The Marcus Grönholm Rally Thread

Shizuka · Post by **Shizuka** » 06 Apr 2014, 07:22

eytl wrote:
Wizzie wrote:Bobby K's making it really, really difficult to be a Kubica fan right now

I agree. I like to consider myself quite a Robert supporter but this is becoming more than a bad joke. He'll probably need another new navigator soon!

I know just the man for the job! To pull out an old chestnut ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU1v3OFL7uI

Thirded.

THROTTLE. THROTTLE. THROTTLE.

EDIT: Samir Thapar & Vivek Ponnusamy! :lol:

You know who to look for after that video

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 07 Apr 2014, 08:30

eytl wrote:
Wizzie wrote:Bobby K's making it really, really difficult to be a Kubica fan right now

I agree. I like to consider myself quite a Robert supporter but this is becoming more than a bad joke. He'll probably need another new navigator soon!

I know just the man for the job! To pull out an old chestnut ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU1v3OFL7uI

I would have also suggested Kaj Lindström, but Kimi had that idea already, and as we know now, that didn't make much difference.

Hyundai have been very disappointing so far. They tried the same methodical approach as VW, but it just hasn't produced results like the Germans managed. Neuville has made some mistakes, yes, but it's hard to put the blame on him for the overall sucking of the team. Ogier is the best driver in WRC, this I have no doubt. But if you switched the two of them, you'd likely have Neuville and Latvala fighting tooth-and-nail for the title, with Ogier mired in the midfield. Hirvonen has always been decent but nothing special. Nothing will challenge VW-Ogier for the forseeable future, because they have the biggest budget, the best car and the best driver. It's a combo that can only be beaten with an equally big manufacturer making an equally big investment and poaching Neuville from Hyundai, or finding a diamond in the rough, as it were. Kubica could have been that diamond, if he'd stop crashing every five minutes. But it's not looking too good right now for anything other than Seb Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala...

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 10 Apr 2014, 17:50

Biscione wrote:Kubica could have been that diamond, if he'd stop crashing every five minutes.

By the way, Kubica returned to the Rally of Portugal Saturday, under Rally2 rules, and just in the second stage of the day (SS9) he went off and into a ditch getting stuck in the process. He broke the clutch then and was unable to go no further despite having re-joined the road.

ryangregg12345 · Post by **ryangregg12345** » 15 May 2014, 18:53

I just found out that Fabrizia Pons was one of only two people to score points as both driver and co-driver in the WRC. Who was the other?

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 27 Jun 2014, 05:49

WRC: Watch Robert Crash. Again

watka · Post by **watka** » 29 Jun 2014, 23:29

Wizzie wrote:WRC: Watch Robert Crash. Again

The sport almost killed him, but yet he insists...

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 01 Aug 2014, 13:02

Another rally, another Kubica crash. Y Bobby, y u do dis?

Post by **Londoner** » 22 Aug 2014, 18:29

Kubica bathplugs up again.

But hey, at least he didn't crash this time, unlike a certain S.Ogier...

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 02 Oct 2014, 05:50

Introducing Mitsubishi Mirage R5.

Discuss.

watka · Post by **watka** » 02 Oct 2014, 23:03

FMecha wrote:Introducing Mitsubishi Mirage R5.

Discuss.

Well it seems that Mitsubishi's aim is to make money by offering it as a competitive car for privateer teams to buy in WRC2 and in other rally series, so I wouldn't be expecting a triumphant return of Mitsubishi to WRC any time soon.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 02 Oct 2014, 23:41

It's widely expected that R5 will take over from the World Rally Car as the championship's top class of car in 2017.

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 03 Oct 2014, 10:26

FMecha wrote:Introducing Mitsubishi Mirage R5.

Discuss.

That radiator looks quite exposed to potential damage...

Myrvold · Post by **Myrvold** » 16 Oct 2014, 00:52

watka wrote:Well it seems that Mitsubishi's aim is to make money by offering it as a competitive car for privateer teams to buy in WRC2 and in other rally series, so I wouldn't be expecting a triumphant return of Mitsubishi to WRC any time soon.

