FLAT OUT (The History of Rally) - The Complete Series

[Music] thank you [Music] so when did rallying truly begin the 60s the 50s well actually the answer is rather ambiguous however many have come to agree that the first true rallying event was that of the 1894 paristo ruined Horseless Carriage competition the event Was Won by Albert Le Mata driving a three-horsepower Persia the race had become quite popular and this style of City to City race is across France and other parts of Europe slowly gained attraction and over the next few years led to multiple City to City races the likes of the Paris to Bordeaux rally of 1895 and the border to argon and back race in the same year showed the public what Motorsport could be exciting iconic features of modern day rally found their Origins this early too the likes of cars racing individually against the clock timed entry and exit points the use of different surfaces and even a form of pace notes were all kind at this point however very quickly problems began to arise the aforementioned Paris to border rally with a distance of 732 miles was one with a time of 48 hours and 48 minutes or an average speed of just 15 miles per hour contrast this with the Paris to Madrid rally of 1903 the 340 mile race was won with a time of 5 hours and 15 minutes or an average speed of over 65 miles per hour cars were evolving fast and due to the loose surfaces in many places and the unprotected Spectators and livestock that could potentially wander onto the course led to the event being canceled after multiple crashes were recorded eight deaths came as a result this form of event therefore was banned it's quite easy to draw comparisons between this and the termination of Group B in the mid-1980s but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it but instead of closing the event permanently the rules were instead changed events now had to be held on closed highways or purpose-built tracks instead of open public road like there had been previous to 1903. contrary to all this however many have come to agree that the first true rally was the Monte Carlo rally of 1911 due to it being the first event to use the title rally it wasn't what you'd expect out of a traditional rallying event however it worked as such drivers would start out from different locations around Europe and would then drive for hundreds of miles and each route would make their way to the finish in Monte Carlo a man by the name of Henry Ruger won the event in his took out Marie a brand new car from the French manufacturer with just 25 horsepower but judging of this event was a little odd rather than being based on you know who came first it was instead judged upon things like vehicle comfort and elegance which was judged by an observer sitting beside the driver still it gained adequate attention and was an overall success with the first rally inaugurated it was only going to go up was from here around this time also saw the birth of a variation of rally called rally raid a long distance completely off-road race that takes place over several days the 1907 P King of Beijing as it's known today to Paris West was the first of its kind with the New York the Paris Race Tech in place the following year then World War One happened because the majority of rallies took place in Europe appeared inevitably led to a sheer drop-off in rallying popularity but coming out of the other end the spot continued to climb Monte Carlo returned in 1924 and apart from World War II has since been an annual event for almost 100 years more rallies that are still around today began to pop up too such as the Alpine rally the mill miglia and the British RAC rally then 1939 once again saw a large drop off in Mata spot with the outbreak of the second world war after the war was concluded Rally Sport had a slur rebirth but by the 1950s he had become once again incredibly popular even more popular alleys saw their birth here in the Swedish rally rally Finland and the Acropolis rally were just some of them 1953 also saw the introduction of the European Rally Championship and for a while it was the most important Championship on the calendar until the introduction of the World Rally Championship in the 1970s speaking of the world the sport had slowly grown to other parts of the globe outside of Europe the Americas especially saw an influx of new Spectators and interest for the sport the likes of the Carrera pan-america spanned across Mexico and would last for days and of course there were the cars while they weren't as ingrained into the public image of the spot at the time compared to the succeeding years there were some notable standout contenders with the likes of the Alfa Romeo Julieta the Mercedes-Benz 220 the Jaguar XK 120 and the Jaguar Mark VII pioneering the idea of what rally cars have become today of course at that point safety and tailored construction methods weren't really a thing and so crashes and rolls were far more common an extreme example is that of Eric Carlson a Swedish rally driver who became famous for Rolling his underpowered Saabs onto their roofs during races coincidentally Carlson is perceived as the true first rallying Superstar but as the 50s came to an end the rules of rallying once again began to shift up until this point cars were near to all completely stock this meant that anyone with access to a remotely sporty car could easily compete and there could be hundreds of entries into one event however the governing bodies of the rallies decided that change was necessary cars would now to become quote-unquote homologation specials the cars were allowed to have modifications be that with engine power weight or expenses elsewhere this change caught the eyes of not only individuals as public interest began to climb once again but manufacturers too the landscape was about to change as the 1960s began the world of rallying was about to change public interest in the spot had been ramping up since the conclusion of the second world war and by this time had become incredibly popular this meant not only were individuals with their own cars interested in competing but racing teams and even manufacturers themselves began to turn their focus onto the world of rallying one such company was Austin in 1959 the company had unveiled what they dubbed the mini which was sold under both the Austin and Morris marks the car was designed to combat the popularity of European mobile cars like the Fiat 500 as a result of oil shortages in Britain the mini was to be the British equivalent and it became incredibly popular and to this day remains one of the best selling cars of all time in the UK upon its launch the company realized something the mini being small lighting with a short wheel base would be perfect for throwing around on a dirt track therefore the Mini's rallying Legacy began and what also began was what many people consider the first true rally car and quite quickly the mini showed the world that bigger is not necessarily better the Mini's 1000 cc engine only made 100 brick horsepower so the drivers really had to push the little thing to its limits but all this design and work ended up paying off the Mini's first win came in 1960 at the cork rally in Ireland and for the next couple of years it would rack up more and more trophies to its name the likes of the Tulip rally and rally Sweden were all conquered by the Plucky little Brit bear in mind however that the mini wasn't without its competition the likes of Mercedes Citroen Saab and Peugeot had also entered into the sport although they insisted in racing with modified sedans and even though they were notably much heavier than the front money mini there were still some magnificent beasts and certainly weren't pushovers Citroen for example with their coveted DS model saw their first win at the Monte Carlo rally in 1959 Mercedes oversaw their 220 SE which also picked up a number of wins the Porsche 356 was also successful both as a stock car and with numerous modifications Porsche also collaborated with a bath to create the mouthful that is the Porsche 356b Carrera GTL above which begun its career in 1960 the Saab 96 however was likely the Mini's biggest competitor throughout the early 60s with Eric Carlson returning to the wheel with wins in the 1960-61 and 62 RAC rallies and of course in the 1962 and 1963 Monte Carlo rallies the Saab 96 with all these wins under its belt built up an image quote-unquote reliability and toughness there was also a little company you may have heard of them called Ford in the 60s Ford was really only known for one thing and that was building a world-beating Supercar to fuel their vicious rivalry with Ferrari on the track however Ford was also attempting to bring their corporate might to the dirt Ford of Britain had launched their brand new economy car the Cortina in September of 1962 which went on like the mini to become one of the best selling cars in the UK of all time the original Cortina did not see a career in maltaspar but the Ford Cortina Lotus also dubbed the Lotus Cortina certainly did Ford collaborated with the British Mark to upgrade the sedan mechanically while they themselves took care of marketing and sales Lotus fitting better rear suspension a close range gearbox straight out of the new Lan and a 1.5 liter inline 4 in the front elsewhere however other despite all of these efforts the mini had become the number one rare certain throughout the early 60s dominated the sport after their series of wins up until 1962 their team had their eyes set on the big one the Monte Carlo rally the 1962 race was a good introduction for the coveted driver Pat Moss sister of Sterling Mawson was generally regarded as one of the most successful female rally drivers in history she was also quoted as saying the mini was Twitchy and pretty unruly on the limit after winning the Tulip rally earlier that year the mini returned once again to Monte Carlo in 1963 this time placing third at the hands of driver rounder alternan The Finnish driver however it will be the Irish pilot Paddy hopkirk who would finally Champion the Monte Carlo rally in 1964 where he had finished sixth the previous year this win projected him into the spotlight but the Finns weren't going to take this defeat sat down and so in 1965 5 Timar machanen swiped back with the will of his own at the Monte Carlo the mini was now at the top of its game it wasn't just the Monte Carlo rally that it succeeded in it had also won the 1965 000 Lex rally now known as The Finnish rally the 1962 and 1963 British Rally Championship and the 1964 and 1965 Isle of Man rally not to mention the numerous other wins in countries like Germany and Poland heck it even saw success outside of rallying with two wins in the British saloon car championship and even a victory at the final ever finished Grand Prix in 1963 the mini was Unstoppable and with its team of excellent drivers they had built upon the Pioneers efforts previous to 1960 and truly earned the title of the first proper rally car previous to the 60s rallying had appeared as an alternate form of Motorsport and slowly getting traction with fans worldwide however was the early part of the decade that really cemented the sport as something that could be taken much more seriously big name brands began to take notice of the successes that the mini and its peers and as the years went on more Nails would begin to rise in the spot the early 60s had seen the rise of many great rally cars the likes of the mini and the Saab 96 showed that any Motor Company big or small had a chance of clutching greatness in the world of rally this ended up turning more and more heads in the automobile industry one of these heads was a little known Italian brand called Lancia Lancia had previous Endeavors into Raleigh they race both the full mini and the Flavia in the 1950s and the early 60s with minor success however upon launching their brand new model the fulvia in 1963 they realized that the smaller lighter sedan might stand a better chance at beating their rivals in the sport the team set to work forming ideas for what could be changed and added in this new version of the fulvia and what resulted was the full rear HF the 1.6 liter V4 produced 132 brake horsepower which made it very powerful for the time when Lancia finally debuted their new full view of the 1965 toward the car so it placed eight which is pretty good for a first outing but there were other companies that were now in the running too in 1966 Renault had funded the small French manufacturer Alpine to create a rally suited version of the air 110 model it was fitted with a 1.1 liter inline 4 gardeni engine capable of 95 horsepower which was easily enough to secure the many victories at rallies in France throughout the 1960s lands here at Alpine however even with their revolutionary new race has still had some catching up to do Minnie was still the commanding officer the car was actually set to win the 1966 Monte Carlo rally I.E its third consecutive title there Minnie had a one two three Podium Domination by the time the rally came to a close but controversially