The reason why I think WRC is failing? I wonder if there is a correlation between, ratings, sponsorship, manufacturers wanting to enter etc etc since this happened...

2004 France Sébastien Loeb Citroën Xsara WRC
2005 France Sébastien Loeb Citroën Xsara WRC
2006 France Sébastien Loeb Citroën Xsara WRC
2007 France Sébastien Loeb Citroën C4 WRC
2008 France Sébastien Loeb Citroën C4 WRC
2009 France Sébastien Loeb Citroën C4 WRC
2010 France Sébastien Loeb Citroën C4 WRC
2011 France Sébastien Loeb Citroën DS3 WRC
2012 Points leader... You guessed it. Loeb

Undoubtedly he is a super talented driver and Citroën have delivered him with the ultimate package. But the sport needs a shake up. I remember when Tommi won his 4th in a row and how the sport was getting 'boring'. After that there was a good 4-5 years of the sport growing again, before the Loeb domination era.

__________________
[COLOR="Gray"]550Nm off a 2L... Just wish it was in the dak dak...[/COLOR]

Perth losing Rally Australia was the beginning of the end

But seriously, I miss those days, I used to volunteer every year at Rally Aus and work in the service park. Was a great atmosphere, I used to follow the championship too, every since we lost it Rally Aus, I lost interest and don't watch it anymore.

__________________
Ben
MY12 WRX Hatch

+1!!

__________________
No Subarus currently owned

I think this might be part of it, hard to believe that Petter Solberg was the last person to win the drivers championship, besides Loeb, way back in '03.

The whole point of the WRC car rules was to make it more affordable for manufacturers, plus attract more manufacturers as they didn't need to build a production 4wd turbo to enter. Then they started changing the rules.....

No doubt this forced a few manufacturers out.
And thats the problem I think, not enough different cars. Plus the new 1.6 cars are boring as to watch.
It blows my mind when the FIA changes rules to make things more affordable, its like they don't realise that every rule change entails millions of dollars of development money to meet the new restrictions.
Case in point F1's new engines, how much would that cost for the suppliers to develop a new 1.6 turbo?
The best years of the championship in my mind was the period 99-06
When there was at least 5 or 6 manufacturers going at it

__________________
Its just the internet dude, its not real.
F.B. Racing
01 WRX (STI badged)
2010 XR5 Focus
06 Impreza Hatch 2.0i

Best of Subaru Impreza 555 - with pure engine sounds - YouTube

Make it as interesting to watch & listen to as that & watch the money come rolling back in. I loved watching the Subaru's & Evo's on TV as a kid, even if that was during the early 00's... struggle to watch it now, it's all just cars I don't care about & no excitement.

*SIGH*

Event organisers threaten to walk away from the World Rally Championship - WRC news - AUTOSPORT.com

__________________
[COLOR=RoyalBlue][B][I]Titanium Reinforced[/I][/B]
MY00 Impreza WRX | MY11 Liberty GT Premium[/COLOR]

The WRC memory that will always stick in my mind.

Carlos Sainz crashes his Toyota Celica GT4 in Australia + interview - YouTube

I was only 5 years old, less than 5m away from the cars first roll. But something I will never forget.

__________________
500+hp and helis on tap, eta - June 2025.

I was there for that too aged 11, I was a bit further up near were the car ended up.

__________________
[COLOR=RoyalBlue][B][I]Titanium Reinforced[/I][/B]
MY00 Impreza WRX | MY11 Liberty GT Premium[/COLOR]

used to always look forward to rally aus, and watch it regularly back in the day.

a few times i have tried to watch it lately and its seriously a case of who gives a fuck about a citroen

__________________
R32 GTR - 800ish

60.7 Long Track at Barbs
57.6 at RAC Reverse circuit.

I think that's a lot of the problem, not just Citroen but any car that's so far away from a production model that there's zero relevance.

Production based racing and rallying has much more appeal to me. It shows whether the road car is any good and provides opportunity to buy half decent road going cars that have good rally based dynamics.