The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver’s world championship and manufacturer’s world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13 three-day events driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. Each rally is split into 15-25 special stages which are run against the clock on closed roads. The sport’s commercial rights are administered by International Sportsworld Communicators, who also produce the daily event highlights shown in 186 countries.

The WRC was formed from well-known and popular international rallies, most of which had previously been part of the European Rally Championship and/or the International Championship for Manufacturers, and the series was first contested in 1973. The World Rally Car is the current car specification in the series. It evolved from Group A cars which replaced the banned Group B supercars for example the Audi Quattro. World Rally Cars are built on production two-litre four-cylinder cars, but feature turbochargers, anti-lag systems, four-wheel-drive, sequential gearboxes (paddle shift), aerodynamic parts and other enhancements bringing the price of a WRC car to around US$1 million (€700,000)around £500000 .

The WRC features three support championships, the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC), the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC), and the Super 2000 World Rally Championship (SWRC) which are contested on the same events and stages as the WRC, but with different regulations. The production car, super 2000 and junior entrants race through the stages after the WRC drivers.

History

Early

Group 4 Lancia Stratos HF.

The World Rally Championship was formed from well-known international rallies, nine of which were previously part of the International Championship for Manufacturers (IMC), which was contested from 1970 to 1972. The 1973 World Rally Championship season was the inaugural season of the WRC and began with the 42ème Rallye Automobile de Monte-Carlo on January 19.

Alpine-Renault won the first manufacturer’s world championship with its Alpine A110, after which Lancia took the title three years in a row with the Ferrari V6-powered Lancia Stratos, the first car designed and manufactured specifically for rallying. The first drivers’ world championship was not awarded until 1979, although 1977 and 1978 seasons included an FIA Cup for Drivers, won by Italy’s Sandro Munari and Finland’s Markku Alén respectively. Sweden’s Björn Waldegård became the first official world champion, edging out Finland’s Hannu Mikkola by one point. Fiat took the manufacters’ title with the Fiat 131 Abarth in 1977, 1978 and 1980, Ford with its Escort RS1800 in 1979 and Talbot with its Sunbeam Lotus in 1981. Waldegård was followed by German Walter Röhrl and Finn Ari Vatanen as drivers’ world champions.

Group B era

Group B Audi Quattro S1.

The 1980s saw the rear-wheel-drive Group 2 and the more popular Group 4 cars be replaced by more powerful four-wheel-drive Group B cars. FISA legalized all-wheel-drive in 1979, but most manufacturers believed it was too complex to be successful. However, after Audi started entering Mikkola and the new four-wheel-drive Quattro in rallies for testing purposes with immediate success, other manufacturers started their all-wheel-drive projects. Group B regulations were introduced in the 1982 season, and with only a few restrictions allowed almost unlimited power. Audi took the constructors’ title in 1982 and 1984 and drivers’ title in 1983 (Mikkola) and 1984 (Stig Blomqvist). Audi’s French female driver Michèle Mouton came close to winning the title in 1982, but had to settle for second place after Opel rival Röhrl. 1985 title seemed set to go to Vatanen and his Peugeot 205 T16 but a bad accident at the Rally Argentina left him to watch compatriot and team-mate Timo Salonen take the title instead. Italian Attilio Bettega had even a more severe crash with his Lancia 037 at the Tour de Corse and died instantly.

Group B Peugeot 205 Turbo 16.

The 1986 season started with impressive performances by Finns Henri Toivonen and Alén in Lancia’s new turbo- and supercharged Delta S4, which could reportedly accelerate from 0-60 mph (96 km/h) in 2.3 seconds, on a gravel road.^[2] However, the season soon took a dramatic turn. At the Rally Portugal, three spectators were killed and over 30 injured after Joaquim Santos lost control of his Ford RS200. At the Tour de Corse, championship favourite Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto died in a fireball accident after plunging down a cliff. Only hours after the crash, Jean-Marie Balestre and the FISA decided to freeze the development of the Group B cars and ban them from competing in 1987. More controversy followed when Peugeot’s Juha Kankkunen won the title after FIA annulled the results of the San Remo Rally, taking the title from fellow Finn Alén.

Group A era

Group A Toyota Celica GT-Four.

