As we're getting ready for Monte-Carlo...

[-Fred-]

The rally starts this weekend, and shakedown was today, which meant we'd see the new liveries on the new cars!

Citroen unveiled their new livery, complete with Movistar sponsorship.

It's a shame, the blue really messes up the look of the car.

Subaru unveiled the latest racing evolution of their '03 Impreza, too.

Wonder how they got to have this *huge* rear wing, and if it's going to be any use... Looks like it belongs on a 1980's Formula 1 car!

Hyundai lost their Castrol sponsorship, the car is now boringly silver and red...

Ford seems to have lost the Martini sponsorship as well, the car looking extremely dull in white with RS markings all over it.

In non-livery related news, Gilles Panizzi got penalised a full minute for having a non-working GPS system during shakedown. The penalty was given to Panizzi because he didn't advise the officials his GPS system was not functional.

Skoda is also considering a Fabia based WRC entry by the middle of the year to replace the fat Octavia.

and these are the WRC news so far!

 

[Jordan]

Whoa, I had forgotten all about the shakedown! I'm off to look for pictures of the new 206 livery. The Focus looks terrible!

 

[vat_man]

What is that on the back of the Impreza?!?

Aerodynamics in rallying - this is getting absurd.

 

[Wastegate]

Originally posted by vat_man
What is that on the back of the Impreza?!?

Aerodynamics in rallying - this is getting absurd.

Aerodynamics have been in rallying since the GroupB cars of the mid-80s (remember the wings on the 205T16, Delta S4 or the outrageous Metro 6R4?).

I believe the vertical fins in the Impreza's wing are to force the airflow to go over the wing as straight as possible even when the car is travelling sideways.

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by Wastegate
Aerodynamics have been in rallying since the GroupB cars of the mid-80s (remember the wings on the 205T16, Delta S4 or the outrageous Metro 6R4?).

I believe the vertical fins in the Impreza's wing are to force the airflow to go over the wing as straight as possible even when the car is travelling sideways.

Oh I know - I could probably have phrased that better - what I was getting at was that it's starting to get to the point where a mandated wing pack might be worth looking at. The cars are starting to look ridiculous, and the rear wing on the Impreza is hideous.

To my mind, rallying is about mechanical grip, not aerodynamic grip.

 

[made in holland]

If this was all on purpose, getting the color schemes as ugly as possible, then they have succeeded.

It looks like they've hired a four year old to design the schemes, especially on the Citroen

 

[ving]

I like the citroen!!
you sir have no taste

the others however suck!

 

[-Fred-]

Rally started this morning over there... SPEED won't have live coverage!!! We're gonna have to wait for next Thursday, 7 pm to 9 pm for some coverage! How ridiculous is that!

Maybe we should throw in some "spoilers"?