all three were disqualified as well as the fourth place's car container for using non-dipping single filament quartz iodine bulbs in their headlights as opposed to the standardized double filament dipping glass bulbs whatever all of that means because of this many lost their one two three Podium finishes and their title and what was originally fifth place poly toyven and driving a Citron ID claimed the title in the end even though the event was particularly catastrophic for many other manufacturers felt the blur too as 10 cars overall were disqualified teams threatened to boycott the race and it remains one of the most infamous events in rallying history even so the event did not deter mini as they hit back the very next year with another victory at the 1967 Monte Carlo rally but it wasn't a three-place flush Lancia took second with their fulvia and began to show that the Italians might have a knack for rallying I should make it abundantly clear that rally was Still A Primitive spot at this point it was nothing like it is today while there are still many long-distance rallies rest around the world in modern times in the 60s there was almost a fascination with it examples like the Mexico 1000 were created in 1967 a gruel link you guessed it 1 000 mile long off-road race down the length of the Baja California Peninsula today it's known as the Baja 1000 and a number of other Baja races take place worldwide to this day 1968 saw the introduction of the London to Sydney Marathon one initially by a Hillman Hunter with 56 cars finishing overall the marathon has been held five more times in the following years this also led to the introduction of the London to Mexico World Cup rally in 1970 designed to link the FIFA World Cup venues of 1966 and 1970 which was won by a Ford Escort piloted by Hannah mikola and gunapan drivers were regularly pushing not only themselves but the cars too or even beyond the limit but there was also a strong fascination with the world of the night rally which nowadays is all but extinct at this point while special stages were growing in popularity where roads and tracks are closed off to the public road rally still had a large following roads would not be closed and to cause as little nuisance and danger to the local residents and the public the rallies would usually have to be run in rural areas and at night however due to rule changes over the years to stay within the speed limit Etc its popularity declined over the years and isn't heard about much today one thing it could offer was allowing drivers of all skill levels to enter and cars like the Ford Escort were popular entrants this period also saw the birth of rallycross where races take place on an enclosed circuit with a mixture of tarmac and dirt the first true event of this kind to many was held on the Hidden Hill circuit in the UK on the 4th of February 1967. rallycross hasn't become as internationally popular as the WRC but it still remains popular in the UK and has rarely taken hold in Scandinavian countries and the likes of Belgium and the Netherlands most importantly however was the fact that this wide range of disciplines also gave birth to some amazing drivers one such example is that of Beyond waldergaard his first International victory was at the 1969 Monte Carlo rally at the wheel of his Porsche 911. he became known as one of the Great Rally drivers as he was well suited to race in a wide range of disciplines from Sprints to marathons and he even dabbled in races on the target Floria and had an illustrious career that spammed well into the 80s while the guard wasn't the only Scandinavian driver to take to the sport the likes of hanu mikola Eric Carlson Paulie toivan and ovay Anderson and Timo machanim were others from from this area of the world that enforced an effective stronghold on the spot throughout the 60s the likes of mikola makanan and tyvanan became part of the infamous flying fins group a nickname given to Finnish athletes across a range of sporting disciplines for their notable speed but there were others from across the world the Italian driver Sandro Manara began to make a name for himself winning the Italian Rally Championship in both 1967 and 1969 the Scottish driver Andrew Cowan had two back-to-back wins in the Scottish rally in 1962 and 63 and followed these up by winning the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon drivers had now far exceeded simply being amateurs of the sport they were now outright professionals however the landscape of the spot was about to change drastically once again as new rules were introduced in a brand spanking new Championship was brought about cars became more radical more powerful and most important play faster join me next time as we enter the 1970s a decade as different to the 60s as the 60s was to anything before it rallying into the 70s with a bang the FIA which stands for the Federation International Del automobile or the international automobile Federation in English made the decision to create the International Championship for manufacturers abbreviated as the ICM this was as the name implies a championship consisting of a series of rallies raised across the year culminating in a manufacturer being crowned the champion this will be the firona to the WRC which would follow a few years later in 1970 the inaugural year the championship was rest across seven different rallies all but one within Europe the championship Was Won by Bjorn waldergaard piloting his trusty Porsche 911s after winning the Monte Carlo rally the Swedish rally and the Austrian Alpine rally and the Porsche team finished with a two-point lead over Alpine Renner so in 1971 Alpine swung back by running away with the title with an 80 18-point lead of asab in second their new car the Alpine Renault air 110 1600 was an upgraded version of the car they found success with in the 1960s the 1.6 liter inline far from the Renault 16 TS made 125 horsepower being a huge step up from the previous iteration the A110 was making a huge name for itself and in 1971 while being piloted by ove Anderson won the Monte Carlo San Remo Austrian Alpine and Acropolis rallies as well as a fifth victory at the final ever Coupe de Sales piloted by Bernard darnish so in retaliation Lancia swung back even harder in the 1972 Championship with a 42 point lead over Fiat in second and won two whole round in advance once here like Alpine had become a huge name in rally by now their Lancia fulvia HF had won every single round of the Italian Rally Championship every single Year from 1965 to 1973 with the exception of 1970 when Fiat took it even with the car raging relatively quickly compared to its peers it still had fire left in it but Lancia knew that they would eventually have to build a follow-up to remain competitive elsewhere the early 70s saw the birth of many new rally cars Ford followed up their successful Cortina models from the 60s with the brand new Ford Escort RS 1600 based on the first generation Ford Escort fitted now with a 1.6 liter 16 valve engine making 115 horsepower also be modified with stiffer body shells and sport suspension the RS 1600 was the first of all's Racers to be named with the RS subtitle establishing a legacy that would last for decades Fiat truly joined the race in 1972 with their theater bath 124 rally the 1.8 liter inline 4 made 126 horsepower and the car secured itself as a threat almost immediately with a victory in the European Rally Championship the Japanese began to show an interest too thatson introduced their 240Z and won the 1973 Safari rally and Mitsubishi launched the 1600 GSR a rally spec version of the Lancer and won the Southern Cross rally every year from 1973 until 1977 and also saw success at the Safari rally in 1974 and 1976. 1973 brought about the biggest change yet the FIA introduced the World Rally Championship an evolution to the ICM it was largely the same scoring was now awarded based on the highest position a manufacturer placed in a race so for example if Ford was to place third fifth and 9th on a single rally they'd only be awarded points for their third place finish the other two results would be disregarded these are the two places however would then also be denied to any other manufacturers the WRC was part of a larger scheme from the FIA a way to better understand what cars would fit into what category for all types of Motorsports like sports car racing touring class racing and yes rally there were six categories in all but the only two that were of real concern for Rally Sport was group 2 and group 4. the main requirement to be homologated into either category was a minimum number of cars built for the road group 2 was 1000 per year and group 4 was 500 per year which was later lower to 400. most cars entered for rally were entered into group far largely due to the smaller amount of cars required there were also now 13 events on the calendar and a lot of these rallies were brought over from the ICM most of which became Staples of the WRC there was a heavy abundance of purely gravel stages but there were also some snow and tarmac stages as well as a mixture of surfaces on many of the stages too the championship was a huge success and it was was easily worn in the inaugural year with a huge lead from Alpine Renault returning with their air 110 after winning the 1971 ICM Alpine were truly at the top of their game at this point but subsequently lost their lead to the Italians over the succeeding years this began in 1974. Lancia had come back once again the Stratos following the mini in the early 60s was the next big revolution in rally engineering you see every single car up to this point had been a modified version of an already road-going vehicle lancia's on fulvia was one such car however the Italian team decided to try something a little bit radical a car built from the ground up to compete in rally which they would then sell to the public for the road in order to be homologated basically Lancia had swapped the method around instead of road then race it was now race then Road the about Tony design Stratos took full advantage of this setup it was powered by a mid-mounted V6 ripped straight out of the Ferrari Dino which came about as theater on both Lancia and Ferrari at the time it made 188 brake horsepower in Road trim or stradale form but that was up to 275 horsepower in rally trim it also featured a radical wraparound windscreen for maximum forward visibility and of course had the iconic wedge shape and just as many predicted and as once you hope the Stratos effectively conquered the WRC by the hands of the lights of Sandra minari and Marco Allen it won the 1974 series and now run on just eight rallies many canceled due to the oil crisis still Lancia took this opportunity to build a sizable lead over their Rivals Fiat who was still stuck in second the world of rally was rarely beginning to hot up now that there was a consistent championship in place manufacture has now had an even Battleground to Juke it out more and more money and Manpower was being poured into the sport and it was getting ever more popular by the year join me in episode 5 where Italy's dominance of the 1970s continues and one rule change late in the decade would change rally in Forever rallying now found itself nicely settled after years of Fairly drastic changes and alterations the WRC now provided a stable Arena across the world for teams and drivers to go head to head once ahead of course won the 1974 season and with their new racehorse weren't intended on retiring anytime soon they repeated their Victory The 1975 season truly proving that their purpose-built rally car despite a few problems with reliability was the Untouchable dominant force and it won by a landslide because of this the more exciting Battle of 1975 was actually for second place and by season's End theater had only beaten Alpine to number two by just one point because the oil crisis had subdued by now a lot of the events held became firm Staples of the WRC even to this day such as the Monte Carlo and Swedish rallies upon making their return after a Year's absence Lancia then decided to better themselves once again in the next year after claiming victory at the Monte Carlo Portugal San Remo and todda Corsa rallies the Lancia team ended up scoring over double the point that second place did who were opal Lancey had truly proven that a car built specially for rallying had the chance at complete domination if done correctly and had set the bar to new albeit very tall height even sir lancia's main rival Fiat had a very different point of view after relative success with their about one too far their set eyes on their newly introduced sedan the 131 with the intention of modifying it into a rally car the new variant called the 131r bath was powered by a two liter flat 4 making 225 horsepower later rated to 245. this inadvertently was a problem for Lancia not explicitly in the car itself but in the funding and Paul Politics the other saw both cars since fear turned Lancia they now had two rally cars to their name worn under their own badge and of course the