Comments on: Evans’ French IRC test a success

By: Nightshifter

Nightshifter — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 13:48:07 +0000

Peugeot 207 s2000 has been winning the IRC in the last 3 years straight. I wonder why they wouldn’t put more effort in advertising the 207 GTI with that and keep making even hotter GTIs. What a shame!

By: T

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 06:10:33 +0000

Yes sorry I meant hasn’t. Typo. The Fabia vRS and Fiesta ST are not available in the current respective models, though one can hope that Ford will change their mind on not doing an ST version of the current model now that they have developed the S2000 car.

It would be a shame to see any more manufacturers pull out of Rallying, especially at a time when it really needs more manufacturers.

By: mdt

mdt — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 04:22:56 +0000

T, I’m assuming you meant “…lack of a hot hatch variant *hasn’t* stopped Skoda and Ford…”. Both Skoda and Ford do actually produce warmed-up variants of their cars (the Fabia vRS and Fiesta ST / RS, respectively), not to mention the other sports models in their lineups (eg: Octavia vRS, Focus RS).

My point is that without a GTi lineup to promote via a motorsport association, Peugeot may well decide the investment required to develop and build the S2000 variants is too much to bother with. I hope you’re right though, it would be a shame to see yet another manufacturer stop supporting rallying.

By: T

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 01:50:43 +0000

The lack of a hot hatch variant has stopped Skoda and Ford developing S2000 cars (Fabia and Fiesta), so the lack of a GTi 207 doesn’t necessarily mean Peugeot are going to stop their rally programs. The teams are generally not run by Peugeot anyway, but by other organisations like Kronos Racing.

By: mdt

mdt — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:46:50 +0000

It will be interesting to see how long Peugeot persists with its rally programs, given their recent announcement that they will no longer be producing GTi versions of their passenger cars, and focusing instead on luxury coupes and convertibles. It would be a shame for these Australians to have done so well, only to have Peugeot cancel development and support shortly thereafter.

By: T

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:58:28 +0000

I hope that they can get the funding together to be able to compete in the IRC next year. It would be great to see more Australian presence on the international rally stage.