Ivlian
Active member
It doesnt work. People dont care. Every motorsport out there is trying to tell their stories, they all have great shows and stuff but it only works for the people who is already a fan.
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If you could buy the WRC…..
- Thread starter J4MIE
- Start date
saco0o
Senior member
we always think about old cars when we think about rally. we need new cars that are "rad" again.
if you coud PICK a few modern cars to be in wrc, which one would you guys choose? it doesnt matter if its a weird pick, which class it would be, it doesnt matter if "oh but bmw would never...". if you could pick modern cars and throw into wrc, which ones would be?
i tried searching for some cars but it seems they are almost all electric.. and i guess i have a 'type' of favorite model hehe
but here some of the ones i liked. some are just concepts but anyway....?
if you coud PICK a few modern cars to be in wrc, which one would you guys choose? it doesnt matter if its a weird pick, which class it would be, it doesnt matter if "oh but bmw would never...". if you could pick modern cars and throw into wrc, which ones would be?
i tried searching for some cars but it seems they are almost all electric.. and i guess i have a 'type' of favorite model hehe
but here some of the ones i liked. some are just concepts but anyway....?
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If you don't even try something new, you won't know if it works or it doesn't.
WRC commercially is basically (close to be) dead, so trying something radically new in terms of storytelling won't be such a drama. How worse can it go?
For stories you need enough people that are interesting. And let's be honest here (in my opinion), currently (with few exceptions like Solberg) it's a boring and sometimes quite unlikable bunch
Ivlian
Active member
I agree with you on the WRC needs to try something, for sure but the FACT that MotoGP (There can Only be one? I have no idea their serie's name), WRC (More than Machine), MXGP (Beyond the Grid, I think?), Indycar, V8SC, Enduro etc - ALL tried to have their "Drive to Survive" moment, but it didnt worked - Its just wasted money... And thats worst IMO.
Not only that. What stories can a promoter tell in a championship like this? Sesks and Oliver were interesting for a bit, but then what? All those stories on how Msport, Hyundai and half of the Toyota team CANT WIN a race is just lame. Then it ends there... WHAT STORIES?
Even if we move into R5s only and Basso enters for 2027 Rally de Rome and beat the factory Toyota team, would that be interesting to anyone other than us? Its not even all WRC fans that know who Basso is tbh.
I WANT WRC to grow and to be more interesting. I have been losing interest year after year, but I wish it could be awesome again.
Fast top cars with crazy aerokits, 6 different car models, locals entering events, winning events, 20+ entries per event... Kalle coming back, Ott coming back. Kalle vs Sesks vs Oliver vs Ott, all trash talking each other. Latvala entering and winning a race. Paddon with a proper team, Loeb doing 2 rounds, Petter Solberg doing a round. Mitsubishi entering one race to test a prototype.... That would make us insanely happy...
But I dont even know if that would do anything to make the sport grow. Its such a weird situation. Its almost like theres NOTHING to be done haha. Crazy times.
That the personalities of current WRC drivers aren't anything particularly interesting is a respectable opinion. But that's the way it is, we can't change their personalities. I don't really mind, because even if I can like or dislike a driver because of his personality, what matters is that it's a motorsport, not some drama personality reality show.
But any fabrication that tries to depict a driver in a way he's not, or a made up drama between drivers, won't go down well with fans. That will be seen like the clickbaity AI slop of Evans fighting in UFC + revisionist Hollywood war movie. Trying to twist reality to get some "oh wow, I must follow this".
I know it's a "wish list", but you're describing something that WRC wasn't even in its golden years...
And why would those drivers even trash talk? It's not in (most of) their personalities, unless one starts to artificially fabricate their statements for drama.
Whatever change comes it needs to come from the bottom and the top. And we should not be scared to put blame on the bottom. Which driver really does something to grow the sport (it was never easier with social media)?. Or for that matter... which driver even shows that they like to be in WRC? I find it astonishing how negative the drivers and whole teams (Hyundai) are. Sometimes if feels they are at a 9-5 job they hate. It's always a breath of fresh air when some driver shows fun and passion (Solberg, Sesks, the late Breen) - but it's drowned in a sea of negativity
As Katsuta said, the biggest problem right now is too long liaisons. 300km of racing and around 1400km of non-sense driving through ''country'' just because the host wants to include as much as possible, like it would somehow bring millions into their accounts Ogier just driving past some people who barely know what rally even is. And now the crews make the most of every minute they are not driving or repairing their car watching and study onboards. Consequently they don't have any time or energy left to deal with fans, media or whoever wants to talk to them. Of course they start to drive less, retire or don't have ''personalities'' because of that. It's stupid, without any sense and unlogical to go such a long distance just for one stage.
