S2000 testing for 2011 where all turbo charged WR cars will be no more :confused:

If this is the future of rallying it don't look that bad does it

Edit: Apart from the flashing lights :thumbdwn:

It's certainly loud! No turbo's? No anti-lag then, no more squirrel chattering through the corners :(

Hmmm, very nice. Like the look of those.

The latest WRCars sound really boring now anyway, anti-lag or not, but this Fabia S2000 sounds mean!

The car will run as zero car for the Barum Rally this weekend, a round of the IRC (IRC - Intercontinental Rally Challenge) which uses S2000 cars as it's top formulae.

Further info at: Fabia ready for next stage of testing : Rallye-Info.com

All good stuff

It looks & sounds nice, something has to get in among the Citreon's & Fords, Subaru's ect

Hopefully these S2000's might create more interest in other manufactures.

Well if Citroen pull out of the WRC to go Le Mans racing we can expect Pugeot back as they an S2000 already.

A small report from Fabia's run on the the Barum Rally: What next for the Skoda Fabia S2000? : Rallye-Info.com

Plus a video where you can compare it's performance against the other top S2000 cars from Fiat and Peugeot:

YouTube - Barum Rally Zlín 2008

Apparently the new S2000+ regulations were for Turbos to be added to the S2000 cars - along with a rear wing. The reason they went for turbos is because they it's easier and cheaper to produce more power. And because a Turbocharged engine has more torque than an Normally aspirated engine - which is required in Rallying.

However, there are now doubts about the new 2010 regulations, the meeting has been put back.

Last weekend the Fabia was running again as zero car on the Sanremo Rally. Homologation should be in time for Monte Carlo, January 2009.

A few short videos:

YouTube - Rally Sanremo 2008 Skoda Fabia apripista Kopecky Stary

YouTube - 50° Rally di Sanremo

YouTube - test skoda s2000

I agree that the sounds of rally are becoming less evocative over time. Somebody needs to start up a replica Group B series where the cars aren't so precious and have some of the more fatal design issues fixed - putting the fuel tank in the Delta somewhere it won't blast your danglies up your nose when you stack it, for example. With tuning the way it is now I'm sure you could recreate a lot of the cars for a fraction of the cost of the originals.