As the planned Group S was also cancelled, Group A regulations became the standard in the WRC until 1997. A separate Group A championship had been organized as part of the WRC already in 1986, with Sweden’s Kenneth Eriksson taking the title with a Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V.^[3] Lancia was quickest in adapting to the new regulations and controlled the world rally scene with Lancia Delta Integrale, winning the constructors’ title six years in a row from 1987 to 1992. Kankkunen and Miki Biasion both took two drivers’ titles with the Integrale.

The 1990s then saw the Japanese manufacturers, Toyota, Subaru and Mitsubishi, become title favourites. Spain’s Carlos Sainz driving for Toyota Team Europe took the 1990 and 1992 titles with a Toyota Celica GT-Four. Kankkunen moved to Toyota for the 1993 season and won his record fourth title, with Toyota taking its first manufacturers’ crown. Frenchman Didier Auriol brought the team further success in 1994, and soon Subaru and Mitsubishi continued the success of the Japanese constructors. Subaru’s Scotsman Colin McRae won the drivers’ world championship in 1995 and Subaru took the manufacturers’ title three years in a row. Finland’s Tommi Mäkinen driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution won the drivers’ championship four times in a row, from 1996 to 1999. Mitsubishi also won the manufacturers’ title in 1998.

World Rally Car era

Peugeot 307 WRC and Ford Focus WRC on a road section during the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.

For the 1997 season, the World Rally Car regulations were introduced as an intended replacement for Group A (only successive works Mitsubishis still conforming to the latter formula; until they, too, homologated a Lancer Evolution WRC from the 2001 San Remo Rally). After the success of Mäkinen and the Japanese manufacturers, France’s Peugeot made a very successful return to the World Rally Championship. Finn Marcus Grönholm took the drivers’ title in his first full year in the series and Peugeot won the manufacturers’ crown. England’s Richard Burns won the 2001 title with a Subaru Impreza WRC, but Grönholm and Peugeot took back both titles in the 2002 season. 2003 saw Norway’s Petter Solberg become drivers’ champion for Subaru and Citroën continue the success of the French manufacturers. Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb went on to control the following seasons with his Citroën Xsara WRC. Citroën took the constructors’ title three times in a row and Loeb surpassed Mäkinen’s record of four drivers’ titles earning his fifth with the 2008 season win. After many titleless years at the top with their Ford Focus WRC, Ford took the 2006 and 2007 manufacturers’ titles with drivers Marcus Grönholm and Mikko Hirvonen.

Structure

Škoda preparing their cars a day before the shakedown.

Each season normally consists of 13 rallies driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. Points from these events are calculated towards the drivers’ and manufacturers’ world championships. The driver’s championship and manufacturer’s championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. This means, for example, that Petter Solberg driving for Subaru can win the driver’s championship but Citroën can win the manufacturer’s championship, which is what happened in 2003, and again in 2006 and 2007 when Sébastien Loeb took his third and fourth WRC titles but Ford won the manufacturer’s championship. In the current points system, points are awarded at the end of each rally to the top ten WRC (overall), junior, production car and super 2000 drivers that qualify as follows: 1st: 25 points, 2nd: 18 points, 3rd: 15 points, 4th: 12 points, 5th: 10 points, 6th: 8 points, 7th: 6 points, 8th: 4 points, 9th: 2 points , 10th: 1 point. Despite how many drivers are in one team, constructors can only nominate two drivers to score points for the team as well as scoring for themselves. As only nominated drivers are counted while awarding points, even competitors placed further down than tenth overall (if preceded by privateer drivers) can score them.

A stadium-based super special stage in Argentina.

In the current era, each rally usually consists of 15-35 special stages of distances ranging from under 2 km (1.24 mi) (super specials) to over 50 kilometers (31 mi). These competitive stages driven on closed roads are linked by non-competitive road sections which are on open roads on which all road laws of that country must be adhered to. On average a day consists of a total of 400 kilometers (249 mi) of driving.^[5] A WRC event begins with reconnaissance (recce) on Tuesday and Wednesday, allowing crews to drive through the stages and create or update their pacenotes. On Thursday, teams can run through the shakedown stage to practice and test their set-ups. The competition begins on Friday and ends on Sunday. Cars start the stages at one or two minute intervals. Each day, or leg, has a few designated service parks between the stages, where the teams can – within strict time limits – perform maintenance and repairs on their cars. The service park also allows spectators and the media to get close to the teams and their cars and drivers. Between the days, after a 45-minute end of day service, cars are locked away in the guarded parc fermé.

