2022 marked the start of a fresh chapter for the World Rally Championship. The new Rally1 cars have brought a wide-ranging host of technical and regulatory changes to the sport, introducing 500bhp hybrid powertrains – necessitating shortened stages.

The cars have sprouted massive aerodynamic addenda and come complete with a ride height that wouldn’t look out of place in the Paris–Dakar paddock. They still bear some resemblance to showroom production cars, but only because the rules say so – underneath the silhouettes lie dedicated space-frame chassis.

The Loss of Homologation’s Magic

The new Rally1 regulations are predictable but disappointing measures. For us rallying purists, it is rather difficult to consider the soul of the sport alive and well. The main allure of rallying is the commonality of stage and street. The rally homologation special brought the desirability of the poster-residing, mid-engined supercar to the masses and, in most cases, at an affordable price. After all, ever since the first rally held by the Automobile Club de France in 1895, rallying has existed to be the ultimate test of the road cars that consumers can purchase.

Entire brands and sub-brands have their reputations built on the image of being stage-attacking machines that simply happen to be road cars. Ford has built its “RS” brand based on its rallying homologation cars such as the MK1 Escort RS1600 and the Escort RS Cosworth. For younger generations, Lancia’s entire standing in the world of carmakers still rests upon its rallying back catalogue.

Additionally, Audi has become synonymous with the benefits of four-wheel drive and the word Quattro. And then, of course, there’s Subaru. For many (myself included), the Impreza still represents the blue and gold chariots that propelled McRae, Burns and Solberg to their respective world rally titles.

Rallying was one of the best ways for a manufacturer to get its cars on the map and was also one of the most relevant forms of motorsport to enthusiasts and consumers. Retrospectively, there has not been a form of motorsport that can be credited for the creation of so many iconic performance cars.

Homologation is the key. Even when rallying had its outrageous high watershed moment in Group B, it still spun off ridiculous halo models. Unfortunately, the current Rally1 regulations are only practical for the accounting departments of car manufacturers who take cost-cutting to the nth degree and have no desire to create rally cars that road clients can relate to.

Why Rally1 Misses the Mark

Take the new Rally1 Ford Puma. What relevance does a space-frame chassis, a 500bhp car clad in the most ridiculous aero seen since Fast and Furious, have for the average car buyer looking for Ford Puma family crossovers? The only connection that the road and rally cars may share is a possible mention of the rally programme in the brochure. (In fact, I highly doubt the WRC programme is helping Ford shift any more of its crossovers.)

The pages that held the recipe for the rally-rep have already faded. It seems there has not been a proper “rally car for the road” since autonomous cars were considered an unrealistic idea that best resided at Google HQ. To fix the World Rally Championship and create exciting yet germane competition, I would like to point the FIA in the direction of a two-wheeled form of motorsport.

A Lesson from WSBK

My exemplar is superbike racing. The Superbike World Championship, as well as national equivalents, has always utilised modified versions of high-performance road bikes for competition, rather than the silhouette-style bikes in MotoGP. This approach has not only kept the championship closely relevant to sports bike enthusiasts and consumers but also allowed more teams and manufacturers the opportunity to compete at a very high level due to lower financial barriers and developmental costs.

The Value of Privateers

For example, there are only three factory-run teams in the WRC (Toyota, Ford, and Hyundai), while there are five in WSBK. This is without mentioning the 12 privateer teams (10 of which are full-season entries) also taking part in the championship, compared to precisely zero privateer teams in the World Rally Championship.

The fact that WSBK requires race bikes to be based on road-legal superbikes is an approach that directly affects and improves the current crop of high-performance motorcycles due to the constant evolution that must occur for manufacturers to remain competitive.

The need to homologate race bikes from road-legal superbikes has created iconic modern machines such as the BMW M1000RR and the Ducati Panigale V4R. Both are at the forefront of the high-performance motorbike pack, with additional modifications to aerodynamics and drivetrains to propel their riders to superbike title crowns.

Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday

This is the same mindset that car manufacturers had before the advent of the World Rally Car regulations of 1997: that in order to have a competitive machine for the sport of rallying, cars must possess ample suspension travel, a low centre of gravity, tyres and wheels that are wide enough to provide adequate traction, and a robust and tractable engine with appropriate amounts of power and torque. All these required qualities have served to create more reliable, faster, and compliant road cars.

Another benefit of homologation is the sheer coolness of these cars compared  to most run-of-the-mill supercars. Ironically, some of the rally-reps of yesteryear fetch higher prices on the market than many modern-day supercars.

As we have seen in years past, the next generations of rallying enthusiasts begin to take interest in the sideways machines seen in media once these cars make frequent appearances on public roads and in families’ driveways. I, for one, speak from experience in this matter. During my very early years, my dad owned a “blobeye” Subaru Impreza WRX STi in the traditional livery of World Rally Blue Mica with the iconic gold wheels.

Our STi, along with WRC season reviews and the Impreza versus Evo rivalry on Best MOTORing, ignited my passion for both the motorcar and motorsports. In fact, there were very few things I enjoyed more than booting up Gran Turismo 4 and driving a version 8 Impreza Spec C. Although I considered myself a rival to the likes of Petter Solberg, Tommi Makinen, and Keiichi Tsuchiya, in reality, my objective was to keep four wheels on the tarmac and avoid crashing at Flugplatz!

Just as with my enthusiasm for the Subaru World Rally Team, enthusiasts are naturally drawn to supporting the team or driver that competes with their desired car – thereby increasing viewership and event attendance at rallies.

