future plans for wrc?

quoted from yahoo sport/autosport....

New technical regulations will arrive in the world championship in 2017, but Barbosa is adamant those rules will be written and communicated before the end of this year. And he wants variety back in the service park.
"If you paint all of the [current World Rally] cars white," said Barbosa, "right now it's not possible to recognise which is which. We need to change that and we need to bring the spectacle back to our sport and make the cars more attractive."
AUTOSPORT sources have suggested there will be significant change in 2017 both in the size of cars - potentially moving from the current segment-B cars up to segment-D - and in the engine power, with the rules centred on controlling fuel flow to allow manufacturers to, within reason, run whatever engine they prefer.
"We are at the beginning of the discussions for the 2017 car," said Barbosa. "This is the principle [fuel-flow regulation] but out of this principle, things can still change.
"We have had the meeting with the [FIA] technical working group and the manufacturers, and now it must go to the Commission.
"I will be in Geneva soon to discuss this document with Jarmo [Mahonen, FIA rally director], Michele [Mouton, FIA WRC manager] and Jean [Todt FIA president] and then we will say: 'This is OK, that is not OK, change this or change that.'
"We cannot take this meeting as the final meeting, but I think we are going in a very good way.
"We must change many things to make the WRC in the top events in the world: the WRC must be bigger."
Barbosa confirmed 2017 regulations would be prepared and most likely revealed at the December meeting of the World Motor Sport Council.
"I am sure we will have these regulations by the end of the season," he said.
"This was the promise we gave to the manufacturers and everything will be completely done and completely correct before the end of the year."

The problem we have these days is that the current crop of road cars are so unsuited to rallying, anything the manufacturers try to promote will not be spectacular. In order to make them fast, they have to add huge aero packages, which changes the appearence beyond recognition.

We cant look at grp B since they were all prototypes, but take grp A for instance. Anyone of those cars could have driven off the forecourt and up to the startline and they would look the same from the outside. Even WRCs from late 90s/ early 00s looked similair to the road going cars (eg Lancer/Impreza/Focus hell even one look at a 206 WRC and you could tell it was a 206)

The problem we have now these days is that road going cars are so tame. Manufacturers in general dont make the type of car they did years ago since the market has changed to more economical cars from the earlier performance cars. The lancers and imprezas have been replaced by polos, ds3's, feistas and I20s. Cars which the manufacturer want to promote to increase sales. In the past the lancers and imprezas were the flagship car for the company showing how they could make a really good performance car, that you could walk into a showroom and buy something that looked the same and performed some way like the ones they seen on the stages. Its been several years since you could say the same about modern WRCs. I think the current crop of 1.6t cars have caused the most problems with car recognition. Too much aero parts.

I dont think the FIA can do much with the regulations if the manufacturers want to promote family cars. I would go so far as to say we need to see the kind of jump that we seen from grp B to grp a, cut costs, make parts interchangeable between cars (similar to F1 at the moment where one team developes and ECU for example that the other teams use). As many new regs as possible to get private cars/teams competitive as possible

Id also love to see the holmogation rules changed. As well as producing a certain amount of road cars, they must also be able to supply a certain number of conversion kits. These kits will contain everything needed to convert a road car shell into a top flight rally car. This will allow more private teams be able to compete by being able to afford the kit and doing the work themselves. If andrew fanning can get a custom car built for cheaper than an R5, then there is something wrong somewhere.

I really hope these news regulations will turn the sport around. Another set like the current ones and i dont know if the sport at the top level can be salvaged.

excellent points brian, can't disagree with any of that.............we can but hope i suppose.....   

Nice one, Brian, agree with you entirely!

I think the current crop of cars would look the same in any colour, not just white!!!!!

Ahem, I'll go now!

Cheers, Steve

Im no technician, but just looking at my wrc collection, the variety of podium gaining cars from 73 to late 80s and the smattering of privateers amongst the factory teams suggests the intent to reintroduce variety is definitely a sound concept.

agreed paul!   

reeft1 wrote:Im no technician, but just looking at my wrc collection, the variety of podium gaining cars from 73 to late 80s and the smattering of privateers amongst the factory teams suggests the intent to reintroduce variety is definitely a sound concept.

Variety is the spice of life or so they say