Cars

Andy Priaulx driving a Ford Focus WRC at the 2007 Race of Champions.

The production-based 2.0 L turbocharged four-wheel drive cars are built to World Rally Car regulations racing across tarmac, gravel and snow. The power output has been limited to around 300 bhp (225 kW). Current cars in the championship include the Citroën C4 and Ford Focus RS. Citroën, Peugeot, Škoda and Mitsubishi pulled out of the championship for 2006 and those cars, although in use by privateers, are not in further development. Citroën returned to WRC in 2007 using the C4. The Suzuki World Rally Team joined the 2008 championship for the first time with their SX4 but they have pulled out of the 2009 championship together with Subaru because of the economic downturn currently affecting the automotive industry.

The WRC was formerly held for Group A and Group B rallycars. However, due to the increasing power, lack of reliability and the fatal accidents on the 1986 season, Group B was permanently banned. Later, in 1997, the Group A cars evolved into the WRC car spec, to ease the development of new cars and bring new makes to the competition.

Cars in the Production car World Rally Championship are limited to production-based cars homologated under Group N rules. Cars in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship are homologated under Super 2000 rules. Most cars in the Junior World Rally Championship are homologated under Super 1600 rules, but Group N and selected Group A cars can also contest the series.

Teams and drivers

See 2010 WRC season for a list of the teams and drivers.

Ford’s Marcus Grönholm at the Bunnings Jumps of the 2006 Rally Australia.

Marcus Grönholm at the 2001 Rally Finland.

20 different manufacturers have won a World Rally Championship event,and a further ten have finished on the podium.

Suzuki and Subaru pulled out of the WRC at the end of the 2008 championship, both citing the economic downturn currently affecting the automotive industry for their withdrawal.

A typical WRC team will consist of about 40 people on the events, with a further 60-100 at the team base.

Manufacturers and manufacturer-backed teams usually have two or three drivers participating in each rally and eligible to score points. The total number of crews (driver and his co-driver) in the rallies varied from 47 (Monte Carlo and Mexico) to 108 (Great Britain) during the 2007 season.

Rallies

See 2010 WRC season for a list of rallies.

Coverage

TV

A cameraman at a hairpin turn at the 2007 Rallye Deutschland.

ISC TV produce daily updates of each event after the day’s stages have finished and the TV coverage has been processed. These daily highlight programs are around 30 minutes in duration and cover in depth the day’s stages, with in-car footage as well as driver interviews. Before the rally there is also a Rally Preview that normally incorporates special driver, technical and team features as well as providing an overview of the upcoming rally’s route. There is also a review program, which lasts approximately an hour, that summarises the rally and the big events that took place during the duration; the stages are not in such detail as the daily updates as it is a review program.

The service park area during the 2006 Rally Finland.

This is then shown in 186 different countries in multiple languages, each day of the event. The make up and format for the telecast can change from country to country depending on the local broadcaster but it all uses ISC TV feeds. ISC TV also provides coverage of all of the events in the Junior World Rally Championship and the Production World Rally Championship in a 26-minute highlights package.

Also produced after each event is the lifestyle entertainment programme called WRC All Access, focused on a behind the scenes experience of WRC life, both on and off the road. These programmes focus on all elements of each country visited including culture, food, people, attractions as well as the WRC event itself. Rally World, a weekly rally programme reviews events from all around the planet, including the WRC, the PWRC, the JWRC as well as Asia Pacific Rally Championship, the Australian Rally Championship and the Middle East Rally Championship among others.

In the United Kingdom, coverage of the three-day event is shown on Dave on Sundays after the event is completed. Dave also shows different programmes on rallying – for example about WRC cars or crashes – before showing coverage of the event.