other one under the Lancia badge therefore it would make much more sense for Fiat to push the one through one and not the Stratos they wanted their car with their name on it to win and simply cope it did many considered and still do think that the Stratos could have gone on to win many more rallies and was just a much better designed car at the time it looked practically alien while it was still able to hold on to its domination of the Monte Carlo from 1975 until 1977 the 131 simply had a much larger backing and snagged the world title in 1977 and 1978 and throughout its WRC career it managed to earn 20 separate event victories for now Lancia had been kicked off the top spot but it wouldn't be the end for them as the forthcoming years would sure this period of time however sparked up a more forgotten rivalry between fear with their 131 hour bath and fought with their escort Ford had made a fiery return in 1975 with their Mark II escort with a follow-up to the successful RS 1600 with the brand new RS 1800 with a 2-liter Powerhouse making 250 brake horsepower the RS 1800 picked up where the 1600 left off the two had an effective Monopoly on the RAC rally throughout the 70s from 1972 to 1979 escorts won the event every single year but it did see success outside just the UK with victories in the likes of Sweden Greece and New Zealand however it would take a little bit longer before they saw true worldwide success the fight between the 131 and the escort was pretty evenly staged both were front engine rear-wheel drive three box Saloon cars backed by two of the biggest Titans in Motorsport the escort missed out on the 1977 WRC Title by just four points but that year saw the combination of Ford and Fiat Tech 9 out of the 11 Turtle rallies and in 1978 Fiat took the title once again leaving Ford in the dust to equal Opel with just 100 points in second 1979 however would finally see the escort take a title with four total rally victories over the season however despite the escort being designed manufactured and advertised predominantly in the UK the win was claimed as an American victory this battle however also proved just how unreliable rally cars were at the time while the escort was based on one of the most popular cars ever made it had a severe problem with its head gasket which could prove to be pretty detrimental the Fiat on the other hand like the Stratos before it had a recurring problem of poor reliability on the hull but then it was Italian throughout this period the FIA had also been trialing a second Championship to supplement the Constructors Championship the Constructors Championship between manufacturers was still the focus but in 1977 they introduced the FIA cup for drivers as indicated by the name the drivers would score points based on how they did in events and the driver with the most points would win the championship this was won by Sandra manari in the Stratos in 1977 and Marco Allen in the 131r buff in 1978. in 1979 the FIA decided to go all in and form the World Rally Championship drivers Championship to give it its full title the inaugural championship in 1979 Was Won by the Wonder Boy himself Beyond Wilder guard in the escort beating out hanu Nicola by only one point the new drivers Championship would arguably become just as if not more important than the constructive Championship to many in the follow years something else happened in 1979 that at the time most manufacturers didn't actually believe would hold that much importance the legislation of four-wheel drive while it was obvious to everyone that four-wheel drive would provide better grip than two-wheel drive the increased weight and most importantly cost would mean that it simply would not be viable whatsoever most thought that it was back to the status quo as usual however it would be a small German company with no concrete rallying Heritage to speak of that would finally prove that four-wheel drive was truly the future as the new decade began the game was about to change big time by now cars were incredibly fast but as rule changes came about allowing more power and less weight to be made legal races went from Mere supercars to living mechanical bullets it was time for the 1980s the 1980s seemed to be the start of just another decade in the world of Raleigh the previous decade had shown the capabilities of rally cars they didn't just have to be souped-up road cars maybe sometimes there could truly be a Supercar and while Technologies had evolved constantly throughout the 70s it's unlikely that anyone expected what was to come at the start of the 80s Audi was a manufacturer with no solid rallying Heritage they had experimented with competing with cars like the Audi 80gle in the late 70s but it didn't really leave much of a mark however with the legalization of four-wheel drive in 1979 the Audi team thought they didn't have much to lose in terms of rallying Prestige and so set to work developing a four-wheel drive rally car something most manufacturers believed was too risky and too expensive to attempt they took the recently introduced Audi quattra a car already fitted with four-wheel drive and shared a lot of of body parts from the aforementioned Audi 80 therefore development wasn't actually that costly the original version of the Audi Quattro Competition Car debuted in 1980 at the Yana rally developing 300 horsepower from its 2.1 liter turbo charged in line 5 and as you likely could have guessed the Audi Quattro almost immediately proved its power and success the car was used as an opening or zero car for the 1980 Algarve rally while this meant it wasn't officially competing the Quattro driven by hanu mikola finished with a combined time that was over 30 minutes faster than the car that officially took first while two-wheel drive was lighter cheaper and much faster on tarmac four-wheel drive when coupled with the quattro's turbocharged engine put down much more traction on the gravel and snow which is what a majority of the WRC calendar was composed of however while it did debut in 1980 it still had a way to go before being able to fully the WRC development was still in progress the early 80s therefore was still dominated by two-wheel drive the 1980 WRC Was Won for a third time by the square but fair Fiat 131r bar pushed to its final Victory by the driver's Champion Italian back German Walter roll he was part of a new lineup of drivers that have been showing up throughout the late 70s including the likes of Atia batega Michelle Mouton Tony Pond shakameter arivatanan yuha cancunan and Henry Tiverton to name just a few as cars were getting faster and stages were becoming more Relentless it was ever more important that these Pilots knew both their cars and their own limits and to push as much towards them the 1981 WRC saw few changes to the calendar with fleeting appearances in both Argentina and Brazil which would either be phased out over the next few years or altered to better suit the calendar 1981 Was Won by a small British manufacturer called Talbot racing their Sunbeam Lotus this rebag criedler Sunbeam a small hatchback which was co-developed with other British manufacturer lotus in preparation for the rally made 250 brake horsepower from its 2.1 liter slant 4 engine it only won a single rally outright but its consistent appearances on the podium throughout the season allowed Talbot to take the win by 11 points over Datsun the driver's title was won by Ari vitan and in the escort RS 1800 this season would prove however to be the final year of the first stage of the WRC in 1982 the FIA introduced a completely new rule set up until this point rallying was raced under both group 2 and group 4. then fisa decided to create three new classes for rally cars group N which were unmodified production cars group air which were modified production cars and Group B which were modified sports cars grew pen and day allowed cars with four seats which included two plus two body styles and a minimum of 5 000 units produced each year Group B was far more specialized because mid and rear engine combined with rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive was favorable to many manufacturers which cost far more than their front engine front-wheel drive counterparts Visa added a third group to allow said manufacturers to comply legally allowing a mere 200 cars built per year to be the minimum requirement therefore while group N and their cars had to be Mass built and marketed Group B cars could be specially built like the Revolutionary Stratos due to not having to be committed to building thousands of units the group b cars had to be two seaters and manufacturers could introduce an evolution model each year with improvements and changes to the already competing car which could be homologated with just 20 new units Group B was then split into a further four classes regarding engine displacement and weight they were as follows 2000 CC with a minimum weight of 820 kilograms 2500 CC and 890 kilograms 3000 CC and 960 kilograms and 4000 CC and 1100 kilograms as well as a minimum Tire width manufacturers also have the option to turbocharge their engines but this would then mean they would have to lower their engine displacement for example a turbocharged engine in the 3000 CC plus would have a maximum displacement of Just 2 142 CC it sounds confusing at face value but this system meant it was easier for manufacturers to build cars to more accurate specifications most notable Group B cars competed in the 2500 and 3 000 CC classes but the likes of the Renault 5 turbo were in the 2000 CC class and the likes of the Porsche 959 and the Ferrari 288 GTO would be entered for the 4000 CC class however however the rules weren't fully comprehended by teams at first most cars entered into the 1982 season were unmodified group 4 rally cars this included the Audi Quattro however its aforementioned four-wheel drive and turbocharged engine easily propelled it to a victory in fact with opal following in 2nd 1982 was a season heavily dominated by the Germans with the addition of the fact that Walter roll took his second drivers championship this time for Opel 1983 will be the true start of Group B the rallies across the year had generally stabilized by this point with changes only happening briefly from year to year Audi returned after their first win with the Quattro air 1 and later the A2 variants of their car both spotting minor upgrades over the original however the biggest head turner this year was the Lancia Earth 37. despite Audi proving the superiority of four-wheel drive this stubborn Italians decided to stick with two-wheel drive the r37 was a heavily modified Lancia Monte Carlo making 280 horsepower from its supercharged 2-liter mid-mounted inline 4. after being introduced in the 1982 season 1983 became a dogfight between the powerful certain to win Germans and the underdog Italians who many considered stupid for using two-wheel drive at this point the two cars combined won 10 out of the 12 Turtle rallies and while Audi put up an excellent fight with their top team of drivers Lancia ended up clutching the title by just two points in the end thanks large in part to the dynamic duo of marku Allen and Walter roll was once again set to take the driver's title but since Lancia won two rounds in advance and were guaranteed to win they simply decided not to race in the final two rallies allowing hanu mikola to take it instead this win from Lancia would be the final ever win by a rear-wheel drive car 1984 saw things rarely begin to hot up while Audi and Lancia were still locked in a head-to-head battle for first Peugeot appeared as the third competitor with their 205 turbo 16. while Valencia was able to take the title from Audi in the previous year the Persia was seen as Audi's first true competitor with a 1.7 liter inline 4 making 345 brake horsepower with the T standing for Turbo and the 16 referring to the 16 vowels after being introduced partway through the season it's off three separate event victories in immediately personified itself as a threat still it would take some time to get into the groove of things and so the 1984 season was conquered for a second time by Audi who by now are racing both the A2 variant and the spark Quattro which now made 444 horsepower still it wasn't a runaway win as Lance here a newcomer Persia were able to keep up competition was thick in the air and as the 80s wore on more and more manufacturers would attempt to take a slice from the group b pie Audi knew that Peugeot had backed them into a corner with the t16 but didn't quite understand the extent to which this had taken place Group B had now taken over the hearts and minds of many in the world of Motorsports so far it had propelled many great cars and drivers into the spotlight while the new rule set did have a slow start it was quickly picking up Pearce as the year turned to 1985 what had previously been a two or three-way fight for the podium suddenly turned into a free-for-all with many manufacturers introducing intricately designed cars Lancia was the first up to back while the r37 had won the 1983 