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[WRC] News & Rumours 2019
- Thread starter Sulland
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Sulland
Senior member
Could this be true?
New naming system of rally car classes
Formula 1 sets the direction. Who carries the number "1" in the name, is generally recognized as the highest level. In rally sport, however, this is exactly the other way round, where "Rally 1" (R1 for short) is considered an entry-level class. In customer sports, it goes up to R5 vehicles, the top ("World Rally Cars") carries no R designation.
This classification will change in the future, because the FIA is working on a new structure in which all designations are literally turned on their heads.
In the future, the entry-level vehicles will be referred to as "Rallye 5". Here, the World Association of cheapest cars, which can be equipped with a simple manual transmission, to a standard sequential gearbox (eg Opel Adam Cup), but must be provided in any case with a homologated by the manufacturer safety package ,
One level above the previous R2 cars are classified as "Rally 4". Again, there will be a new technical regulations shortly. The previous R3 vehicles have apparently had their day, because under the name "Rallye 3", the FIA plans cheap four-wheel-drive vehicles, which, as in the "Rallye 1" group, have standard parts and could resemble the original Group-N.
As a result of the changeover, the currently most successful customer sports vehicles will no longer have the suffix "R5" but will be listed as "Rally 2" (R2). It is quite possible that the new Volkswagen Polo, which is due to celebrate its premiere in the autumn, will soon be renamed "R5" to "R2".
In the rally sport, the top class will in the future carry the "1", here you will find the modern World Rally Cars again, the fastest rally cars in history.
Original news article: https://www.rallye-magazin.de/wrc/artikel/d/2018/07/31/fia-plant-neues-rallye-system/
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Sulland
Senior member
He he, not that important as such, but makes it more logical across autosport, for non petrolheads to understand what the topdog class is.
But that Fia acknowledges a miss with R4, and will make a less expensive new R3 class with 4wd, is for many more youngsters more important.
Sulland
Senior member
I guess all R5 cars quickly will be renamed R2, also older models, and the same for all carclasses exept R3, that will change to 4wd anyway.
I dont think this will be a problem for very long.
But to have a championship and a carclass called the same is at best strange.......
I dont think this will be a problem for very long.
But to have a championship and a carclass called the same is at best strange.......
Sorry but absolutely not. How are You going to explain that all the marketing job promoting R5 was in fact promoting hidden R2? How are You going to explain that the websites dedicated to the R5 cars were in fact dedicated to R2? How are You going to explain that all the catalogs, manuals, tools, spare parts with R5 written on them are actually all about R2 stuff? How are You going to explain the nonsensial change in event results from year to year in let's say twenty years?
Does it make sense to You? Seriously this is more than retarded proposal.
the sniper
Senior member
If nothing else, sticking with the 'R[Number]' nomenclature while completely reordering the system does seem like a ridiculous recipe for confusion on every level. At the very least, they'd need a new nomenclature.
Watson
Active member
It will drop to the bottom of the first page for the time being. Big deal. Jesus.
Sulland
Senior member
Marketing: all people you are marketing towards will know within a short period of and understand that it things will have to change.
Websites: this is easy to change. Most of this is manufacturers, and have people dedicated for IT.
Documents: find R5, replace with R2.
Historical results: put in a sentence on change of name by a date.
In a few months this will be fixed, and the relatively few people this concerns, will all understand and be onboard.
Mirek, you think this is stupid, and try to find arguments to fight it off. I do the opposite.
I understand FIA on this issue, admitting that the R Class naming convetion is not logical compared to other competitions, and want to fix the error.
This is meant for non petrolhead people, to easier understand what kind of level a car is in the hierarchy. Also for drivers chasing sponsors that are not very familiar with rally classes.
That a R5 car is driving in RC2 or WRC2 is the next quickest cartype is not logical to average joe.
Using your logic you have to agree with this?
This is not a big issue, but I understand why the rally comission want rally to come in line with formula racings class logic.
That kind of people really don't know about anything about rallying. And why he need to know the hierarchy of rally car classes if they barely know the sport. As I said they don't care and will not care even if they change these numbers after R.
Fast-Eddie
Senior member
So logically they would have to call WRC cars, R1 cars...
That sounds awful.
That sounds awful.
In the end it will turn out to be just as expensive as every previous try and unaffordable for young drivers.
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