Porsche

[christian]

What's surprising is the weight of a WRC car vs. what a good track car, like what Sean builds, weighs. The Polo goes 2600+ lbs...perhaps it's the ideal weight for those conditions whether or not there are kg/hp rules...

It's not that surprising - a rally car keeps much of the unibody, lights, wipers, adds a very big cage intended to protect two occupants, and is filled with two additional diffs, two extra driveshafts, boxed and strengthened a arms and control arms, a substantially more complex wire harness, heavy wheels and tires, two spare tires, 90l of fuel, tools, water, oil, an extra seat, etc.

Lighter is better but 2600 is ok for a car that takes that kind of punishment. If you put rally wheels and tires on a stock car and drove hard from the start line of a stage, it's 50/50 the car would last half a mile without lunching something. Driving on a track is just as hard on the engine but the wear on the suspension, transmission, and hard parts of a rally aren't really comparable.

I guess the analogy would be road bikes vs. all-mountain bikes.

[devlin]

Yes and no. I've 'unofficially' rallied some of my cheaper road cars on fire trails when I was much younger and probably a fair bit irresponsible and they lasted a fair while. Even had a regular water bar we used to launch the Toyota over. Of course the cross member over time ended up with a 90 deg twist in the middle but nothing else that I know of broke on it. having said that rallying something like that and a full on WRC spec car are at the two far ends of the spectrum.

[Kentf14]

Took a rest day and drove one of my ride routes up into the Marin Headlands before the rain comes tomorrow.

Marin Headlands

[Too Tall]

Stunning car. Don't park directly over the fault line, just sayin'.

[Philster]

Really love that car. The stance is terrific. You could always post more pics.

[Matthew Strongin]

You could always post more pics.

Seriously. We need more pics. I'm not a car guy, but I could easily become one for that stunner.

[Kentf14]

Thanks guys. The car really does it for me also. I had taken a break from driving it for a bit due to spending a bunch of time in the saddle. Was inspired to take it out earlier this week and was instantly reminded how awesome it is to get on the throttle. Such an awesome driving experience. Sure they are beautiful to look at, but nothing beats the visceral feeling of driving.
I'll have to take some time to upload a few pics to Flickr so that they show up well on the forum. In the meanwhile, you can check out a the blog a good friend of mine runs. Mostly P car stuff and great photography. My car is scattered amongs his pics too.
Werk Crew | Bob Tilton | Blog
-Kent