It's a private build, project from Sweden, with Mitsubishi blessing, which makes it possible for a future international homologation

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 26 Oct 2014, 23:38

Congratulations to Ogier for winning the title this weekend in Spain.

Nessafox · Post by **Nessafox** » 27 Oct 2014, 00:02

andrew wrote:Congratulations to Ogier for winning the tile this weekend in Spain.

Andrew, seriously, your spelling has never been the strongest of the forum, but today, you really seem to have a bad day by your own standards. Should i be concerned?

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 27 Oct 2014, 07:45

This wrote:
andrew wrote:Congratulations to Ogier for winning the tile this weekend in Spain.

Andrew, seriously, your spelling has never been the strongest of the forum, but today, you really seem to have a bad day by your own standards. Should i be concerned?

Typing a bit too fast.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 11 Jan 2015, 07:47

Kubica will return for Monte Carlo, but there's no word on whether he has the money or the intention to do the full Watch Robert Crash season.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 12 Jan 2015, 11:14

Captain Hammer wrote:Kubica will return for Monte Carlo, but there's no word on whether he has the money or the intention to do the full Watch Robert Crash season.

Insuring Kubica's car is getting quite expensive now. Expect him to have his sponsorship money to cover his premium.

Post by **Londoner** » 15 Jan 2015, 17:03

Looks like Bobby K is doing another year of Watch Robert Crash.

It seems M-Sport have got fed up of him crashing their factory car, because Kubica's entering a M-Sport Fiesta under his own team.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 15 Jan 2015, 23:10

East Londoner wrote:It seems M-Sport have got fed up of him crashing their factory car, because Kubica's entering a M-Sport Fiesta under his own team.

All of the Fiestas are operated by M-Sport. Kubica is probably entering as a private team to get around regulations dictating that he must do a certain number of rounds. He can still score driver points, but he won't be eligible for manufacturer points.

It bit Kimi Raikkonen a few years ago, probably about 2011. He was entered as a manufacturer team, but didn't go to Mexico, Argentina or Australia. Since the regulations state that all manufacturer entries must participate in at least one fly-away round, ICE1 Racing was disqualified from the championship.

Post by **Frogfoot9013** » 16 Jan 2015, 00:16

DanielPT wrote:
Captain Hammer wrote:Kubica will return for Monte Carlo, but there's no word on whether he has the money or the intention to do the full Watch Robert Crash season.

Insuring Kubica's car is getting quite expensive now. Expect him to have his sponsorship money to cover his premium.

Apparently he's being sponsored by a Polish gambling company. How fitting...

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 16 Jan 2015, 00:22

The new Polo WRC was revealed today as well:

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 16 Jan 2015, 13:42

Another Formula 1 refugee is dabbling in rallying - Heikki Kovalainen is on the entry list fir the Arctic Lapland Rally, driving a car prepared by Markko Martin's MM Motorsport.

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 22 Jan 2015, 20:08

According to live radio Kubica has already crashed it on some ice and Loeb came round the first stage to absolutly take the piss going 22 seconds up on Tanak

watka · Post by **watka** » 30 Jan 2015, 13:52

Toyota have officially announced their return to WRC and will using the Yaris as their base model.

Don't know about you but the Yaris seems almost too small to be a rally car. I've driven one and it was tiny!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 30 Jan 2015, 16:52

watka wrote:Toyota have officially announced their return to WRC and will using the Yaris as their base model.

Don't know about you but the Yaris seems almost too small to be a rally car. I've driven one and it was tiny!

Still, at least it's not the iQ. Which apparently has the same wheelbase as the classic Monte-winning Mini...

Post by **Londoner** » 06 Mar 2015, 17:48

Ott Tanak decides to write off his Fiesta in a rather creative way. :lol:

Thierry Neuville continues to duke it out with the all-conquering VWs, 8 seconds behind the OGIERWINSLOL steamroller.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 29 May 2015, 12:48

So much time since a post here. I think it goes to show how irrelevant the WRC is becoming.