season the writing was on the wall rear-wheel drive simply wasn't as successful anymore even after introducing the Evo II model with operated power and numerous modifications it was becoming a bit of a liability they needed those front wheels under power too Lancia needed their own four-wheel drive racehorse and so they introduced the extreme Lancia Delta S4 featuring something called twin charging where both the turbocharger and superchargers fit in the a 1.7 liter inline 4 made 483 horsepower some saying that could be as high as 500 and there were even sources that quoted the engine making up to a thousand horsepower under extreme conditions remember this is the mid-1980s the mid-mounted four-wheel drive S4 shed almost nothing in common with the front engine front-wheel drive production Delta Ford finally made a return after many years with the RS 200 initially they had planned to make their next rally car once again a modified escort like previous rallying Endeavors this time the Mark III known as the escort RS 1700 T however the project was plagued with problems from the start and therefore far decided to just simply build a car from the ground up the only Group B car to be as such and what resulted was the RS200 the mid-mounted 1.8 liter straightforward BDT engine made either 380 brake horsepower or 444 brake horsepower power based on different sources it featured a completely fiberglass body and a large wing and a roof duct in order to air downforce both Valencia and Ford were created in 1985 but wouldn't compete until 1986. other manufacturers began to enter two mg launched the strange little Metro 6r4 with both a rear and front spoiler fitted with a 3 liter V6 making 450 brake horsepower it was also unique in the fact that it was actually naturally aspirated unlike many of its competitors at the time now that there were so many teams going for the win it was obvious that it will be a close fight for the title however Persia who were now racing that 205 t16e2 model with a larger wing and new turbocharger and a 550 horsepower engine in the captain seat new of the rising competition and weren't willing to Simply sit back and let all these new manufacturers take the crown the 1985 season despite showcasing so many any incredible contenders also showcase some of the cracks that were starting to show as a result of the easygoing regulations at the fourth stage of the tall decassa driver atteo batega tragically struck a tree in his lancero 37 and was killed instantly Ari vatanan who was leading the Persia team towards Victory and was set to take the driver's Championship 2 also suffered a crush though non-fertile when his two or five foot ten dollar front at rally Argentina still even with one of their star drivers out for the season the Peugeot team powered through and took their first WRC title after so many years of on and off competing and vatenin's teammate Timo Salona would swoop into the driver's title the 1985 season would also Mark the final win at the wheels of the legendary Audi Quattro as the company was quickly losing interest in the program largely due to the increasing focus on the potential danger of Group B rally not to mention the tough competition from Persia 1986 however has gone down in history as one of the most important seasons in the spot it was largely characterized by the dogfight between Persia and Lancia who were now racing their Delta s fought full time after making a Victorious first appearance of the final rally of the 1985 season despite this and despite the impressive efforts by the teams competing the cars were simply becoming too fast too unpredictable and too unruly and while the drivers were some of the finest the world had ever seen even there couldn't always guarantee complete control of their car the first accident came at the third rally Portugal Joaquin Santos lost control of his Ford RS 200 while cresting a hill and plunged into a crowd of Spectators 30 were reportedly injured and three were killed another fatal crash happened just a few months later at the todda casa Henry Tiverton and his co-driver Sergio Cresta plunged off the edge of the cast into the trees in the car quickly exploded into flames as the aluminum fuel tank was ruptured while the crash would have likely not killed the two immediately the drivers had no time to escape from the car and likely burnt alive while still strapped in their seats while there were no nearby Witnesses of the crash when the Twisted child skeleton of the Lancia was lifted back out it was clear that there was nothing that anyone could have done there was another problem that was getting out of hand too the spectators Group B was immensely Popular by the mid-80s and there were hundreds of thousands of Spectators lining the cars on any given rally mixed that with a lack of protective barriers and the utter stupidity of certain individuals who thought it a good idea to try and touch the cars as they went past or even to run out in front of them and the deaths were beginning to cast The Shadow these two accidents in combination with those that had happened previously and the mounting fear for both drivers and Spectators put Group B into a Limbaugh State while the 1986 season was to its end resulting in Peugeot and their driver yuha Cancun and claiming the manufacturers and driver's titles respectively it was inevitably decided that group b would no longer be rest after that year this came at a part-time for the organizers the FIA was actually planning to phase out Group B anywhere for the 1988 season replacing it with a more refined Championship with a harsher rule set called group s the championship had first been proposed by fisa's then president Jean-Marie balestra in 1984. however with the group b Championship being canceled it was also decided to act group s along with it the prototypes that manufacturers like Audi Lancia Mazda and Toyota had all constructed therefore were not going to be able to race even with further revisions to the rule set such as imposing a strict limit of just 300 horsepower on the cars and also moving the homologation up to 1987 one year ahead of original schedule balestra believed that group s wouldn't stop the excessive meddling with the rule set like it had been in Group B therefore group a was put in place as the new standard in the WRC being rushed with touring cars based on production cars therefore a new era of rally had begun once again and to many manufacturers it was detrimental many were in the process of building both Group B and group s cars at the time of the ax and simply didn't have cars that were eligible to race in the group air category the likes of Peugeot were furious with the change they had a dominant racer in their lineup and simply didn't have an immediate replacement for group air but there was one standout manufacturer this year and its name was Lancia because unlike so many other manufacturers Lancia had the perfect car to introduce in their case it was the Delta which had already seen competition as the S4 this time however they rebuilt it to have a 2 liter inline 4 making 1 263 horsepower and was known as the HF four-wheel drive despite being quickly designed and introduced and having numerous flaws the competition was so lacking it easily steamrolled the entire year winning 9 out of the 13 rallies of the 1987 season manufacturers like Audi with the 200 Quattro and Ford with the underpowered Sierra XR 4x4 simply couldn't keep up the Delta was quick to modify and race and Lancia took full advantage of this it was repeated in 1988 with an even more dominant performance with 10 wins in total Ford was the only other manufacturer to win a rally where points for the manufacturer Championship were concerned Lancia introduced the far more refined hair check into growly part where through the season and you may have guessed Lancia returned for a hat-trick in 1989 still far ahead of any of the competition they were now racing the integral with 16 valve which symbolized lancia's car constant fight to improve the Delta despite no real competition however the 1989 win wasn't quite the clean Suite they had experienced previously Toyota proved to show some resistance to the Italian domination with their newly introduced Celica GT4 st165 sure at this point there proved no match for the integrally but it did potentially indicate what was to come for the spot in the 1990s despite Group B ending what many called the Golden Era of rallying things were only going to hot up over the next few years as a few certain manufacturers showed that maybe it doesn't just have to be the Europeans who are good at rallying the Japanese might have a knack for it too by the time the 90s rolled around the WRC was in a more calm and Collective state after the whole action of Group B had subsided of course coming out of the other side of Group B had left a lot of Manufacturers with nowhere to go and nothing to race with valancia was the obvious exception here who quickly used their experience and expertise to put together the Delta HF which had no competition they used the first few years after Group B to dominate while the other manufacturers had to play catch-up but it had been a few years since Group B now and some manufacturers were beginning to rear their heads once again Toyota was the main one continuing to rest their st165 and raced it so well they were able to get their driver Carlos sends the driver's title there were others too Mitsubishi had a crack at the spot again with their Gallant VR4 a huge chunky Beast that despite weighing the same as the large elephant managed to claim a few victories for its own trophy cabinet throughout the late 80s and early 90s there was another Japanese manufacturer too Subaru racing their legacy RS it was nowhere near as successful as its peers winning a soul event in 1993 but it did Lay the groundwork for a potential World beater just a few years down the line despite this Lancia were unfazed and picked up their fourth consecutive manufacturer's title but only by six points 1990s generally said to be the point where group air cars began to overtake Group B cars despite being weighed down on power compared to their older brothers the new Racers were lighter cheaper had better handling and most importantly were far safer 1991 came around still continuing lancia's winning streak but only by nine points in the end Toyota weren't going to take this Italian steamrolling lightly they were quickly catching up 1992 was a similar story Lancia took the win but Toyota was riding their coat Tails speed speaking of Toyota they have now launched and homologated their Celica st-185 featuring a 2-liter turbocharged in light 4 raising the power output to around 300 horsepower the launch of the newer Celica also signaled the impending Japanese invasion that the WRC was about to experience as the sport entered the 1990s it was dominated by Europeans as it had been since the beginning such as the Audi 90 Quattro the fault Sierra Cosworth the BMW M3 the Renault Clio and of course the Lancia Delta into Growler however the next few years saw an uprising from the Japanese manufacturers of course this began with Toyota and their Celica but other manufacturers like Subaru Mitsubishi Mazda and others started to leave the shadows as well sure they were all already competing but not to any great levels of success takes Subaru for example there had been as already said racing a legacy RS a heavy bulky sedan that simply couldn't keep up with Delta smaller and lighter was the way to go so in 1993 Subaru launched the world-renowned Impreza WRC of course based on the road-going Subaru Impreza WRX it had a two liter boxer engine which isn't quite the same as an inline engine but it's still made around 300 horsepower the same goes for Mitsubishi they were racing the heavy sluggish Galant practically a full-sized boat before transitioning into the smaller faster Lancer either both of these cars as well as the Celica started picking up Wings left and right and despite the Europeans trying to fight back they couldn't even the Delta which by 1993 had a record-breaking six manufacturers titles and four drivers titles to its name was slipping fast 1993 would have been their seventh manufacturer's title but unfortunately after Toyota very fortunately the Celica had finally overtaken the Italians 1993 was the year of Toyota after they took the manufacturer's title themselves and knew her Cancun who had now moved from Lancia to Toyota took the driver's title 1993 would sadly prove to be the final year of the historic Lancia racing team a legacy that had been going strong since the 1960s was ended by what can only be described as a catastrophic final season however despite it being out of competition for almost 30 years now lantius still holds the most manufacturer's titles in history something to be remembered but this does bring up the question why were the Japanese only just now becoming so dominant was it something about group a that enticed them so much more than anything previously well let's have a look at the rule book up until 1991 