During the 2007 season, the cumulative worldwide TV audience for ISC’s WRC programming was 816 million. The programming was available in over 180 countries, and was broadcast on over 250 different TV channels. The total number of dedicated broadcasts was 12,445, and the total number of hours of coverage was 5,457.^[10]

Radio

Live radio coverage is provided in English by World Rally Radio via the Internet, featuring end of stage reports direct from the drivers and teams plus service park news. It also features contemporary music during breaks in rally coverage. This coverage can even simulcast on local radio or via a temporary licence, pending on the event and its organisers. They are also responsible for producing podcasts for each day of each event available for download.

Champions

Petter Solberg at the 2006 Cyprus Rally.

Sébastien Loeb during the Rally Catalunya 2008.

Season	Championship for Drivers			Championship for Manufacturers
	Driver	Car		Manufacturer	Car
2009	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC		Citroën	Citroën C4 WRC
2008	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC		Citroën	Citroën C4 WRC
2007	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën C4 WRC		Ford	Ford Focus WRC
2006	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Xsara WRC		Ford	Ford Focus WRC
2005	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Xsara WRC		Citroën	Citroën Xsara WRC
2004	Sébastien Loeb	Citroën Xsara WRC		Citroën	Citroën Xsara WRC
2003	Petter Solberg	Subaru Impreza WRC		Citroën	Citroën Xsara WRC
2002	Marcus Grönholm	Peugeot 206 WRC		Peugeot	Peugeot 206 WRC
2001	Richard Burns	Subaru Impreza WRC		Peugeot	Peugeot 206 WRC
2000	Marcus Grönholm	Peugeot 206 WRC		Peugeot	Peugeot 206 WRC
1999	Tommi Mäkinen	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution		Toyota	Toyota Corolla WRC
1998	Tommi Mäkinen	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution		Mitsubishi	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution
1997	Tommi Mäkinen	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution		Subaru	Subaru Impreza WRC
1996	Tommi Mäkinen	Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution		Subaru	Subaru Impreza 555
1995	Colin McRae	Subaru Impreza 555		Subaru	Subaru Impreza 555
1994	Didier Auriol	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD		Toyota	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD
1993	Juha Kankkunen	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD		Toyota	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD
1992	Carlos Sainz	Toyota Celica Turbo 4WD		Lancia	Lancia Delta HF Integrale
1991	Juha Kankkunen	Lancia Delta Integrale 16V		Lancia	Lancia Delta Integrale 16V
1990	Carlos Sainz	Toyota Celica GT-Four		Lancia	Lancia Delta Integrale 16V
1989	Miki Biasion	Lancia Delta Integrale		Lancia	Lancia Delta Integrale
1988	Miki Biasion	Lancia Delta Integrale		Lancia	Lancia Delta Integrale
1987	Juha Kankkunen	Lancia Delta HF 4WD		Lancia	Lancia Delta HF 4WD
1986	Juha Kankkunen	Peugeot 205 Turbo 16		Peugeot	Peugeot 205 Turbo 16
1985	Timo Salonen	Peugeot 205 Turbo 16		Peugeot	Peugeot 205 Turbo 16
1984	Stig Blomqvist	Audi Quattro		Audi	Audi Quattro
1983	Hannu Mikkola	Audi Quattro		Lancia	Lancia Rally 037
1982	Walter Röhrl	Opel Ascona 400		Audi	Audi Quattro
1981	Ari Vatanen	Ford Escort RS1800		Talbot	Talbot Sunbeam Lotus
1980	Walter Röhrl	Fiat 131 Abarth		Fiat	Fiat 131 Abarth
1979	Björn Waldegård	Ford Escort RS1800*		Ford	Ford Escort RS1800
1978	Markku Alén***	Fiat 131 Abarth**		Fiat	Fiat 131 Abarth
1977	Sandro Munari***	Lancia Stratos HF		Fiat	Fiat 131 Abarth
1976	No drivers’ championship			Lancia	Lancia Stratos HF
1975	No drivers’ championship			Lancia	Lancia Stratos HF
1974	No drivers’ championship			Lancia	Lancia Stratos HF
1973	No drivers’ championship			Alpine-Renault	Alpine A110
* – Björn Waldegård drove a Mercedes 450 SLC in two rallies in 1979
** – Markku Alén drove a Lancia Stratos HF in two rallies in 1978
*** – In 1977 and 1978, the drivers championship was the FIA Cup for Rally Drivers
No drivers title 1973-1976

Other classes

A Super 1600 class Renault Clio.

