Is this the end of the Focus WRC car? I found this article...

Ford World Rally team boss, Malcolm Wilson will fly to Germany tonight in a bid to persuade Ford of Europe executives, not to axe the outfit at the end of the season.

According to reports in British newspaper The Times, Ford is keen to re-direct their funding to a new Ford Formula One team - currently known as Jaguar Racing - and possibly move into touring cars.

Wilson, of course, returned to the UK last weekend, only six hours after arriving for Rally Japan. Ford has also announced that they are unable to offer their number two driver, Francois Duval, a contract for 2005, while team leader Markko Martin meanwhile is believed to have an option with Peugeot for next season - all signs that Ford will not take part in 2005.

Ford could opt for a reduced programme next season, instead of a full withdrawal, however the official line is that talks are still ongoing.

Wilson's M-Sport operation, which runs the Ford WRC programme, employs some 150 people, and should the outfit be axed, then redundancies are almost guaranteed.

Should Ford decide to abandon the WRC, then it would be another blow for the series, which has suffered badly of late, with a series of unpopular new rule changes by the FIA, the sports governing body, which amongst other things, has seen the calendar expand to 16 events a year.

Hyundai of course pulled out in 2003, and Skoda is only competing in selected events this season. Mitsubishi, who were due to take part all season, also recently announced that they would sit out the final six events, to concentrate on 'testing' for 2005. Their return though is also by no means guaranteed. Without these then, and Ford, only Subaru, Citroen and Peugeot would remain in the series, and with the latter two both owned by PSA, there must be a danger the series could loss out here as well.

Dark days ahead for the World Rally Championship?

WRC boss, David Richards, thinks not. "It is easy to forget the championship was successful with just two manufacturers [in the 1970's], Ford and Lancia," Richards told the broadsheet.

The only thing is this isn't the 1970's.


http://www.wrc.com/ULImages/Photos/japan-gallery-martin1-webok.gif

This is not good news if you ask me. Is there any chance of any other manufactures returning such as Seat or Renualt? I don't think Toyota will ever return. Also, I think a 9-3 rallye car would be really neat to see.

I hope it isn't true :(

It would be cool if Audi returns to the WRC. And it is indeed sad that Ford doesn't want to continue

This is not good news if you ask me. Is there any chance of any other manufactures returning such as Seat or Renualt? I don't think Toyota will ever return. Also, I think a 9-3 rallye car would be really neat to see.

Seat is already in the WRC in effect because of Skoda (notice the year Seat left for Touring car racing, the Skoda Octavia came in)

Renault are indeed looking at entering for 2007 :shock: but that is ofcourse if the FIA have not killed off WRC by then...

there were a couple of others looking into it but I have forgotten who now :oops: :P

I hope they don't leave they are a really good team but I wish the FIA would stop trying to change rallying into F1 drivers are getting hurt by their descisions w/ the gravel crew (solberg in Germany) and making the third driver rule which meant one of the sports favorite drivers had to leave rallying (hopefully he'll be back in 2005) they are ruining the sport :evil:

I hope they don't leave they are a really good team but I wish the FIA would stop trying to change rallying into F1 drivers are getting hurt by their descisions w/ the gravel crew (solberg in Germany)
and Markko Martins blames his crash in Argentina on the gravel crew issue as well,

can I make a WRC FIA hate thread? :evil: :lol: because they are seriously killing off WRC quicker than anything... I got an idea for them, how about employing someone who actually knows something about rallying :evil:

Gravel crew issue :?: Can anyone explain it to me.

]I hope they don't leave they are a really good team but I wish the FIA would stop trying to change rallying into F1 drivers are getting hurt by their descisions w/ the gravel crew (solberg in Germany)
and Markko Martins blames his crash in Argentina on the gravel crew issue as well,

can I make a WRC FIA hate thread? :evil: :lol: because they are seriously killing off WRC quicker than anything... I got an idea for them, how about employing someone who actually knows something about rallying :evil:
Exactly stop trying to make it like F1 thats not what rallying is about but they should get someone by the name of a Tommy Makinen to help them out I think he knows alot about rallying and what the teams want

]I hope they don't leave they are a really good team but I wish the FIA would stop trying to change rallying into F1 drivers are getting hurt by their descisions w/ the gravel crew (solberg in Germany)
and Markko Martins blames his crash in Argentina on the gravel crew issue as well,

can I make a WRC FIA hate thread? :evil: :lol: because they are seriously killing off WRC quicker than anything... I got an idea for them, how about employing someone who actually knows something about rallying :evil:
Exactly stop trying to make it like F1 thats not what rallying is about but they should get someone by the name of a Tommy Makinen to help them out I think he knows alot about rallying and what the teams want
But the FIA are not that smart, and do not care about the drivers, I can just reel off a load of times where the drivers have told the FIA the situation is dangerous etc and the FIA has not listened...and guess what, the drivers knew better!

and Jacol, every driver in the top class teams has a Gravel Car, with 2 people who they trust to drive the stage just before they start it and tell them if the stage has changed at all since the driver recce. so for example, without Markko Martins gravel crew, he did not know the surface by the jump had changed, so he took it flat out like in his pace notes, but actually if the gravel car had gone before, he would have known to drop a gear because the surface was different, and his accident would have been avoided.

This is a gravel car, it has the WRC drivers name on it, and their country flag and their number on the side (this is not a WRC gravel car, but it looks the same :wink:)
http://www.rally.spb.ru/wrc-live/2003/11-it/img06-ss6/IMG_3288.JPG

Thanks Subarukid.

Thanks Subarukid.
no problems :wink:

Are there tarmac and snow crews as well?

I think yes but SubaruKid will know for sure. And i know for sure that they were using spies (that in my country we call this crews) in Monte Carlo Rally.

Are there tarmac and snow crews as well?

haha, thats kinda funny (for me anyway), I never looked at it from that angle before, the same "gravel crews" do snow and tarmac, they are just called gravel crews and gravel cars, that do (well, did) all the rallies and stages,

I was looking through my pictures from the various WRC's I have been to, but I never took any photo's of the gravel cars :?

But I did find this picture, its what my Dad's old car looked like after just going along the road to the car park in the WRC Great Britain 2 years ago :P (so we didnt even go onto the stage :P), and also on the way to Wales, some Ford Focus crashed into the back of our car on the motorway, wrote his car off, and there was no damage to the back of the LandRover, except for a cracked lamp cover :twisted:
http://img89.exs.cx/img89/2788/DSC563.th.jpg (http://img89.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img89&image=DSC563.jpg)

Dont worry, Ford will be abck in 2006, they are taking a year out to build the Focus RS Cosworth WRC-II, the next rally car based on the new Focus. They just want a new car, as if the current one isn't quick enough. They will be back!

Dont worry, Ford will be abck in 2006, they are taking a year out to build the Focus RS Cosworth WRC-II, the next rally car based on the new Focus. They just want a new car, as if the current one isn't quick enough. They will be back!
i hope that is true!!!!!