More WRC news

[Mustang]

Well this really made my day hearing about this news

Teams for 2005

Subaru - Solberg and Hirvonen
Peugeot - Gronholm and Martin with Carlsson and Robert as there 3rd drivers sharing the drive
Citroen - Loeb and Duval (maybee) with Sainz as test driver and doig the occasional drive as third driver
BP FORD - they are going for a set of young guys next year - Tuohino, latvala, but they are very keen to leep Martin and Duval if ford get to continue next year
Mitsubushi - Panizzi, Sohlberg, Sola, Galli but one of them has to go
Skoda - Gardemeister, Schwarz, Ekstrom

Next years callender (provisional)

Monte carlo - January 20-23
Sweeden - February 10-13
Mexico - March 10-13
New Zealand - April 7-10
Italia - April 18 - May 1
Cyprus - May 28-29
Acropolis - June 16 -19
Argentian - July 7-10
Finland - August 4-7
Germany - August 25-28
Wales - September 15-18
Japan - September 29 - October 1
Corsica - October 13-16
Catalunya - October 27-30
Australia - November 10-13

Ford and next years WRC

It looks more like ford could be still in the WRC next year, they have allready begun development on the NEW car based on the NEW FOCUS that is due out at the end of this year

Ford are very keen to keep there existing drivers but if they dont get a certain answer soon it looks doubtful that this will happen. This means that there will be a selection of young guns ready to enter the ford team such as Janne Tuohino, Jari-Matti Latvala and even Malcom wilsons son Matthew which i think is taking the piss a bit since he has only been competing in any type of rally event atall for about a year but if ford get there way then its between those three who gets the third drive

New Cirtoen C4 and Suzuki Swift

The New C4 that is going to replace the old Xsara is not getting into the main development stages atthe moment while they are testing it it is basically running the same chassis as the Xsara is at the moment but it is not getting the full deveolpemt on it in the next few months withCarlos Sainz testing it

The new suzuki Swift has been made to replace the Suzuki Ignis in the JWRC for next year but there is roumer that in a few years that there could be a 4WD turbo version that could be suzukis entery in the WRC should be good

[fpv_gtho]

Well thats probably a sigh of relief to many people cross the globe, although if Ford ended up withdrawing from WRC, you could always watch the ARC, its highly rumoured Ford Australia will enter a Focus team to challenge the WRX's, EVO's and Corrola's

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by fpv_gtho

Well thats probably a sigh of relief to many people cross the globe, although if Ford ended up withdrawing from WRC, you could always watch the ARC, its highly rumoured Ford Australia will enter a Focus team to challenge the WRX's, EVO's and Corrola's

yeah i think that there is going the be a focus entered into AUS but it isnt a WRC spec car but roumour has it that it could be in a year or two

another think that i have just read says that ford could just be using next year mainly as a test year for there new car so that it is a Championship contender in 2006

[whiteballz]

WRC cars are disallowed in the australian nat rally.

thats why neal bates isnt racing his old corolla. it was WRC spec.
the ARC is group N only. all other specs (classic, group A, specialised, RS challenge) are all in a different rally. as in totoaly different. its just run on the same weekend on the saem stages to save money. there is a rally called the " australian rally" and one called the "asia pacific rally" which is the group N cars, ordinski, kahn, bates brothers, crocker etc. the "australian rally" has drivers like michael thompson ( group A STI), and the mistubishi's (magnas that were running this year) were in a group called specialised. there weer 28 RS turbos from subaru competeing in the RS challenge which is stock RS's with new tyres.

its all very divercified, so no WRC spec cars can run in the ASIA pacific rally.

[fpv_gtho]

No one knows 100% what Ford OZ will be doing...we'll be getting the new Focus about May next year, so the teams may get stuck with the old car, and it'll be entered unter similar rules to Neil Bate's prototype Corrola i'd say. i think the first round is around April though so they may get away with the 2nd gen Focus