the group air rule book said that the manufacturer had to build 5 000 units of the car that they wanted to homologate this regarding how many of the best cars was building already this was a lot however in 1991 it was changed to just two and a half thousand models out of a total 25 000 base model capacity for example Subaru would have to build two and a half thousand impressive wrx's out of the total 25 000 bits in pretzers this doesn't really seem to mean anything but Japan in the late 80s and early 90s was well known for their tuna and sports car culture every brand Under The Rising Sun was contributing their sporty sedans and hatchbacks to the Japanese domestic market and this included the likes of Toyota Subaru and Mitsubishi simply put they were already producing road legal cars by the thousands with red Power output so it was much easier for them to homologate models for the WRC they were already doing it Europe didn't have a culture anywhere near this level sure there were outliers like Lance here and Ford but they didn't produce their versions nearly as much as the Japanese day back when the requirement was just 200 units I.E Group B European manufacturers were far more inclined to compete still they're worse and Europeans remaining such as Rhino skoda and of course Ford who had now moved on back to their roots with the escort the Ford Escort RS Cosworth was based on the mark 5 escort and was similar in many regards to the Sierra Cosworth mainly the massive whale tail Wing that remains iconic to this day it featured a turbocharged 2-liter inline for making 310 horsepower this was the only true Contender to the Japanese but the 1994 WRC was once again taken by Toyota who were now racing both the Celica st-185 and the st205 in unison and the driver's title was once again in their hands too this time for the Frenchman Didier Oriole the 90s were now well underway and the Japanese had truly vanquished the long-standing mighty of the Europeans as time went on however it would become a vicious fight between manufacturers for the title and the next few years would go down in Legend as some of the finest in motorsporting history the 90s had now become a decade for rallying as iconic as the 80s had been but the main difference however was the now almost complete Japanese takeover that had taken place over the last few years despite the best efforts of Brands like Lancia who wants the undeniable number one in the sport the Japanese were simply too good at building and racing these modified turbocharged versions of road-going models this takeover also dramatically lessened the number of Manufacturers competing simply because most didn't see any point in trying to win because there was no chance that they could the 1995 World Rally Championship topifies this very well as there were only five manufacturers competing three of which were Japanese compare this set with the 1990 Championship from five years earlier and you can really see how many more there were at that point the 1995 season itself was actually shaping up to be an exciting one throughout the season Toyota was building itself a nice lead over its men can competitors Subaru and it looks certain that they were going to take the title and as you probably guessed the 1995 constructor's title was taken back to your weight no it wasn't you see a few officials began to become suspicious of Toyota's winning streak perhaps it was just a little too good to be true cars were always inspected after each rally to make sure there were no cheats and the Celica had passed each and every time with flying colors but something was still off about the whole thing therefore at rally Catalonia the penultimate rally of the Season it was discovered that actually Toyota had been using illegal turbo restrictors to boost their power beyond what was legal it's quite complicated but basically I'm sorry if I'm wrong when the restricted plate was tightened into place which in of itself was completely legal and illegally fitted mechanism would also tighten allowing a half centimeter bypass to open up around the plate this seems completely insignificant but actually the trick could have given the celica's an extra 50 horsepower each which is a sizeable amount Toyota and all their drivers who were supposedly unaware of the cheat were immediately disqualified had all their points stripped from them and were given a one-year Band by the FIA many have come to call this the greatest and most sophisticated cheating motorsporting history and wouldn't have been caught if the officials hadn't been actively looking for illegal cheese therefore the manufacturer's title was handed to Subaru who were in second at the time and the driver's title who was originally going to be given to kankanan was given instead to a lesser known driver from Scotland called Colin McRae McRae came from a family of rally drivers his father Jimmy McCray won the British Rally Championship five times throughout the 1980s and his brother Alistair also had a career in the sport but Colin was much more of a wild card no matter what car he was driving living whether it be his Impreza the Legacy or even the Talbot zombie McRae was known for pushing not only his car but himself and his co-drivers to the Limit hell it's where the phrase if in doubt flat out originates because of this Colin McRae has presented the world with some of the best crashes and roles to Grace the spot of rallying the 1995 season again typified this as with Toyota out of the picture it was dead set that Subaru as well as one of their drivers were taking the title originally it was planned by the team for another subi driver Spanish born Carlos Sans to take the title but Colin wasn't going to take this sidelining sitting down and took matters into his own hands despite the team begging McRae to slow down to let Saints claim victory he pushed ahead and got the trophy leaving since in second this event caused Saints to leave Subaru for Ford in the 1996 season speaking of the 1996 season Subaru's dominance continued however with Toyota out for the year a record low of just three manufacturers took part Subaru Ford and Mitsubishi Subaru stormed into the lead once again and took the manufacturer's title but even with McRae on site they couldn't keep the driver's title from Tommy Mackin and driving his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 3 1997 then came around and with it some notable changes to the rules as you know the WRC has been operating under the group a rule set for 10 years since 1987 at this point the FIA decided to introduce a second rule set called the world rally car however initially the FIA allowed manufacturers to choose what rule set to a buy to Subaru Ford and Toyota all immediately switched to world rally car but Mitsubishi was the only one that chose to remain on the group pair at least for now the main difference was that manufacturers underworld rally car no longer had to build homologation specials they could take any of their road-going cars modified for rally and didn't have to worry about selling it to the public the new rules also had limited power output to somewhere in the range of 320 to 340 brake horsepower this new rule set would attract more manufacturers over the coming years but the 1997 season was still a three-way battle between Subaru Mitsubishi and Ford Toyota also returned mid-season at rally Finland having dropped their Celica in favor of the Corolla WRC with a turbocharged 2-liter inline fall making 299 horsepower Subaru went on to claim their hat-trick by taking a third manufacturer's title A machanen got his second driver's title in his EVO 4 just one point ahead of Scotsman Colin McRae 1998 was business as usual Mitsubishi were finally able to kick Subaru off their Podium with their first ever manufacturer's title as well as earning machinen his third consecutive driver's title as well this part was a bit of a fluke however Carlos Sans had been leading the pack and was dead set to win the title however in appallingly unlucky fashion since his Corolla broke down just 300 meters from the finish on the final stage of the RSC rally the last event of the Year Sans was forced to retire and gave mackinon the title instead therefore missing out on his second Title by another tiny degree 1999 came as the final year of the 20th century and with it Toyota was able to take their third manufacturer's title after five years with the Corolla mackinon clamped his fourth and final win for Mitsubishi which is truly an incredible feat a feat so incredible that Mitsubishi decided to honor him by launching a special version of the evos 6 dubbed the Tommy mackinon Edition it's regularly claimed to be one of if not the single best evos ever the forward also upgraded this year finally putting the lengthy escort rallying Legacy to bed by replacing it with the brand new Ford Focus RSW RC with McRae at the wheel like many of its peers it was fitted with a turbocharged 2-liter inline 4 making about 300 horsepower though the manufacturers were also joining the brawl such as Saya skoda Citron and Hyundai however the late 90s had also gone on to show a few cracks in the rule set of course world rally car had come along to modernize the championship but it was becoming clearer and clearer that these four-wheel drive turbocharged WRC monsters might not be the completely dominant Beast that they should be from 1993 to 1999 the FIA also ran the 2-liter World Rally cup the rules stated that engines had displacements of no more than 2 liters had to be front-wheel drive and had to be naturally aspirated because of these rules the 2 liter the 1.6 liter cars from the smaller class were much much lighter than their WRC Piers cars like the Peugeot 308 Maxi the Renault Clio Maxi and the seat Ibiza kit car were incredibly Nimble on the tarmac they began to dominate on tarmac heavy events like the Tyler Corsa and rally Catalunya even snatching away winds from the WRC teams themselves sure they weren't going to keep up on gravel or snow but their steamrolling of tarmac events made them appear more like circuit race as than outright rally cars despite them only operating for six years it saw Fierce competition General Motors took the title in 1993 skoda in 1994 Peugeot in 1995 sayak got a hat-trick from 1996 to 1998 and Renault took the last championship in 1999. the FIA chose to rework the Championships the 1.6 liter class will be replaced by the super 1600 Junior World Rally champion ship and the 2-liter class will be replaced by the super 2000 production World Rally Championship all in an attempt to bring better balance with all these changes happening in such a short amount of time going into the 21st century had rallying looking a lot different from years past the Japanese had managed to dominate for almost a decade but with new rules attracting new manufacturers to join The Fray would it last after an incredibly rich and complex history dating far back into the 20th century rallying had finally made it to the 21st century the Japanese had come along and revolutionized the whole idea of what a rally car was to be and the 90s have been the stage for a modern-day Japanese invasion but there were other changes too the introduction of other championships like the 2-liter cup and more importantly the implementation of the new rules set ironically called the WRC but in this case it stood for the world rally car this set of rules as well as limiting engine displacement to two liters allowing four-wheel drive and fast induction and a whole host of gearbox and body limitations also mandated that manufacturers were now no longer obliged to build homologation specials which had been part of the WRC for decades they could just take a car fit it with all the bells and whistles of the rallying world and set it out on the dirt it was a much more simple and overall cheap per Endeavor than the preceding group air the final car homologated under the group air rule set was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 which last competed in 2001. this all seemed like a massive change and in truth it was after being outed by the Japanese in the early 90s the European manufacturers realized that without the binding contract of homologation specials they were free to return bringing with them some Furious little monsters one of the biggest of course was Peugeot returning in 1999 after 13 years of absence following their duology of wins in the group b ERA this time however their weapon of choice was the Peugeot 206 WRC based off you guessed it the Peugeot 206 it made 300 brake horsepower from the 2-liter inline 4 and that phrase will become played out very quickly as because of the tighter world rally car rules manufacturers were severely limited by what power they could output meaning that two liter is in around 300 brake horsepower became a bit of a norm a shaky start was rectified quickly as Persia took both the drivers and manufacturer's title in the 2000 season with the team pulling comfortably ahead of Ford and Subaru the driver who took the other title was Finnish pilot Marcus