RE : Ford Focus rally car and a taste of Alfa content

["dion fields" <noid@domain.elided>]

>> These FIA cars bear as little resemblance to a production car 
>> as does a Winston stock car to the car in production that it 
>> resembles.

yes the WRC cars are very trick and highly modified, but they
are FAR closer to production cars than NASCARs.  those 
Winston Cup cars ( Winston has now dropped their sponsorship
i hear ) are "Silhuette Cars" meaning there is a template
resembling the profile of the production car that they must meet .
everything is custom built race car.   but after the fiasco of the
group B ( "killer B's" ) of the mid 1980's, FIA tightened the
rules considerably.  today's cars use production based unit-
bodys, all steel mind you, have glass windows, working doors, 
stock lighting, and meet European road legal standards.  they 
actually drive these things on publid roads between special
stages !  and i have seen them ticketed for safety and traffic 
violations .    then there are the Group A cars which are very 
production based.  

of course, the production replicas are very different from the 
factory race cars.  but i am sure that many things they learn 
racing is applied in some way to the public version.

if it wasn't for FIAT's financial troubles, i would love to see an
ALFA WRC entry ! especially since Lancia is no longer holding
up the Italian flag in that venue anymore.  
147 GTA WRC , mmmmm, oooooo, ahhhh . . .

i first saw the Focus in WRC before they were sold here in
the states.  i was hoping a rally replica was soon to arrive.
good thing i didn't hold my breath . . .

WRC trivia for the day :
i have read that the exhaust "POP" you hear whenever they shift
is caused by a fuel injector in the exhaust.  the fuel 
spontaneously ignites which keeps the turbo spinning when the
pilot is off the throttle. no turbo lag !    i wonder how long those 
turbo vanes hold up . . .

dion fields
73 gtv
los angeles


____________________________________________________________
Get 25MB of email storage with Lycos Mail Plus!
Sign up today -- http://www.mail.lycos.com/brandPage.shtml?pageId=plus 
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided