was flicking through channels and found "worlds best WRC stages" was pretty good, lots of footage of new and old rally cars, including minis several times although only a quick glimpse. other classics were audi quattro, toyota celica, lancia delta integrale, and that ugly ugly wedge shaped lancia. there were a few others but i cant remember.

then later, the 2007 WRC wrap up was on. which was owth a watch too. but what happened to all the manufacturers? now only citroen, subaru and ford... wheres mitsubishi, toyota, peugeot???

ive been out of the game for a little while

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78 Leyland Mini - Prince

Yeah I caught some glimpses as well , wasn't much really but good to see them showing the mini's again .

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I think Toyota took the hump when they got banned for using an illegal water pump or something and they had all their results for one season dropped (in '98 or '99 i think with the Corolla), so they finished off the following season or two and completed their obligation to their sponsors and then moved in to F1, which has worked well for them, hasn't it?

PSA decided it was costing too much as they were essentially competing against each other (Peugeot v Citroen). So they pulled both brands out and supported the Kronos Citroens as a semi-works outfit. I thought they were going to return as a full team last year, but I too have not been keeping up to date with things since I moved to Australia in 2005.

Seat, Skoda and Suzuki seemed to be flip-flop-ing all over the place with their committment.

I think Skoda took a year out to prepare the Fabia vRS WRC and then decided late on that they wouldn't run the factory team. Seat are well represented in national rallying and the junior categories in Europe and I think they were looking at doing WRC but again, like with PSA it seems that VW didn't want 2 of their brands competing against each other.

Suzuki supported the Junior category very strongly and i think had a SX4 WRC that made it to at least a couple of rallies this year but did not commit to the full programme.

PS. The above is all from hazy recollection and may not be supported by the actual facts - never let it get in the way of a good post though, huh?

are you serious?

the stratos is BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAUTIFUL....

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