So the answer is including rallysprints? How many rounds? How many unique kms is ideal and worth the circus travelling for?
saco0o
Senior member
agree but i'd argue we (hardcore fans) have also become mega negativists about our beloved sport =[
im only 100% happy with rallying when im watching ERC because I cant find things to be pissed about. its just peace and fun.
"aaah but the cars are slooowww" - that doesnt bother me at all. and when I come to the ERC forums here its just a couple of fellas talking about the huge entry list and good weather and how "phillip allen has crashed AGAIN!!!!" lol
I'd like an example too please. Haven't got a clue what people mean.
Ivlian
Active member
Example of what, mate? I didnt understood the post, sorry
I'd summarize the "stories" and drivers into media coverage. The thing isn't that every sports series needs to tell stories. If you think like that, it's a bit like only seeing the tip of the iceberg. The media coverage needs to be multi-layered and stories is just one layer. And as mentioned here, that's for the people who are already into the series. You also can't say that WRC needs to build a fandom as it is already there. Like what the hell is this place if not part of the rallying fandom.
I don't follow WRC on any social media. It pops up in the feed from time to time but hasn't enticed me to hit the 'follow/subscribe' button. Another issue is the Youtube presence with the daily short highlights. Does anyone even like those things? I sometimes have watched them but to me it has felt like throwing some "moments" into a random compilation without giving a proper understanding what is the bigger picture. Like in the final day Greece highlights the first visual reference to overall standings is at 4min 25sec mark and it is one of the most played sections of the 15 minute video...
Am I too brutal to say that the product isn't exploited well enough?
The biggest danger in modern media is having participants who have become bland while keeping things politically correct and not insulting any sponsor. Stories/moments come when there's emotion.
I don't follow WRC on any social media. It pops up in the feed from time to time but hasn't enticed me to hit the 'follow/subscribe' button. Another issue is the Youtube presence with the daily short highlights. Does anyone even like those things? I sometimes have watched them but to me it has felt like throwing some "moments" into a random compilation without giving a proper understanding what is the bigger picture. Like in the final day Greece highlights the first visual reference to overall standings is at 4min 25sec mark and it is one of the most played sections of the 15 minute video...
Am I too brutal to say that the product isn't exploited well enough?
The biggest danger in modern media is having participants who have become bland while keeping things politically correct and not insulting any sponsor. Stories/moments come when there's emotion.
I dont agree. Liaisons is not a problem. Promoter wants to have time between stages at least 1 hour to be able to make proper live TV. Everything with current WRC rallysport is focused on live rally TV. It is going against normal spectators at stages. For example I hate 3 min gaps between the cars. When I am at stage, it is way too boring to see only 10 cars during half an hour ! It is much better later, when WRC2 and others starts with smaller gaps...
But dust! But why is this even a problem? A lot of production cars have assists for low visibility situations, why doesn't the wrc allow them? Why is WRC so damn boring all the time with stuff like this?(I know, money, but still)
Does live TV work all the time? Do they have any other cameras besides onboards? Did they improve this experience through years? Well I can answer to you. No, barely, absolutely not.
When they first introduce this, it was great, it worked excelent and few outages were unimportant, but everything worked better, then through years they significantly reduce quality, app and the whole experience. Also I noticed that even the whole presentation worsened. So that's why I'm convinced that they should revert back to radio and few stages being normal live as they were pre-all live.
saco0o
Senior member
oh cmoon, no one is willing to share which MODERN cars you think have some different vibes from regular SUVs that 'could be' interesting to see in WRC? im tired of playing games with only old cars because no modern car is 'cool enough' like the oldies.... =P
I think kinda every compact car / hatchback looks nice if made as a rally car, especially as Rally2, as long as it has reasonable proportions. Not a fan of Yaris and Ypsilon lines, but ok.
If you only talk about look and ignore everything else, there's Cupra Born & Leon, Ford Focus, Mercedes Class A, Honda Civic, Opel Astra, VW Golf, (not mentioning Audi A1 and VW Polo as they're Fabia's sisters)... I'd see most of these as TCR cars more than rally cars, but I think they'd look great on rally stages.
If you want larger cars, I can think of Audi A3 and BMW M3, of course - I doubt we'll ever see them in rallying. On the smaller size, I can think of Renault R5 / Alpine A290 / Nissan Micra, which are all related, they would catch the eye for sure.