With Rally Sweden only a few days away, I thought I’d take a moment to write down some of my thoughts, observations, and lessons learned after going to my first winter rally. This past weekend, my wife and I rented a car and made the 500 mile trip north from Philadelphia to Maniwaki Quebec for...
It appears the 2017 VW Polo has reached the end of the road. Yesterday the FIA announced that the 2017 VW Polo would not be eligible to compete in the WRC. There was hope that a waiver might be passed that would allow the VW Polo to be homologated without being associated with a factory...
So, we have one round of the 2017 World Rally Championship in the books. At a first glance of the final results, it doesn’t look like much has changed. Sebastien Ogier went on to win his 5th Rallye Monte Carlo… what’s new, right? However, when we take a look at how things played out last...
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way, not ever, but especially not on the very first stage of the very first rally in a new era. This wasn’t the Rallye Monte Carlo that anyone wanted, not the organizers, not the teams, not the broadcasters, not the fans, and most of all, not the individual who...
OK, I’m going to admit that when I heard about the Red Bull TV deal to air the WRC in 2017, I was a bit skeptical. I feared that it would fall into one of 3 categories. One possibility is that it would try to be too cool and over-sensationalize the sport. If that didn’t...
Rallye Monte Carlo is almost upon us, so it’s time to put out a few bold predictions for what 2017 will hold. Keep in mind that just because I’m predicting these things does not mean that I’m cheering for them to happen. I’d love to see things like M-Sport dominating and Jari-Matti Latvala resurrecting his...
It always seems to sneak up on me every year. Maybe it’s due to the lingering food coma and hangover from the holiday celebrations, or perhaps it’s that I consider this time of year the “off season” where I don’t need to keep track of motorsport. Whatever the reason, I always forget about the Dakar...
Since they first appeared in 1997, World Rally Cars have regularly undergone changes to their definition, whether in order to manage performance or control costs. The most significant changes were made ahead of the 2011 season, with more compact models with 1.6-litre direct injection turbo engines. The 2017 season sees the introduction of a new...