I stumbled upon 2001 Rally de Portugal highlights recently by accident, and it got me thinking. If you want the sport to become relevant again, it needs to become a more gruelling test of car and driver. And I don't mean some insanity like Group B, I'm not talking about making the drivers fear for their lives, not at all.

I think the rallies are not good for the sport anymore. Every event is a speed event. The sport needs to split the types of event up. Create a calendar that is a true mixture. A return of the endurance events, in the style of the Safari. Conditions that make it really difficult to go at full speed. Where suddenly you don't just have to think about the fastest line from A to B, but also treading the fine line between going fast enough but without turning your car into a bucket of bolts.

WRC in its golden era was never simply about who is the fastest from A to B. Just finishing the rally in itself was a challenge. Making the events smaller and closer to a sprint-style, at least for me, is not very interesting. If that's your thing, then stick to Rallycross.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 29 May 2015, 14:13

Biscione wrote:So much time since a post here. I think it goes to show how irrelevant the WRC is becoming.

Maybe it is here in the forum, but in Portugal it is said, given some early numbers, that about 2 million people watched the last rally at the side of the road. That is far from irrelevant. It actually makes F1 pretty small. At least in my country. Then again, rally was free-to-air, so much more emphasis was given to the sport and people actually followed it. The fact that it was closer to an urban center, to some pretty historic stages and closer to where most of the rally fans come from may have also helped.

As for the rest of your post you are pretty much spot on, at least for me. But how do you make the cars more hard to drive with all the technology? You might make them more powerful but you would be compromising safety at some degree.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 29 May 2015, 16:42

DanielPT wrote:As for the rest of your post you are pretty much spot on, at least for me. But how do you make the cars more hard to drive with all the technology? You might make them more powerful but you would be compromising safety at some degree.

I was making the point of leaving the cars alone. They are fine. Hence I said "none of this Group B nonsense" - no need for any hypercar power or things like this.

Right now the manufacturers enter small hatchbacks because it's what they sell. The large powerful saloons (like the Lancer and Impreza) are quickly becoming obsolete in the current automotive climate, so we can't pretend that we can just "go back to the old days" and bring back a form factor that isn't relevant. No longer are car makers interested in promoting a product in motorsport that is the same car you can buy on the forecourt. It's about promoting brand values.

Even if in the grand scheme of things it does absolutely nothing for performance, on the 'speed' type rallies, mandating aero kit that is half-way towards Pikes Peak appearance will help draw the crowd in. And then of course you have the standard kind of Safari-spec cars you had back in the day for the endurance events. The series needs to amplify the uniqueness of each individual event.

Of course none of this necessarily makes the action any better. But if it does enough to draw the casual viewer in, it gives more manufacturers more reason to promote their product on the WRC platform, and thus would improve the base quality of the series as a whole. More manufacturers putting money into the sport, the stakes go higher, there is more demand to train and fine-tune junior drivers into world class competitors of the future. Right now young prospects seem to have to fend for themselves. It's not a healthy climate.

DanielPT · Post by **DanielPT** » 01 Jun 2015, 13:53

Biscione wrote:I was making the point of leaving the cars alone. They are fine. Hence I said "none of this Group B nonsense" - no need for any hypercar power or things like this.

Right now the manufacturers enter small hatchbacks because it's what they sell. The large powerful saloons (like the Lancer and Impreza) are quickly becoming obsolete in the current automotive climate, so we can't pretend that we can just "go back to the old days" and bring back a form factor that isn't relevant. No longer are car makers interested in promoting a product in motorsport that is the same car you can buy on the forecourt. It's about promoting brand values.

Even if in the grand scheme of things it does absolutely nothing for performance, on the 'speed' type rallies, mandating aero kit that is half-way towards Pikes Peak appearance will help draw the crowd in. And then of course you have the standard kind of Safari-spec cars you had back in the day for the endurance events. The series needs to amplify the uniqueness of each individual event.

Of course none of this necessarily makes the action any better. But if it does enough to draw the casual viewer in, it gives more manufacturers more reason to promote their product on the WRC platform, and thus would improve the base quality of the series as a whole. More manufacturers putting money into the sport, the stakes go higher, there is more demand to train and fine-tune junior drivers into world class competitors of the future. Right now young prospects seem to have to fend for themselves. It's not a healthy climate.

