Dogue

'Jouko Lampi flew through Ouninpohja today, beating Sebastian Ogier's VW Polo by a scarcely believable 2 minutes.'

Noise is inefficient. This is much more exciting as a technical exercise, and you now won't go home from a Grand Prix with a splitting headache even if you've worn earplugs. 58 laps of the previous era's cars blasting noise at you is very tiring on your ears and head. The TV sound was poor, but that was a case of FOM…

I've been across it both on the road and train... it's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen...

No Oresund?

It's a bit of an optical illusion. You assume that having a roof means that that roof is similarly proportioned to 'normal' cars, when really there's only space to fit the driver and a few bits and pieces inside.

But technically as it's a Ford Sierra it didn't sell that badly worldwide... especially popular here in the UK with the RS500 racing in the BTCC.

You do see quite a lot of these in the UK... for some reason us Brits were duped by the badge, didn't realise it was far inferior to a 'real' 3 series.

She was the closest of any driver to winning an FIA World Championship... that's bigger than any individual race or event win.

Hate to be pedantic as your post is great and I agree on Group A's awesomeness, but you post a photo of the Subaru Impreza WRX, which technically is a WRC-regulation car and not a Group A car. The last Group A car was the Lancer Evo 7 which ran through 1998 I believe, by which time all other manufacturers had switched…

I think the Porsche is one of the prettiest supercars I've seen. The McLaren is extreme but functional, and I like it, but it doesn't quite have the class the 918 has.

It'd be funny, but it's never going to happen. The Porsche is less powerful AND is heavier.

That was an art exhibition/muscle car. Wasn't designed to go round corners, but was designed to be driven slowly to a picturesque spot and be left there to be gawped upon.

Completely agree. The guys building the cars suddenly went from having the 1.5l engines producing 250bhp or so to 400bhp+ 3.0l beasts, and they then had to find a way to put all this power on the ground.

Not so much a Top Gear point as an Alfa 4c one and also a general thought:

It was so fantastic because it was such a simple regulation set, but so far reaching in it's implementation. To work around the fuel limits, cars had to be made more slippery yet produce big downforce, so efficiency was paramount. Engines could be relevant to manufacturer's own product lines and be a real test bed for…

The initial implementation of KERS was poor IMO. It was never anything more than a glorified push-to-pass. What the new regulations are bringing is the increased relevance of the ERS package to the whole of the car. In my view this year is the first year of true hybrid technology in F1... it's a shame they're still a…

The best part of that regulation change was not really discovered until 10 years later, when Renault decided to pursue the other part of the regs that stated you could either have a 3.0l NA engine or a 1.5l forced induction one...

Group C. No other set of regulations in Motorsport produced such variety of manufacturer and privateer machinery. By simply limiting the fuel capacity, some of the most incredible cars and races were born. It was only destroyed by the FIA pricing most manufacturers out by introducing the F1 engine rules meaning…

I don't recall any major issues with the London games in terms of preparedness. They pretty much had just as you described it... all ready to go a month or two beforehand and just the last little bits to finish as the world turned up. Ditto for Beijing as I recall.