POLL: Is the IRC better then the WRC these days?

[userwave]

The IRC seems to be overall organized better then the WRC these days, and to me personally I think it has some exciting (more exciting?) events on it's calendar.

Am I totally losing my mind or is it the case?

[rallyfiend]

Have you had a look at the 2012 calendar and level / depth of drivers?!

The IRC has had some good seasons before, but this new one ain't gonna be one of them.

[Barreis]

What's this?! :P

[EuroTroll]

Despite its problems, the WRC is and will remain the Formula One in rallying. :up: :p :

:uhoh:

[Sulland]

Despite its problems, the WRC is and will remain the Formula One in rallying. :up: :p :

:uhoh:

True, but IRC has had closer fights, and has been more exiting to follow. Mainly because the cars are more closely matched - and no factory cars that are way above the rest in spec !

[Hartusvuori]

Why choose one when you can have both?

[WRCS14]

Couple of years ago I would say yes IRC was possibly better but not in 2012.

There has also been too many cars with only partial development and poor championship commitment, opel corsa, vw polo, mg. Even the proton has been around for some years yet not that many outings consistently.

Then the M sport bring fiesta out pretty recently in 2010 and now here we are in 2012 and as I understand it the normally aspirated 2000cc rules are going to be out of date?

Why cant they just leave the rules alone for at least 10 years to give stability and allow older cars to continue to be used.

There is no point in anybody telling me that some new 1.6t 2013 rally car will give fuel economy, of course it wont so why not let things alone.

But maybe the powers in charge understand things better than me and for 2013 everyone will have lots of money to buy new rally cars.

[gtimad73]

I think it will be a bit one sided this year, as there seem's to be more skoda's running and full factory cars. it could be as good as the wrc but they need more top cars fiesta's,207/208, mini's and the protons. if they got that then it would be on par in my eyes

[Maxi]

last year the IRC was more interesting

[Priorat]

You could find IRC more exciting if you only follow rallys through a computer. Live on the stages WRC is far more exciting

[Mirek]

You could find IRC more exciting if you only follow rallys through a computer. Live on the stages WRC is far more exciting

Speaking just about watching events live... It's not always like You say... For example Monte Carlo 2009 - 2011 was at least for me definitely better to watch than 2012 edition (so where all other IRC events I saw - Barum and Ypres). Frankly I was disappointed this year. I know stages of Monte Carlo well so I don't believe it was just that I had three times good luck and once bad luck. Next year I'm not going again.

On a rally like Finland it is quite a big difference in favor of WRC against S2000 but on asphalt I find the S2000 more spectacular than WRC (except tight hairpins which I don't visit anyway). The era of spectacular asphalt WRC cars is long gone. First five years of their existence sure they were great but later...

[GustavK]

The era of spectacular asphalt WRC cars is long gone. First five years of their existence sure they were great but later...

Couldn't agree more!

[janvanvurpa]

Where's choice for "F-Cup is best!"? Poll Fail..

And no bacon?

[Sulland]

Mirek: The era of spectacular asphalt WRC cars is long gone.

Why:
Too advanced undertray
Too little power
All adopting Loeb Drivingstyle
Other causes ?

[Allyc85]

Look at the entry for this weekends IRC round and then compare it to what we had in WRC Mexico... enough said ;)

[denkimi]

Mirek: The era of spectacular asphalt WRC cars is long gone.

Why:
Too advanced undertray
Too little power
All adopting Loeb Drivingstyle
Other causes ?
i believe it's a combination of the first two, which results in the third.

nowadays they just have to much grip in comparison to the power available. if you want spectacular asphalt cars, you should make them drive on energy-saver tyres. :p :

[Barreis]

Let's say both series are good. That's all.

[Mirek]

i believe it's a combination of the first two, which results in the third.

nowadays they just have to much grip in comparison to the power available. if you want spectacular asphalt cars, you should make them drive on energy-saver tyres. :p :

It may sound strange but WRC is good example that it's not true. In WRC events they have universal tyre tread for dry or wet. As a result these tyres have worse grip on dry asphalt than slicks used in IRC or other series.

In my opinion the worse grip You have the more You try not to spin Your wheels. For example let's see wet asphalt rallies. From Your logic they should be extremely spectacular because there is very little grip. But in reality it is almost always boring. Almost everyone is trying to drive clean lines with careful acceleration without sliding. And the more of water on stage the more boring driving. For me that is the reason why I really don't like watching really wet asphalt events.

[RS]

Even though I didn't visit Monte live ever, I found it a more interesting event to follow and watch in the IRC years.

Agree IRC is having a "quiet" year but there should still be some events with good entries.

Maybe a resurgence next year for IRC with the R4T cars. I hope they are "proper" rally cars like S2000 and not like watching road cars in Tesco's car park like R3T.

Providing the FIA and series promoters get car regulations/series rules and calendars right, there is room for two strong rally series' IMO.

[Barreis]

IRC needs money prizes to be more atractive to priveteers.

[mousti]

And I think the exposure on Eurosport is quite enough..

[Brother John]

I think WRC and IRC have had together this year. Both would improve their economies and Rally Media Coverage would also be better solved.