Fiat Grande Punto Abarth S2000.

The World Rally Championship also features support championships called the Production car World Rally Championship (PWRC), the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) and the Super 2000 World Rally Championship (SWRC). These championships are contested on the same events and stages as the WRC. In 2008, The PWRC includes eight and the JWRC seven events. In 2007, the junior championship had no events outside Europe so it was known simply as the Junior Rally Championship (JRC).

The Production car World Rally Championship (P-WRC)began in 2002, replacing the FIA Group N Cup which had been contested from 1987. Cars in the championship are production-based and homologated under Group N rules.

The Junior World Rally Championship (J-WRC) was started in 2001, and can be contested with Super 1600, Group N and selected Group A cars. Drivers in the championship have to be 28 years or younger. There is no age limit for co-drivers.

The Super 2000 World Rally Championship (S-WRC) was started in 2010. Within the Super 2000 category are competitions for drivers (known as the S-WRC) and another for teams (the World Rally Championship Cup). The cars in the championship are under the Super 2000 rules.

Video games

There have been many video games based on the World Rally Championship, and due to lack of licenses, many more based on only certain cars, drivers or events. Sega Rally was released in 1995, V-Rally and Top Gear Rally in 1997 and the first game in the very popular Colin McRae Rally series in 1998. Rally Trophy, released in 2001 for Microsoft Windows by Bugbear, concentrated on historic cars such as Alpine A110 and Lancia Stratos. RalliSport Challenge, released in 2002 for Windows and Xbox by Digital Illusions CE, featured classic Group B cars and hillclimb models along with modern WRC cars.

Fully FIA licensed WRC: World Rally Championship was released in 2001 for PlayStation 2 by Evolution Studios. The video game series had its fifth game, WRC: Rally Evolved, in 2005. Racing simulator Richard Burns Rally, released in 2004 for several platforms, has gathered recognition for its realism. Recent top-selling games include Colin McRae: Dirt and Sega Rally Revo. Gran Turismo 5 will include the WRC totally licensed. Black Bean Games announced work on a WRC licensed title, which is set for release during September 2010. They are also working with iOpener Media to allow players to race against real WRC drivers in real time.

Sony’s World Rally Championship franchise has been a big hit in Europe for years now. In fact, many would tell you that it’s better than even Codemasters’ famed Colin McRae series. However, in North America, our exposure to World Rally Championship has been minimal, at best. We haven’t seen one of the games since 2002′s World Rally Championship for the PlayStation 2–at least until now. WRC: FIA World Rally Championship is a PlayStation Portable port of the latest PS2 game released in Europe, though since we American types don’t get the PS2 games over here, odds are you’re looking at WRC as the first rally racer to hit the PSP in North America. On that merit, WRC is a success. It’s got lots of tracks, several popular rally car types, and some really excellent visuals. Sadly, its multiplayer support is almost nonexistent, and a few gameplay quirks conspire to make the driving less fun than it could have been. Still, WRC is a good, solid first try at bringing the sport of rally racing to the PSP system, even if it doesn’t quite nail every component.

The rundown of included features in WRC lists six major rally car brands, including the Subaru Impreza WRC 2005, Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05, Citroen Xsara WRC, and Ford Focus RS WRC. There are also multiple unlockable upgraded versions of all six cars that can be earned over the course of the game’s career mode. Included in the career mode are 64 individual races spread across 16 country-specific rallies. You’ll tour Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Australia, Japan, Finland, and more. While that might sound like a huge amount of content, you won’t get access to a lot of these races until you unlock the higher difficulty settings. Playing the game on novice nets you only two races per country, so you effectively get only half the full career. But believe us when we say you’ll want to start out playing on novice.