I misread your first post. Still, I agree all you said even with the cars. I went to look up performance figures in the cars of today and the group B cars. The Audi Quattro S1 (1985 version) went from 0-60 in about 3.1 seconds The Lancia from the same year was 3.2 seconds. The Polo that is being raced today does it in 3.9s while having some 200bhp less. So I can relate to the idea that the cars are fine.

As for the rallies, why not have some hill climb stages in the rallies? That would also draw from the pool of people who like to watch hill climbing.

gnrpoison · Post by **gnrpoison** » 05 Jun 2015, 00:46

Tonight BBC4 in the UK had a documentary on the Group B Rally years, was quite interesting and will be iplayer very soon for those who want to catch it. Think it has been shown before but would recommend a viewing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01fcncc/madness-on-wheels-rallyings-craziest-years

dinizintheoven · Post by **dinizintheoven** » 05 Jun 2015, 19:13

It has been shown before, but if anyone missed it and doesn't have a permanent copy, grab the chance while you still can.

Post by **Miguel98** » 05 Jun 2015, 19:25

gnrpoison wrote:Tonight BBC4 in the UK had a documentary on the Group B Rally years, was quite interesting and will be iplayer very soon for those who want to catch it. Think it has been shown before but would recommend a viewing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01fcncc/madness-on-wheels-rallyings-craziest-years

Sadly, it seems my proxy extension now doesn't have UK anymore.

Post by **Bobby Doorknobs** » 14 Sep 2015, 12:44

Stéphane Sarrazin's back!

For the Tour de Corse, at least.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 14 Sep 2015, 14:31

Simtek wrote:Stéphane Sarrazin's back!

For the Tour de Corse, at least.

I imagine he'll end up as the highest placed Ford at the end of the rally. I think, if Mikkelsen bins it, he could even end up fighting Dani Sordo for a podium place. Let's not forget, he really isn't new at this at all, he's been doing tarmac rallies every year for over a decade now. If he can get up to speed with the characteristics of the Ford Fiesta quickly, I really believe he could be fighting Neuville and Sordo for 'best of the rest' status.

girry · Post by **girry** » 14 Sep 2015, 17:17

Sarrazin is probably the racing driver most often forgotten in the multi-discipline aces discussion. Arguably better than Kubica on tarmac rallies, has a factory ride in Le Mans protos, competitive in Formula E - not to forget about his F1 start in '99, obviously!

dr-baker · Post by **dr-baker** » 12 Feb 2016, 15:44

From Autosport (Rally Sweden coverage, where there are currently concerns over the lack of snow on a snow rally, and where Kris Meeke has just retired from second place after hitting a rock):

The PH Sport Citroen driver also retired from second place in the Monte Carlo Rally three weeks ago, where he was also forced to stop after damage from a rock - having also been Ogier's nearest challenger in the principality.

Oh dear, Kris...

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 20 Jan 2017, 19:37

A new era of WRC got underway today in Monte Carlo, with Hyundai's Nueville leading after the first day from the two Fords of Ogier and Tanak.

Unfortunately this was overshadowed by a crash in SS1 in which Haydon Paddon crashed his Hyundai killing a Spectator who was in a restricted area.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 21 Jan 2017, 11:48

This thread goes to show how desperately a new generation of WRC was needed. One post for the whole of the 2016 season. Grim.

With VW gone, everything is shaken up now. Neuville has been the driver to beat, but it doesn't necessarily mean the new-gen Hyundai is the best car, as Sordo has been nowhere all weekend.

Optimistically for Toyota, Hanninen was running in the podium places, until he planted his car into a tree. Their driver line-up may end up being the weak spot - Hanninen a bit rusty, and Latavala being....well, you know, Latvala. I don't understand why they didn't try to sign Mikkelsen...

It could still be an Ogier title. The new Fiesta looks quick. He's just made more mistakes than usual so far, still struggling a bit to get used to the different handling of the Fiesta. When he gets attuned to his new ride, he will be hard to stop again.