars or do they build their own?

Oh yeah I forgot....

SCCA Open class cars are basically like WRC cars, but there are some slight differences. For one, there's no restrictor required, so you can run as much power as you want. Mark Lovell's (RIP) STi was running about 400hp, MORE than a WRC prepped car. Don't forget that the SRTUSA car is also prepped by Prodrive Wink

There is no Group A anymore in the WRC, that class is now called the World Rally Car, or WRC class, with a lot of changes. The most potentially unfortuante change is that you no longer have to make a production run of 2500 cars of the type you run in the class, like you did with Group A. This was great because of that homologation standard, it gave us gems like the WRX, the Evo and the Cossie. With that gone now, the mfgs are under no obligation make road going versions of the same platform as the rally cars. Thank the force the Impreza and the Evo are such staples now that they won't stop making them. Last time there was a Group A was 1996. But there have been many WRC cars run in the SCCA Open class. There is also Group N, Group 2/5, Production GT, and Production.

Yeah privateers get year old WRC cars, but I do believe they can purchase current year ones. But that helps little unless you got the near bottomless resources the works guys have.

Prodrive rules. They do those Ferrari 550s that run in ALMS too right? Wow, with no homologation regulations, you think we'll see a return to those monsters like the Peugeot 205 (I think that was their designation)and cars like that. Weren't they outlawed by the FIA cause they were just too fast and dangerous?

ahhh...the 'Killer B's'...Group B was an awesome class. It produced some behemoths like the Ford RS200, MG Metro 6R4, Audi Quattro Sport....pumping out 5-600hp! Surprised

Yeah they were dangerous...killed 14 spectators in 1986, the last year of Group B.

So, how many 1/24th scale WRC cars have you built?

Six...and a seventh on the way...sort of, I just put it away.
'96 Ford Escort Cosworth RS, Sweden winner<---I looooove Cossie Escorts, almost as much as I love the Impreza.
'98 Mistu Evo V,Monte Carlo
'98 Impreza WRC Safari
'99 Impreza WRC Corsica
'00 Impreza WRC Arai
'01 Impreza WRC Monte Carlo

I made a base for the Imprezas and entered them into TamiyaCon 2003...observe...

That's just my 1/24 Imprezas, I've also built four 1/43rds:
Heller '00 Argetina
Provence Moulage '01 Monte Carlo
Provence Moulage '02 Monte Carlo
Provence Moulage '03 Presentation

I also did a Heller Peugeot 206.

The one I started was an '02 Ford Focus WRC-Deutschland

That one I put away for now, as I'm only doing aircraft Very Happy

Those look sweet! I reall like the base they're on. Ever given any thought do doing a Rally Finland scene with a car flying off a "yump"? I always thought that would look cool. Anyway, for WRC cars I've got:

1/43rd;
Heller Ford Focus and Mitsu Lancer

1/24th:
Heller Citroen Xsara (and I got the Studio 27 sheet for it cause the Heller decals looked a little iffy. . .)
Tamiya Subaru Impreza 2001

I know, I'm not all crazy go nuts with the WRC kits, yet, but I my goal is to get all the Tamiya kits at some point. I'd like to pick up the Impreza Rally Great Britan kit next.

Any tips on building the Tamiya Impreza kit?

Oh yeah! I've got the Heller 1/24 Xsara...or rather, semblance thereof....with S27 PE and decals Very Happy

Got any pics of yours?

Oh, I got them, I just haven't built them. . . Yeah, I'm already trying to find pictures of the interior of the Xsara so I know how many bars I have to add. There's no top to the roll cage! Those litte 1/43rd kits are pretty cool though. I'd just like to find some aftermarket decals for them cause the Ford doesn't come with the Martinis.

I noticed that Tamiya usually models either the Monte Carlo, Safari, Corsica or British versions of cars. Is there a reason for that?

Tarmac cars are easier to do....plus since MC is the first rally fot the seaon, it takes the rest of the season to develop them model.

I guess Carpena decals makes the number plates for the other rallies, but I've never seen anyone who carries them. I'm sure I could find them online. I'd like to find some snow tires too and do a Swedish car.