This is because WRC is, at its easiest, challenging, and at its hardest, punishing. Part of this has to do with the times set for each rally goal. As any rally racing fan will tell you, all traditional rally races are timed, single-car runs, and the times set to win some of these courses borders on unreasonable. However, they wouldn’t seem so unreasonable if the game simply controlled better. If you plan on winning a race in WRC, use the D pad to steer your car. The analog sensitivity in the game is so overwrought that it borders on broken. If you turn a half-centimeter too far in any direction, your car will slide like an OutRun car dunked in Crisco. You might be able to get a handle on the analog control for general use, but the second any major hairpin turn comes along, you’re in trouble. The D pad control, thankfully, is mostly good. It’s a little undersensitive, if anything, but it does away with the majority of the slipping and sliding and lets you get a proper grip on most turns–provided you brake early enough. The brakes in the game never feel good enough to stop you if you’re anything less than perfectly diligent in figuring out the timing to take a turn properly. Overshoot a turn by any measurement, and you’ll find yourself in the dirt.

Idiotic difficulty and control wonkiness aside, WRC is a fun game to play. Once you get some practice with the driving controls, you’ll get used to some of the game’s foibles and simply enjoy the act of rally racing on your PSP. The tracks are nicely laid out with plenty of challenging obstacles to avoid, and the car physics–while a little on the arcade-inspired side–are pretty impressive for what’s been seen from driving games on the PSP thus far. Some people might take issue with the fact that the game includes no options for manual transmission or any kind of damage effects that hinder your ability to drive the car the more you wreck. But considering how hard the game already is, and that WRC doesn’t seem specifically aimed at being a seriously simulation-based racer, there’s more than enough challenge to wrestle with, without all those hardcore sim elements making things even more convoluted.

There’s also lots of content to race through. The career mode will take you a good long while to get through, but there are also plenty of individual rally and race modes to mess with if you’re looking for a quick race or two on the go. The game loads quickly between races, so you won’t find yourself waiting around endlessly for tracks to load. WRC also includes multiplayer functionality, but like in most rally games, it’s pretty worthless. The only head-to-head ad hoc mode is a simple time trial race where you race against a ghost car outline of your opponent’s car. The rest of the modes–which include full rallies and even a version of the career mode–are all turn-based on a single PSP. These modes aren’t broken or bad, but they don’t lend themselves to a particularly thrilling multiplayer experience. Then again, maybe it’s asking too much for a developer to come up with a great multiplayer variation of a traditionally single-car sport.

WRC’s best feature is its graphics. There are lots of pretty-looking PSP driving games out there that do flashier things than WRC, but this game nails a lot of the rally aesthetics exceedingly well. The race courses feature varied forms of terrain and weather effects, and no matter what you’re driving through, the frame rate keeps steady at around 30 frames per second at all times. The car models are detailed and include more than just your average range of damage modeling. Bumpers don’t just come off–they bend and twist depending on what you run into and where. Mud cakes over the attractive paint jobs of the cars over time, windshields crack, and dents will appear all over the place. The cars also have a natural movement that isn’t completely realistic but looks really nice as you’re driving along, taking big jumps and sliding around big turns. You might run into an occasional collision glitch with pieces of the scenery, but those problems aside, this is a wonderful-looking game.

The audio is considerably less impressive. The in-race sounds aren’t the problem–the racing sound effects are all very good, and the copilot dialogue, while a little robotic, is nicely informative. It’s the soundtrack that drags things down. The songs themselves are fine, including tracks by popular artists like Franz Ferdinand and The Walkmen. The trouble is that there are only six songs on the soundtrack, and they don’t even play at random. You have to go into the options menu any time you want new music to play and switch the songs manually. Otherwise, the same song will play endlessly during races. There’s no point in having a licensed soundtrack if it’s going to be so limited in scope and set up in such a moronic way. At least there’s an option to turn the music off.

WRC: FIA World Rally Championship is a thoroughly imperfect racer, but it’s a good first effort at bringing the WRC series to the PSP. The flaws in the controls are impossible to ignore, and the overwrought difficulty is going to turn a lot of casual players off (and hardcore players might be irritated at some of the game’s arcade-in-lieu-of-simulation inspirations). But with its superb visual presentation, wealth of courses, and genuinely fun (if flawed) driving, WRC: FIA World Rally Championship is a game that rally racing fans ought to take a look at.

Ever wondered what it would be like to go rally driving?  Fancy yourself as the next Colin Macrae? Lots of people fantasise about having ago but don’t  know where to start and don’t realise they can just go and have ago for a great day out or you can very easily take it up as a hobby but you do need to get a rally driver licence.