gronholm breaking Tommy Mackin and streak of four wins for Mitsubishi gronholm was considered a late bloomer for the spot not becoming a factory driver until his 30s when he joined Persia after just one year with them he was able to take his first driver's title and Lead Persia to their manufacturer's title 2001 was another Persia year when they were able to secure their second manufacturer's title however the driver's title was instead taken by Brett Richard Burns Racing for Subaru and coincidentally in second was other British racing Legend Colin McRae who continued to rest for fall at this point who in further coincidence came second in the manufacture Championship themselves Richard Burns quite like McRae became a British rallying Legend not only for his driver's title but also for helping both Mitsubishi and Persia earn their retrospective Constructors titles he would also go on to give advice for and featuring what is widely regarded as one of the all-time best rallying games ever produced 2002 would then put Peugeot among other hat-trick Legends like Lancia and Subaru as they gained their third consecutive win for a third time relegating fault to Second and gronholm picked up his second and final driver's title it was a power for the first time since 1992 the Japanese would not at the top Peugeot with some great help for some great drivers like the aforementioned gron home gilas panizzi and Francois de la carre had snatched the Baton but it's not like Peugeot was the only new Titan of 21st century Rally Sport others too had begun to emerge in 2003 Scott replace that aging Octavia WRC with the smaller Fabia WRC which seem much more well suited to the New World Hyundai had debuted their brand new accent WRC which ended up performing moderately well and the Japanese were also modernizing their representatives Subaru introduced the first big change to the impressor since it debuted in the early 90s with the brand new Subaru WRC 2001 sporting the new ship nicknamed the bug eye it would go on to be quite successful earning two drivers titles to its name however peugeot's biggest competitor going into the early 2000s was Stellar French manufacturer Citroen Citron had a more extensive competitive history in the preceding years competing throughout the 90s with the Citroen cesara kit car when the kit car class was abolished the cesara WRC was born and began competing in 2001 with a 2-liter inline blah blah blah blah you get the picture despite Rocky first few years struggling to keep up with the 206 2003 was the year where the Cesaro was finally able to Triumph due to a combination of increased competitiveness and the quickly aging two or six struggling to keep up so veteran took their first manufacturer's title but their main driver Frenchman Sebastian lower was beaten to the driver's Title by Norwegian Peter Solberg allowing Subaru their third and final driver's title 2004 would see Citroen take their second manufacturer's title with a secure win over Ford however more importantly 2004 would go on to be remembered as the apparent beginning of Lords reign with his first of many drivers titles a number which will be withheld for the moment so where did this young Frenchman find his footing well originally lower had been a gymnast before moving into Motorsports this appeared to be a good choice as he seemed to be a bond natural from the moment he stepped foot in a race car he first competed in the Citroen saxo trophy series winning in 1999 at which point the boss of the Citron world rally team noticed loeb's talents and entered him into the 2001 Junior World Rally Championship where lower took the trophy by winning a landslide 5 out of the six events in his Citroen saxo the only reason he didn't win the sixth event the San Remo was because he was entered for that specific stage into the full World Rally Championship where he came an astonishing second only being beaten by true tarmac veteran Gillis penisi remember he was only 27 at the time Loop had a fantastic start to his career and it was nowhere near finished yet backtracking for just a second the junior World Rally Championship was first contested in 2001 however for the first year it was known as the FIS super 1600 drivers Championship the jwrc name being introduced in 2002 the jwrc is identical in most ways to the WRC the main difference is being a much shorter season by comparison the 2001 WRC had 14 rounds while the jwrc had only six secondly all cars were identical in model power and everything else which was serviced under contract while this all seems rather pointless at this value the overall cheaper and less daunting nature of the jwrc means that it's an excellent stepping stone for young and aspiring rally drivers who perhaps one day wish to compete in the proper WRC the junior wasn't the only new Championship the FIA introduced in the early 2000s a year after in 2002 the production World Rally Championship also known as the pwrc was brought to life now technically it wasn't new with the reorganization of Motorsports after the 1986 season the WRC was fought in the group air class however the FIA also ran the cup for production rally drivers which was fought in the group n-class in 2002 the FIA renamed it to the production World Rally Championship hence giving it the WRC status compared to the grouper and WRC cars group N Motors were much closer if not the exact same as what you could buy in the showroom straight from manufacturers hence the nickname showroom class classic competitors will be the likes of the Subaru Impreza WRX and the Renault 5 turbo now obviously all of these old and new championships had to re-rest in some sort of order 2002 makes for a good case study this year all 14 rounds of the WRC also had one of the other championships as a support class therefore at any one event you go to you would find both the WRC racing and either the jwrc or the pwrc racing the junior was raced at six rounds therefore the production was raised at eight rounds it may sound incredibly confusing but this was just another stage in the evolution and refinement of the World Rally Championship almost overnight the Japanese had appeared to completely lose their stronghold on the WRC and the French took Center Stage completely done dominating the early 2000s with a new century well underwear the world of Rally Sport had perhaps seen the biggest changes since the group b era are even the very beginning of the WRC itself in the early 1970s but what was to be in store for the WRC over the next few years would the French mimic the Japanese and take control of the rest of the decade or would the new rival spring up the WRC had now rarely settled into the groove of operating under the world rally car rules and with the addition of contested things like the Junior and production championships and the slow but clear emergence of certain dominant manufacturers and drivers there really was a lot to look out for 2005 acts as a very good midpoint to this era of the WRC a point where a lot of the traditional and all the characteristics of rally still remained Forefront but the truly modern era of the WRC was trying to emerge Citron obviously was the undeniable front-runner this year the combination of their incredible Cesaro WRC and a team of great drivers led by the promising Sebastian loab meant that no one could really deny that they were on top of the world however there were changes beginning to happen for one manufacturers like Subaru were still trying to play a catcher pushing their cars further and further in 2003 they debuted The Blob eye iteration of the WRC and this will be followed in 2006 by the Hawkeye iteration though following their driver's title in 2003 they would not see another Championship win fought after playing second fiddle to so many manufacturers for so long had finally decided to step up their game taking their focus which had been in competition since 1999 they injected just a little more power into it and what resulted was the Ford Focus rswc 2006 though confusingly it would first compete in the 2005 season the engine was downsized from the production Fox's 2.5 liter to a 2-liter duratec unit making 300 break horsepower however Ford only had the thing up and running for the final rally of the 2005 season and so the 2005 manufacturer's title went to Citron as no one was able to stand up to them yet another manufacturer admitted to the prestigious hat-trick club though this definitely wasn't the end loab took his second consecutive driver's title finishing with a huge lead of 56 points over Peter Solberg he also broke the record for the most rallies won in one season with a truly outstanding 10 obliterating the previous record of six which to be fair was a record also held by him and to that the fact that he had also beat the record for the most consecutive wins with six beating team Barcelona's previous record of just four Sebastian Loeb truly was in his Golden Age despite their Victory however Citroen men tend their plan of leaving the WRC at the end of this season and by proxy Persia was to withdraw ulcer both to work on new entries for the 2007 season Mitsubishi and skoda also withdrew though their reasons were separate and they would continue to compete in succeeding years through non-factory teams this meant that the 2006 season had a huge blow to the manufacturers taking part with a record low of just three Fallen Subaru were technically the only manufacturers to take part as Citroen was competing through the Kronos racing team they're reasoning for withdrawing over this season was to develop their successor to the cesara WRC which had finally reached its end-of-life status but 2006 did see some changes for example cars now had to be fitted with mechanical differentials water injection was now prohibited and the changing of certain parts across rallies was limited there were also two categories of manufacturer created M1 and M2 M1 had to compete in all rallies use the most recently homologated car and used two cars of the same Mech on all rallies by contrast M2 only has to compete in 10 or more can only use cars homologated in the prior year and also has to use two cars of the same Mech across however many different rallies they're competing this sounds confusing but let's face it most changes are in addition safety changes were implemented such as required use of a head and neck device on all drivers and co-drivers helmets to reduce the risk of injury in sad areas as for the standings this year Ford was able to take its second ever manufacturer's title an astonishing 27 years after its first in 1979. Sebastian Lloyd wrangled his hat trick This Time Racing for Kronos though in contrast to his monster of the year of 2005 only edged out Marcus gronholm by a single point though this is explainable as a mountain bike accident Midway through the season prevented him from taking part in the final four rallies which arguably lost Chronos the title 2007 then saw citroen's previous year's effort come to fruition with the introduction of the Citroen C4 WRC a 1.9 liter 315 brick horsepower motor that straight out of the gear was a promising successor to the cesara however it wasn't quite into the groove of things yet and Ford was able to take its third manufacturer's title and was the last a bit by a focus however none of these items were gonna hinder the Unstoppable force that was Sebastian Loeb swooping in to take his fourth consecutive title again with a narrow lead of a gromhome 2008 was a similar story with lobe adding a fifth trophy to his cabinet then Sidra made a return to the top after three years with their fourth win 2008 would also see the Japanese finally take a bow and exit the spot after many many years Suzuki who had only just entered the SX4 WRC into competition and long-time competitors Subaru both withdrew at the end of the season the common reason from the two being the economic crisis which had taken a huge toll on the automotive industry the Subaru world rally team had competed consistently for 20 whole years since 1989 and their Impreza had won a record 43 rallies in its career the team the manufacturer and the car have not been seen in the WRC since this left the 2009 season looking quite empty only two manufacturers were taking part being Citron and Ford though this was supported by a number of teams and Privateer entries of course the previous M1 and M2 categories for manufacturers had also been renamed to manufacture and manufacture a team respectively in many ways the 2009 season was a carbon copier 2008 Citron took yet another manufacturer's title this being their Fifth and low up secured yet another driver's title edging out onto the top spot by just one point of a maker Havana the FIA also decided to introduce something called round rotation this year where certain events will be added and dropped year on year to entice small candidates to enter the competition it's easy to think that this period of the WRC was much slower in its Evolution than previous errors however while this may be true in certain aspects a lot of other things were changing