[N.O.T]

I think WRC and IRC have had together this year. Both would improve their economies and Rally Media Coverage would also be better solved.

that can never happen....and if it does the IRC will die eventually...IRC should merge with the ERC and the FIA should get rid of all those region cup retardation which only attract tourist nobodies...

have a 10-12 round WRC and a 10-12 round IRC with the european events to count towards the european champion...so both championships get a prestige status...right now and in the past IRC was just a ladycup with no essence at all, it was fun to watch and had/has very good coverage...but they marketed themselves as an alternative to the WRC which was wrong...if they marketed themselves towards the ladycup/2nd class they would be more successful and last longer.

the IRC already has lost some talent... and soon it will be another assortment of nobodies has and neverbeens fat hamburger club of sick dogs (WOW thats a lot of adjectives...i am amazing !!)

regulate the WRC so not anyone can enter in a WRC car...make IRC free for all the tourists with no skills to test the s2000/RRC cars and have their stupid lobotomised followers (of the drivers not the series) with them so they do not pollute the top of the sport with their non existent skills.

[Brother John]

that can never happen....and if it does the IRC will die eventually...IRC should merge with the ERC and the FIA should get rid of all those region cup retardation which only attract tourist nobodies...

Everything is possible if they want to cooperate!!! In WRC we can also according to you see tourist nobodies and how you call them here in the forum. ?!?

[liposh]

Such poll is useful as jacket for dead man. :D Every single rallyfan knows where are pros and cons of both championships and you can´t exprss it with just one sentence.

[N.O.T]

Everything is possible if they want to cooperate!!! In WRC we can also according to you see tourist nobodies and how you call them here in the forum. ?!?

they cannot co-operate because in the WRC nobody will care about them... while in the IRC they can claim they WON the event...nobody remembers the PWRC and JWRC champions of 2003 while everyone knows the WRC one....

the ERC used to be a very prestigius title and winning it ment something....the last few years it is more prestigious to be champion of a country like Czech republic or Italy or France rather than ERC.

and the way things go IRC will be like ERC in less than 5 years...

[Iskald]

the ERC used to be a very prestigius title and winning it ment something....

...

That is a very, very long time ago, N.O.T...

[N.O.T]

That is a very, very long time ago, N.O.T...

yes but still a few years back we had drivers like thirry and campos who of course were not world class at the time but at least they knew what they were doing behind the wheel of a WRC car...now we have Rossetti who is also a good driver but he had no competition...apart from the locals of each event...and that is where the IRC is headed.

[userwave]

I think the reason for my poll/post is i was in Corsica last October, took in the Tour De Corse Historique, and fell in love with the roads, I know the IRC still goes there, wish I could have witnessed the WRC when it went to Corsica !!! :)

[PLuto]

I think the reason for my poll/post is i was in Corsica last October, took in the Tour De Corse Historique, and fell in love with the roads, I know the IRC still goes there, wish I could have witnessed the WRC when it went to Corsica !!! :)

If you are talking about era on the beginning of this century, I say yes - it was impressive to see WRC cars in that times. But last events were way too boring. Last year in IRC was much more interesting.

[PLuto]

Look at the entry for this weekends IRC round and then compare it to what we had in WRC Mexico... enough said ;)

I must say, I was personally on Canarias and also on Monte (better start list than Mexico). Despite what is written in start list, much more interesting and spectacular for me was Canarias. The performance which I have seen at first two cars for whole race I havent seen at any crew through whole Monte (maybe except Ogier and sometimes Andersson). There were groups really fighting for their places (first place (Andy,Jan), third place (Monzon, Gassner, Wiegand), 2WD win (Vinyes, Anxustegi, Marrero), which is more interesting than "must be in finish" in WRC...

[PLuto]

Yes, IRC is not so good as last years, especially because there is no other manufacturer like Skoda who is doing complete championship. This is a part of "FIA game" which is killing S2000 cars and there is actually no other appropriate category.

[whosyo]

I think the golden age of rally is long gone
There're not many manufacturers and they don't wanna invest their money in this field

[Crocone]

I think that last year the things were going in the right direction in IRC. 2011 IRC season was the best since the start of the series. But 2012 will be the worst IRC season ever. It will be just Mikkelsen vs a half of a driver (Kopecky/Hanninen). Hanninen was the only one who could beat Mikkelsen for the title. And I think he was a little better than Mikkelsen. And also we had Neuville, Bouffier, Loix, Wilks, Gardemeister who could make a good impression. Now there are just few tourists and some local drivers. So that's why I would say +1 to WRC.

[RS]

I think that last year the things were going in the right direction in IRC. 2011 IRC season was the best since the start of the series. But 2012 will be the worst IRC season ever. It will be just Mikkelsen vs a half of a driver (Kopecky/Hanninen). Hanninen was the only one who could beat Mikkelsen for the title. And I think he was a little better than Mikkelsen. And also we had Neuville, Bouffier, Loix, Wilks, Gardemeister who could make a good impression. Now there are just few tourists and some local drivers. So that's why I would say +1 to WRC.

There are some very good and/or promising drivers in IRC this year too but unfortunately not many with a full enough programme to take on Mikkelsen. It seems that maybe Skoda are going to send Juho+Jan to some more events which might keep the title alive for longer but this year it will be like in WRC with Loeb, either Mikkelsen is going to win it or Mikkelsen is going to lose it. For more, we have to wait for Peugeot to come back with the 208 R4T.