This newfound public enthusiasm would also popularise rallying as a sport, incentivising sponsors and governments to support and host events. It would also encourage manufacturers to compete in rallying. Privateer participation would support both organisers, through entry fees, and manufacturers, by selling additional cars.

We have already seen a small spark in the old pit of the rally replica with the Toyota GR Yaris – an utter epiphany. Its bespoke platform and development were inextricably tied to rallying, igniting the car community in a way unseen for years. For the first time since the Imprezas and Evos of old, a manufacturer brought a car that utilised rally car attributes to produce a performance vehicle designed for backroad thrills.

That motorsport DNA brought the GR Yaris and Toyota not only immense respect but also order books stretching well into the following year. With plans to produce 25,000 units, the GR Yaris achieved numbers few thought possible for a type of car considered extinct for over a decade.

Toyota’s success with the GR Yaris even overcame challenges in the U.S. market. Since the car wasn’t homologated for U.S. emissions and safety standards, Toyota pivoted by adapting the GR-FOUR platform to create the GR Corolla – another rally-inspired vehicle catering to American enthusiasts. The GR Yaris reminded us of what we’d been missing: cars built with a direct link to motorsport, bringing tangible benefits to the streets and inspiring a new generation of drivers.

However much the GR Yaris revived interest in rallying, it has not been able to compete on the world stage in the highest category, unlike many of the “rally-reps” that came before it. In particular, I would like to point out the revolutionary Audi Sport Quattro, the stunning Lancia 037, and the oblique Peugeot 205 T16. All of these were successful cars during the infamous Group B era.

While most of the homologation specials during this time lacked widespread recognition as road cars due to their lower mandated production numbers and less stringent development, there was one important ingredient in the Group B recipe: variety. Street cred aside, one of my personal vexations with the sport of rallying is that, even going back to the lauded era of Group A, the cars have been strangled in recent decades by strict performance regulations – four-wheel drive, a specific displacement, turbocharging, etc.

Earlier in this piece, I wrote that rallying was created to be the ultimate test of the reliability and worthiness of the cars that the public could purchase. Rallying can no longer be the optimum evaluation of the motorcar as a whole if only one drivetrain layout and car body style are permitted to compete.

Pacenotes for Rallying’s Future

Instead of the overly stringent technical regulations imposed by the FIA from the eras of Group A to Rally1, I believe the optimum set of rallying regulations combines the freedom of technical layouts associated with Group B with the focus on homologation from Group A. Perhaps then, in order to stimulate a diverse field of eligible cars, multiple classes of rallying is the answer.

Ever since the dawn of the Audi Quattro, four-wheel drive has remained the dominant force in rallying – despite the Audis’ tendency to understeer off stages or Lancia’s loyalty to rear-wheel drive with the 037. A dedicated four-wheel drive class could provide variety, admitting everything from 1.6-litre front-engined cars, such as the Toyota GR Yaris, to 3.0-litre rear-engined machines like the 992-generation Porsche 911 Carrera 4S. Let’s be honest – displacement plays a less impactful role in the performance of modern cars. The primary differentiators are turbo boost and cooling capacity, with power output restricted to a sensible level (say, around 400bhp) to ensure competitive parity.

Further, maintaining a balance of performance across such a diverse field raises challenges. For instance, could turbocharged four-cylinder engines have an inherent advantage over naturally aspirated six-cylinder units? Likewise, could the FIA implement measures similar to the BoP system employed in sportscar racing by utilising air intake restrictors or weight adjustments to level the playing field? These nuances are vital in maintaining genuine competition – but they’re also what make a diverse grid so exciting to watch.

Reconnecting Enthusiasts 

Beyond four-wheel drive, rallying could benefit from a class catering to front-wheel drive hot hatchbacks – a nod to enthusiasts of tarmac-based events like the Tour de Corse. Eligible cars might include the new Civic Type R, the Mark 4 Focus ST, or the John Cooper Works Mini. These cars already resonate with younger enthusiasts, offering an attainable gateway into rally-inspired motoring.

Finally, what better way to reintroduce the visceral thrill of rallying than through a rear-wheel drive class? Historically, rear-drive machines have captivated spectators with their dramatic slides and the heightened skill required to tame them. A class featuring cars such as the Toyota GR86, the Alpine A110, or even a 992 GT3 would surely draw fans back to the stages.

As described above, a three-class structure based upon drivetrain type would provide the diversity rallying needs to thrive once more, both internationally and on a more local level. 

For the past quarter-century, the FIA has tried to make rallying more appealing to manufacturers by lowering development costs with homologation requirements that promote the creation of machines that possess unnecessarily similar technical specifications and are alienated from their road-legal counterparts. This method was also used to try to appeal to the public by purporting the sport to be more relevant due to the similar badges and basic shapes of car shells seen on public roads.

Yet, over time, rallying has lost manufacturer participation because of the exorbitant costs required to develop competitive cars, as well as a lack of consumer response to these competition programmes. Enthusiasts and the general public have also lost interest due to the significant disconnect between rally and road cars. As shown earlier, the GR Yaris disrupted this perspective – it brought back some of the rally car magic to the public highways and driveways.

However, the Rally1 regulations represent another step in the wrong direction by the FIA. They continue down a rabbit hole, alienating rallying from the public it seeks to engage. It’s already time for a drastic shift – to bring the performance road car back to the “six left, over crest” and “immediate hairpin right” calls of the WRC.

The allure of rallying has always been in its shared DNA with the cars we see on the road. As manufacturers and governing bodies look to the future, they face a choice: to build on rallying’s legacy or risk losing its soul entirely. For those of us who’ve grown up watching Imprezas and Lancias carve through forests, that choice seems clear – rallying deserves to be both a spectacle and a source of inspiration for generations to come.