WRC v R5: DOES THE WORLD RALLY CAR HAVE A FUTURE?
There are fewer drivers in WRC cars as an increasing number of R5s are appearing at a national level. Luke Barry examines the shelf life of the World Rally Car
For multiple generations, one car was king. Ever since the year 2000 when Marcus Gronholm took his Peugeot 206 WRC to World Rally Championship glory, a World Rally Car has topped the tree on the World stage. But is a baton about to be passed? For 2022, the World Rally Car ruleset is set to come to an end after 25 years of competition to be replaced by Rally1 which, in a first for World rallying, incorporates hybrid technology.
It’s a familiar tale elsewhere too.
The European Rally Championship, for example outlawed WRC cars as early as 2004 while the British Rally Championship did so for its 2006 season. Drivers in the Irish Tarmac Championship kicked the ball for much longer, with the cars being allowed for an extra decade until 2016 but look anywhere in the
World now, and the FIA-homologated cars topping the timesheets will be R5s – now, in the case of the very latest cars, referred to as Rally2s.
The World Rally Car is still able to compete in national championships, but with evolutions of R5 cars continually being rolled out and the inability for private customers to realistically get their hands on the very latest World Rally Car tech – due to the hike in power, aerodynamics and subsequently cost – the number of WRC cars on the British and Irish stages is diminishing.
Some key stalwarts of the World Rally Car platform have made the jump. For years Steve Simpson rallied a Subaru Impreza S12 and S12B WRC in the UK Asphalt Championship, but he jumped into a Fiesta R5 for the 2018 season.
One of his chief rivals, Damian Cole – who has driven Subaru, Hyundai or
Ford WRC cars since 2003 – has also taken the plunge into R5 for 2021 as he’ll pedal a Skoda, acting on advice that the R5 cars are actually faster than the best WRC machinery.
Even Garry Jennings, who stubbornly stuck with his Impreza S12B WRC and thus ruled himself out of Irish Tarmac title contention as everyone else switched to R5, has got his hands on a Ford Fiesta and said “compared to my World car it just felt so good”.
David Bogie, who along with Stephen Petch and Alex Laffey was among the first group to drive an R5 in the UK back in 2014, tells MN. “At that point I’d been down at Greystoke and had a run in the car and I was very impressed with the R5 car. The chassis, the traction it could generate, the power delivery, the braking, the turnin; everything was an improvement over the 2002 World Rally Car,” Bogie says in reference to his outgoing Focus WRC. “[They’re] great cars using the latest technology and it wasn’t a move
I regretted anyway that’s for sure.”
Bogie ran his Fiesta in R5+ form, which meant it featured a more advanced rear spoiler, didn’t have a pop-off valve, ran with a 34mm restrictor as opposed to 32mm and was equipped with a Focus WRC turbo. “It was a fair bit of power difference to be honest,” Bogie admits. “However that was the early R5, thereafter they managed to find masses of power which then closed the difference between R5 and R5+.”
In R5+ form though, the R5s were already taking it to the World Rally Cars in the early phases of their competition life. The 2015 Granite City Rally will live long in the memory as Bogie duked it out against Dave Weston Jr – that year’s BTRDA Gold Star champion – who drove a Subaru Impreza S12B WRC, recognised as one of the finest and quickest WRC cars ever produced along with the Ford Focus WRC07.
Bogie and Weston Jr were incredibly closely matched that day and, indeed, couldn’t be separated at the end of the event, Weston Jr taking the victory on the tiebreak rule. It was a thrilling contest but perhaps in hindsight marked a potential changing of the guard between the two types of cars.
“I think R5 really hit the nail on the head: 1600cc, turbocharged, four-wheel drive – perfect,” says Bogie. “And of course [with] all these different countries buying into the R5 concept and outlawing World Rally Cars, the fact that I could take my car to the Irish Tarmac Championship or the Scottish championship, BTRDA, BRC, Belgium and be competitive right across the board for me that was a massive selling point. And things move on, times move on.”
Petch sees things differently, however. He too competed with a Fiesta R5+ but had a “dismal season” with the car in 2015.
Having moved from a Focus WRC08 to the R5 because he “wanted something new and competitive to a degree on a national level” Petch reverted to a
World Rally Car for 2017, picking up an ex-Lorenzo Bertelli Fiesta WRC.
“It was the strength element I wanted more than anything,” he says, “because I’m probably not the most delicate person with a car if I’m being honest. I’m not like a Matt Edwards or somebody like that who’s a bit more smooth, I’m a little bit more wayward, sideways and I tend to clip quite a lot of bits and pieces.
“I just felt with the money I was chucking in to maintain the R5 with driveshafts in and this, that and the other after every rally… I know I’m spending more money on the World Rally Car but really it runs a season without a problem unless you smash into something.”
Running costs are a major factor to consider with World Rally Cars. In fact, they had a major influence as to why
Mark Kelly selected a Ford Fiesta R5 last year when he decided he wanted to
“The R5 car hit the nail right on the head” David Bogie