It is just amazing that when i was 25 yo, i did full 2 rally seasons behind the wheel of this iconic Focus WRC. 2 different Focus WRC's. One ex-C.Mcrae and the other one ex-C.Sainz. X7 FMC & V3 FMC. Extraordinary days for me..
No way, hard disagree. WRC now is only three manufacturers as opposed to half a dozen and the cars barely resemble their road going brethren. The 1997-2003 seasons of WRC were absolute peak. Same years for the BTCC coincidentally. They were the times where cars were still raw, just about analog enough to still be dangerous and wholly unreal at the limit. Pushing a four door saloon on those roads, at those speeds required a set of skills and a bigger set of balls than doing the same run in a Fabia.
There were 4 teams in 1997 and down to 3 when Toyota got booted And I’m sure purists said the same thing about sequential gearboxes not being analog enough at the time I get that 3 manufacturers ain’t great but it’s not like the sport hasn’t been down and then rebounded on top of the motorsports world multiple times
@@kbdiesel Yes in 1997 but over the years that I said you had Subaru, Mitsubishi, Ford, Citroen, Skoda, Hyundai, Toyota and I’m sure I’m missing one. Now there is Ford, Skoda and Toyota because Subaru and Mitsubishi both suffered a head trauma in the mid 2000’s and didn’t enjoy selling cars anymore so dropped out and started selling substandard crossovers.
Going back to the cars, I feel there's far more appeal advertising wise to having an actual car you can buy being seen winning rallies rather than a spaceframe chassis that has the word "Puma" written on it. Nobody buys a puma because it wins rallies. Because it doesn't win rallies. There's no connection
@@otacon5648 these manufacturers were never all competing at the same time it has always generally been 3-5 teams with only 2 being competitive at the same time
@@joshuawalcott321 Wrong, in 1999 and 2000 there were seven manufacturers. Ford, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Seat, Skoda, and Subaru all did both of those years, while Toyota did their last season in '99 and Hyundai their first in 2000. The following three years had six manufacturers, with Mitsubishi and Seat dropping out but Citroen joining instead. The seasons 1998 to 2006 all had at least five manufacturers. And that doesn't include the semi-works teams, which ran additional identical cars under different team names, and privateers who were allowed to enter top level machinery as well. The difference being, today there are 9-ish cars in the top class, and back then there were usually 25 or more. For me, that's a huge difference that has made me loose interest almost completely despite the modern cars being absolutely awesome.
YES, THIS! IF you are going to compare them currently, they should BOTH be on tarmac suspension, with tarmac (wet?) tyres and tarmac width wheels!! 😉 Now, David I am sure has driven the Focus WRC on tarmac on the appropriate suspension and tyres in the past. So maybe he can extrapolate the Focus' tarmac performance by/from memory, but yes it would have been nice to see them on the same tarmac setups for this video, since it was shot on tarmac roads.
interesting video. Was coming into this video thinking about the differences I notice driving these cars modelled in richard burns rally. Certainly the power-generating characteristics line up with what was shared in this video. As for handling, I hardly know what to attribute to the car versus my ability to create a decent or realistic setup, but i do always feel like the 2000s era cars conform very closely to the road and they were easier to maintain oversteer mid-corner on loose surfaces with. meanwhile i always felt like the modern rally 2 cars were a bit harder to keep the rear out of line with, but very predictable, and very very good at dampening undesirable oscillations.
@@yanceyboyz tHiS yOuR fiRsT dAY oN tHe InTeRnET? Still lame as fuck, anyone can chatt about what car will be faster, and these two are not even qualified to do so. Literally useless video
The old rally cars are always better because they have some character and soul. The way they move, sound look. Modern rally cars might be fast but incredibly bland and boring to watch
The Focus is still too young for me although it is looking better nowadays. Heaven knows how it looks to 14 year olds nowadays. A really tasty home garage pairing. Cheers for that. Old Fords Never Die They Just Go Faster.