behind the scenes a prime example of this is in the name itself World Rally Championship despite this name most of the events of most calendar years took place within Europe a real effort was undertaken in the 2000s to spread the WRC to new countries and regions both in Europe and around the world examples like Bulgaria Poland Jordan Mexico Germany Japan and Cyprus all either met their WRC debuts or returns after long hiatuses during the 2000s safety obviously was also an aspect that was worked on especially after two fatal accidents the first came at the 2005 Wales rally GB after British driver Michael Park lost his life after his Peugeot 307 left the track and struck a tree head-on this was followed at the 2006 rally Catalonia's Junior event when German co-driver jorg bastard got out of his Citroen C2 and was struck by the Ford Fiesta ST of Barry Clark these were the first fatalities in the spot since 1993 which signaled the need for safety to be brought to the Forefront of what needed to be improved upon next this was all symbolic that despite being far removed from the infamous group beer era rallying was still a spot capable of Taking Lives but now the spot was entering a new decade and a vital few years in the longevity and survival of the sport many new rule changes were impending and no one really knew what they were going to be bringing to the table Citroen and especially Sebastian Lowe were in their Prime as the sport entered the 2010s but would it last and for how long 2010 had finally arrived as the start of a new decade of the WRC but since the turn of the century hadn't really changed in any significant way the actual podiums created as an end result of these championships was all sorts a bit of a standstill Citron had won the manufacturer's title for the past three years and loep had won the driver's title for the past six it was clear that if anyone else was going to attempt to take either title a little bit of a share cup would be required not beating around the bush 2010 was another year in this Anthology Citron was on consecutive manufacturer win number four and Lloyd was on consecutive driver when number seven and yeah 2011 continued this with identical standings it is also important to note the significant changes that were implemented at the start of this season the biggest the sport had seen since the introduction of the world rally car back in 1997. most notably the cars were to be best mostly on the previous super 2000 class of races though unlike those cars which were fitted with naturally aspirated 2-liter engines these new versions were to be fitted with 1.6 liter turbo engines plus cars could be fitted with kit such as rear Wings though these items must be removable within a predetermined time limit the final major change was the introduction of something called a power stage basically the top three finishes at the final stage of Any Given rally would be given bonus points no matter where they placed in the stage as a whole first would get three bonus points second would get two and third would get one this idea was actually trialled twice in the 1999 season at rally Finland and Matilda Corsa still these changes were no skin off the teeth of Citroen low air but in yet another point to their tally of consecutive wins this year at this point it really does seem a little outrageous that just one team and one driver were able to dominate so well effortlessly I mean seven consecutive wins there surely has to be some sort of bribery going on on the contrary however there was plenty of competition instead it was really just that Citron had perfected the rally car at the time it really was a truly incredible machine of power and Agility and as for Loeb well a genuinely incredible individual with not only buckets of natural talent but also a truly inspirational level of Drive pun intended something was going to be needed to come in and shake up the championship once more and some new faces might help do that one of these quote-unquote new faces was the return of a very old face mini the reason I say new is because many haven't actually competed in Valley since the 1960s and had never competed in the WRC until this point they had obviously been one of the most iconic racing teams in history undeniably being the icon for Rally sport in the 1960s in the pre-wrc era but after Decades of hiding in the shadows they were ready to return not to mention the fact that the many of today in the mini that revolutionized the roads of 1960s Britain were to put it bluntly vastly different the mini John Cooper Works WRC was their baby of choice this time though not based on the Cooper like many would expect instead it was built upon the design of the much more rugged countrymen fitted with a 1.6 number courtesy of BMW it was entered into a limited event in the 2011 WRC but would not be rest fully until the 2012 season under the Pro-Drive team who had previously worked with the Subaru Impreza however as one manufacturer entered the Frayer another one left it was announced at the end of the 2012 season that the Ford world rally team would be ending its participation in the WRC as Ford was cutting its sponsorship obviously multiple teams had left the championship before but this really was a huge moment for this spot as this far team had been competing continuously since 1978 in that time winning three titles to their name M sport had also been competing with Falls but after the official Factory arm of Ford departing in 2012 M sport became the official name under which Fords would continue to race after they found other sponsorships to secure funding at this point too Citron was also shaking up their presence the C4 had won them three World Rally championships and now its replacement was here to continue this Legacy the Citroen DS3 WRC obviously based on the Citroen DS3 the DS3 was quite different for the manufacturer being the first car launched under the DS brand of Citroen and from 2016 onwards it wouldn't even be marketed as a Citroen mechanically it was pretty sound downgrading to a 1.6 liter turbo charged in live 4 making 300 horsepower to be honest introducing so many of these cars back to back can appear fairly monotonous however there is a actually a reason for this as some people have pointed out in previous episodes and from General observations the WRC saw a shift throughout the 2000s from the popularity of sedan-based races to hatchback best by the time the 2010s rolled around the entire Championship was contested by only hatchbacks there is a multitude of possible reasons for this such as hatchbacks being lighter easier to work on easier to develop and simply the fact that sales dictate that hatchbacks have overtaken the sedan in terms of popularity of course there have been successful similarly sized and scaled cars throughout the history of the sport such as the Peugeot 205 and the Lancia Delta but they were comparatively few and far between this means that most cars in the WRC share a very similar silhouette a far cry from the likes of the group b era where every car was instantly recognizable and distinguishable from one another this would be a continued story for the next big entrant into the spot Volkswagen like mini Volkswagen had competed in rally before but to a much lesser extent they predominantly performed throughout the 1980s with their golf gtis however with not much success or look they're formally withdrew from the spot in 1990 however in 2013 this aspect of their history was revived and they appeared once again this time they presented the VW polo rwrc unlike most cars entered throughout history the polo didn't have the early stepping stones and settling in to do being the team managed to take their first ever Constructors title in the same season that the car debuted with quite a sizable margin over Citron 2. the driver's title would once again be taken by Sebastian but not Loeb Sebastian erzier was another Frenchman and one that managed to use upload from his throne ozier had started his rallying career in the mid thousands racing small rallies for Persia he moved over to the WRC in 2008 and was actually the first ever Junior WRC driver to score a point in the WRC as he not only placed first in the Juniors Championship but eighth overall two scoring him a single point after a brief stint with Citra and he would move to Volkswagen to spearhead their new polar WRC project and it seems that that was a good choice however urzia's Victory did mean that lurgs consecutive run had finally come to an end with an astounding nine-year domination of the spot between 2004 and 2012. it's also worth noting in 2013 that both the WRC 2 and wrc3 categories were introduced this was a reorganization of the group R classes they're themselves introduced in 2008. while there is a lot to unpack the wrc2 basically homologated four-wheel drive cars in the previous R5 class set is the skoda Fabia R5 while the wrc3 homologated two-wheel drive cars from the R1 R2 and R3 classes such as the Renault twingo rsr1 there is a lot to this aspect of the sport so let me know if you want me to cover it in a separate video to keep this one from running too long but back on track the 2014 season was largely a similar event to the previous year Volkswagen took their second title with a point total of a double that of Citroen in second and urgier would easily take his second driver's title interestingly another fairly large name in The Spot would return this year after 11 years Hiatus this time being Hyundai who had last competed in 2003 with the accent WRC this time they debuted a new smaller motor to better fit in with the modern landscape that being the I20 WRC with not much success in the early years it would soon come into its own as we shall soon see many people overlook this period of the sport as it may not seem as interesting or iconic as past championships however with the second generation of world rally car rules being implemented and the number of new and old faces mixing up the battle for the title the stage was yet again changing dramatically plus with Whispers of such ludicrous things as hybrids and all electrics entering in the coming years no one rarely knew what was to follow as we now approach the present day the cars competing in Raleigh began to reflect the changes that were happening to the worldwide car market as a whole one of these changes was the downgrading of engine displacement and the further Reliance on turbocharging since the introduction of the second generation world rally car rules however much more notable is the rising Shadows of hybrids and eventually all electric power Trends still those were quite a few years off by the mid-2010s and all entrants were still powered by traditional internal combustion engines at this point Volkswagen had been able to carve itself a niche in the competition being the brand that was finally able to kick Citron from its Castle despite little previous experience as well as enlisting the help of some top talent in the sport the team had a comparatively huge financial backing to build and develop their baby the polo R 2015 will be no different to this and both Volkswagen and Sebastian knows yeah able to join the hat-trick club for their respective titles a whole three rounds in advance they would do the same for the fourth time in the next season however this would prove to be Volkswagen's last as quickly as Volkswagen had entered The Fray in 2013 they left just days after taking their fourth title at the final round of the 2016 season it took most people by surprise and while no concrete reason was given as to why many theorize it was due to Volkswagen's then recent emissions Scandal which affected over 11 million Vehicles worldwide and was a PR disaster the team would return in a lesser form in 2018 to compete in the R5 class this therefore left the Battleground looking a lot clearer with the dominant manufacturer suddenly out of the picture and it was suddenly anyone's game once again to coincide with this 2017 was another year that would see the regulations undergo a series of changes to improve the competition Mac maximum power was increased from 300 to 380 horsepower minimum vehicle weight was reduced by 25 kilograms Active Center differentials were to be reintroduced as well as the electronic Center differential being allowed for the first time and then there were the changes to aerodynamics here is a picture of a 2016 m-sport Fiesta RS competition car and here is a radically different look in 2017 Competition Car to show these changes in effect overhangs door Sills pillars and especially rear Wings also an increase in size and further aerodynamic work was permitted rear diffusers were also deregulated to allow manufacturers to form their undesigned specifically the problem with many cars looking near identical mentioned in the previous episode therefore was slowly starting to be phased out thanks to these rule changes which came to be known as the fourth generation world rally car rules however due to these rule changes manufacturers had to re-homologate their cars even if they