There are many rally schools in the United Kingdom but only a few of them are acredited by The Motor Sports Association so before you book to go to any one of them make Sure that they are a member of the British Association Of Rally Schools.  This will ensure that you are going somewhere that will give you a great day and superb training and that you will be doing authentic rally driving in the true sense of the word!

Silverstone Rally School is acredited by The Motorsports Association and was actually the first Rally School in the world.  They offer a number of courses on there website from a half day to a full day and both of these courses will give you agreat insight into rally driving where you will be taught how to do handbrake turns and Scandanavian flicks and skid pan work.  You will find the time there will fill you with adrenaline when you get the car going side ways and you will find that you will of had a great day out, but come away very informed about how to rally drive.  For those who want to take it a little more seriously they offer one on one training in the form of a Rally Solo.  This type of one one on training will really bring your skills on very quickly.

A top tip to make sure you have a great day out and some quality training is to spend more time looking for a quality school than being fixated about the type of rally car you will be driving.  Because of the WRC many people get fixated about wanting to take their first taste of rally driving in a Subaru.  Remember the rally drivers you see driving these cars on TV have had many years of training and a Subaru is a car that you would need to know advanced driving techniques to be able to get such a fierce car under control and sideways for rally driving.  You would be far better to take your first taste in a rear wheel drive car like a Ford Escort MK2 where you will be able to pick up the techniques required far more easily and get the car sideways on your first visit rather than choosing a Subaru and coming away feeling disappointed.  The Subaru is something you can aspire to as you develop your new found skills!!!

If you want to take up rally driving as a hobby you need to take the BARs test (British Association Of Rally Schools test).  The first thing you need to do is get a Go Rally Pack from the www.msa.org.  You then need to study the rally driving section and watch the dvd that comes with the pack.  Once you have read this you can contact Silverstone Rally School or any of the other BARS schools to take your test.  The test is a small driving test and a written test and all the information to answer the questions in the test are in your go rally pack.

Once you have past the test you can apply for your rally driver licence and once you have this and have bought a car you can start rally driving.  You will need to join a local rally driving club and can find events to do on the internet.

Before you go out on your first rally though I would suggest that you invest in some one on one rally driver training which will stand you in very good stead to make you safe and do well in your future hobby.

or further information visit www.silverstonerally.co.uk

]]> http://rally-101.info/rally-driving/feed/ 0 http://rally-101.info/junior-rally-driving-amazing-gifts-for-kids/ http://rally-101.info/junior-rally-driving-amazing-gifts-for-kids/#comments Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:27:28 +0000 http://rally-101.info/2010/07/junior-rally-driving-amazing-gifts-for-kids/

Are you looking for a unique gift for your grown up kid? Numerous gift ideas are available in the market that is fabulous and exquisite. But if your kid has a craze about sports cars then junior rally driving is perfect gift for him. This driving experience is full of fun and excitement that will last for ever.

Junior rally driving is a great opportunity for the kids to experience the driving of some sportive cars. All rally driving experience starts with an introduction about the car and the activity. A professional rally driver will provide information pertaining to what techniques are used in rally driving. Participants are also enriched with details why the methods are used and how they can perform them. Thus, the instructor gives the participants the basic knowledge of what to be done behind the wheels.

The experience of junior rally driving is lifetime. Participants get the opportunity to drive some classy and fast sports cars that can be spotted in magazines or in TV. Rally junior driving is a secured and safe driving experience for kids and all rally cars are built to competition specification and are maintained to the highest standard. Throughout this experience the instructors act as participant’s co-driver and guide around the stage, teaching driving technique such as handbrake turns, opposite lock power slides. Junior rally driving experience is made available for a specific session or time period. Many driving sessions are available on selected days (Saturday or Sunday).

The junior rally driving are available to children over 4ft 10 (148cm) and over 12 years of age. On the other hand, for passenger rides the minimum height of the participant should be 4ft5 (135cm). Prior to the junior courses (additional terms and conditions) all parents have to sign an indemnity form on behalf of the child. This rally driving for junior is also an ideal gift to amuse your kids on his birthdays or to inspire them.

rally crash cz 20Rally Crashes