were using the same model a prime example is the previously mentioned m-sport after the Ford Fiesta rswrc was campaigned with moderate success from 2011 to 2016 their replacement came for the 2017 season it was the very similarly named Ford Fiesta WRC featuring much more extreme aerodynamics unlike its predecessor its success was apparent right out of the gear taking its first win at the 2017 Monte Carlo I.E the first event that it entered but as the 2017 rule stipulated new cars be introduced the fiesta wasn't the only fresh face Hyundai also returned this year now showcasing an updated version of that I20 WRC their first campaigned in 2014 this time the I-20 Coupe WRC with all the necessary upgrades oh and despite their fault of Volkswagen starting in 2013 citroens was still around starting in 17 with their c3wrc though it would not enter the same Hall of Fame that its 2000's predecessors would with the biggest face this year however was Toyota who would return to the spot this year after 17 years of absence they formally withdrew from the spot in 2000 though last competed for and won the manufacturer's title in 1999 with the Corolla WRC however this time despite the Corolla remain in a popular car they opted for the much more appropriately sized and marketed Yaris the Toyota Gazoo world rally team would also make their debut this year the Gazoo named arriving from an alternative website which was called gazoo.com but since these manufacturers were either new to the game or simply get into grips with the new rules mswat was able to swoop in and take both the constructor's title and also got urzier who had now switched to the fiestas his fifth driver's title technically M Sport's Victory does count as Ford's fourth Constructors type title however since the fiesta took the W under a team that wasn't the official Ford factory team like the previous fraud wins this title is listed as both a Ford and an M sport victory for this one season 2 The WRC trophy was contested introduced as a way to entice private tier entries to race with pre-2017 cars which could not compete with a much faster 2017 spec Racers they would race in seven rounds of the wlc their six best results counting towards their point Turtle the 2017 WRC trophy would be worn by great driver Jordan serridis in the Citron DS3 WRC the trophy was dropped after this season 2018 continued to showcase the superiority of these new generation rally cars Toyota were able to take their fourth ever manufacturer's title their first since 1999 the Yaris now firmly establishing itself as a true successor to the Celica earlier would once again try of the drivers championship for M sport though at the end of this season he would end up leaving the team for his old comrades over at Citron however due to Citroen being way past their primes have put it politely earlier pretty quickly found that his new ride was simply not going to get him any success while he did get a couple of Victories he quickly fell away from the top spot and this lack of success would see the official Factory arm of Citroen leave the competition for good this left the roadway open for Estonian rally driver ought tanak to be the first WRC drivers Champion without the first name of Sebastian in 16 years Hyundai also scored their first ever manufacturer's title in 2019 since first competing in the WRC all the way back in 2000 also being the first South Korean Victory another element that was seeing some change around this time was once again the locations of the calendar the FIA planned to increase the overall length of the championship from 14 rounds to 16 with many countries expressing interest in joining rallies like turkey and the Safari would see their return around this time after a long Hiatus and brand new entrance to the WRC character would also begin to pop up such as Chile Estonia and Monza with further events in places like Canada Croatia and Belgium expressed an interest in the following five-year period the WRC 2 was still going very strong as a support class around this time in its six years since Inauguration in 2013 skoda had been the manufacturer to dominate the championship with the Fabia R5 being the clear FrontRunner and while the wrc2 still does go strong today the wrc3 which was introduced in the same year as the wrc2 was actually abolished in 2018 with the Citroen DS3 r3t being the clear Dominator of its five-year lifespan but as you can likely guess it wouldn't be long until yet another overhaul to the competition at large would be brought in in 2018 the FIA proposed a new system called groups rally not to be confused with the 1982 rule changes essentially it was brought in to create a more cost-effective way of competing and also to introduce cars that are both reflective consumer Trends and to incorporate modern tech as well as renaming all the classes to have more consistency of the fia's rally championships the world rally car or top level competition would now be known as rally one R5 was now rally 2 rally 3 would essentially be a resurrection of the old group hen rules R2 was now rally 4 and R1 was now rally 5. essentially rally one through three will be the four-wheel drive championships while rallies 4 and 5 would be two-wheel drive not all of this would be introduced immediately however for example rally 1 would only replace the world rally car rules in the 2022 season but it was confirmed to be taken over at some point when it was announced in 2018 and with that we have arrived at the truly Modern Age with the introduction of the group's rally the traditional world rally cars a class of races that have been operating for close to 25 years was entering its Twilight dares with rally one post to take over the top level of the WRC within the next few years a new breed of rally cars were ready to take to the stage and With a Little Help from something called an electric motor these cars really were looking to the Future and with that we have arrived at the present day over 60 years of sporting history with evolving Technologies changing rules and new ideas left the WRC looking far different to what anyone could have expected back when it began way back in 1973. when the spot entered the 2020s everyone would have expected it to be with a bang however as we all know this wasn't the case when the covid-19 pandemic essentially shut the world down in 2020 the WRC was just one of many branches of Motorsport that was severely downsized for this year following on from the 2019 season which was contested over 14 rounds the FIA had planned to slightly decrease this showing to just 13 for the 2020 season however with the pandemic force in Many Nations to close their borders just seven rallies were contested a record low with the exception of Chile which was removed due to political unrest every other rally being Argentina portrait Finland Germany Wales and returning favorites Safari New Zealand and Japan and even Nukem and Belgium were all canceled some of them such as Germany and Wales never reappeared after this at least for now even events that made it to the final roster were affected for example rally Sweden had to be shortened due to a worrying lack of snow it was a shambles but this all meant that the 2020 season ended up being a very unique one the point totals at the end were much lower and closer than what was usually expected in the end Hyundai clinched their second manufacturer's Title by just five points of a Toyota and Sebastian erzier took his seventh World title 2021 would see a return to fall for the competition with most restrictions from the pandemic having been lifted the number of rounds was increased back up to 12 and at the end of those 12 rallies Toyota would come out on top for their fifth title and Sebastian nozier would claim victory number eight if it wasn't clear urgier had now become a legend that could match the Sebastian that came before him while it seems ridiculous that someone could take so many wins consecutively it's even more ridiculous that someone else could come and match that feat straight after not to mention the fact that they share names what it also indicates is that the French might have to be the top Contender for the best country to be balling if you want to become a world conquering rally driver another thing that was made concrete this year was that the world rally car hood finally reached its end after 24 years in competition 2021 would be the final year that the top level competition would compete under this rule set as mentioned in the previous episode rally one was now to Tech Center Stage as well as hybrid technology finally making its way to the stage and homologation was a thing of the past as any competition was rated as Category 2 which essentially stipulates that while they do not have to enter production they do have to clearly be based on an existing road vehicle the aforementioned hybrid system is the same in every car in the rally being supplied by only one manufacturer these will be used to solely power the cars in certain sections of rallies and on special stages provide an extra 134 horsepower on top of the combustion engine with a complete rewriting of the rules any manufacturer wishing to continue competing was going to have to create something new Toyota's newest Monster is the Toyota gr Yaris rally one based on the fan favorite GI Yaris Hyundai return the I20 as their choice their first troubles for the first few rallies and Ford would switch from the fiesta to the Apparently more unconventional Puma at the time of writing this of course the 2022 WRC season is in progress with rally Estonia the next event in the calendar two big returns will be made this year rally New Zealand is returning for the first time since 2012 and rally Japan is returning for the first time since 2010 after it was canceled in both 2020 and 20 21 Toyota looks to be taking a substantial lead over Ford and Hyundai winning 4 out of the six events so far Sebastian nozier however who has been largely on top for almost a decade is currently sat way down in eighth instead Finnish driver Cali Rovan Pera Racing for Toyota looks to be taking a comfortable lead over Belgian driver Thierry Newville who is Racing for Hyundai only time will tell as to where this season will finish while the rally One cars haven't yet had time to prove themselves as worthy next steps in the evolution of the sport one thing that is clear is that speed will not be a problem for them the question that I would like to conclude this episode and this series as a whole with is our electric powered rally cars truly the future of the competition obviously the fight against climate change and governmental lacks mandate that manufacturers switch over to cleaner and Greener sources of power but even hybrids that have been popping up as of recent simply don't have the flare and Magic that a traditional rally car have at least in my opinion sure they are just as fast if not much faster than a petrol powered machine not to mention safer more efficient and far Greener and maybe in time they will come into their own and a truly unique era of rallying will emerge in the next decade but they just don't feel as alive as an old rally car maybe it is just Nostalgia for these machines and the legendary battles that they took in from bygone years but there really is something special about hearing the Roar of a turbocharged engine approach to the trees emanating from a metal bullet maybe a bit pretentious but that's just me even though this area of the spot is coming to a close we can still reminisce and enjoy videos captured at the time and what of the new rally one rules while technologically yes they are heading in the right direction on another equally important level it doesn't seem to be creating the competition a spot like this needs there have been no new manufacturers join the battle since 2017 which is 5 five years ago as of writing this while these smaller groups of Brands battling it out can be fun there is just something awe-inspiring about seeing multiple names and people all vying for the title it plays a large part in why the likes of Group B in group hair so beloved simply put it creates better sport hopefully in time more Brands can be enticed back into the top level of competition such as the likes of skoda Subaru Citroen Peugeot and Mitsubishi and then maybe we could truly see a spiritual Return of the golden eras from Years Gone by thanks for watching

Channel: Jackoh Motors

Views: 103,426

Keywords: flat out, rally, world rally championship, wrc, group b, group a, rallycross, turbo, history, lancia, ford, hyundai, toyota, subaru, mitsubishi, citroen, peugeot, alpine, fiat, audi, quattro, 4wd, crashes, henri toivonen, compilation, facts, rally1, tour de corse, san remo, rac rally, colin mcrae, sebastien loeb, sebastien ogier, walter rohrl, top gear, michele mouton, kalle rovanpera, ott tanak, richard burns, marcus gronholm, tommi makinen, delta s4, s1 e2, 037, rs200, metro mg 6r4, ea sports

Id: jhqrOlPn3Eo

Length: 117min 21sec (7041 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 09 2023