Rally Italia Sardinina

Already proving to be a tough event. Hirvonen out after his car burnt to a crisp on a road section and Haninen after destroying his Hyundai like nothing I've seen in a long time. Pic here: https://twitter.com/Karlip1/status/474918262904725504/photo/1

Meeke now out with electrical problems in ss5

Ogier won again after Latvala had problems...again!

Its a shame as it was looking very promising to start with - Ford and Hyundai posting good times and Ogier struggling - could it be a different winner??????

No




Just been reading that M-Sport have dropped £400k as a result of the burn out of Hirvonen's car. They don't insure the cars as they figure even if badly smashed in an accident they can recover loads of parts - but that fire has destroyed the entire car. Appreciate they seem to be doing a decent trade in the R1, R2, R5 etc. but i doubt any private firm without factory backing can lose £400k and it not be a massive hit.

ouch!!!

That is some serious dosh to loose

No kidding!   

I'm surprised it's only £400k though! When you consider the labour that goes into building a top-spec rally car on top of the components, whioch won't be cheap, Halfords offerings. How much would a blue-printed factory engine cost? Surely north of £100k on its own? A beefed up V64V for a 6R4 would go for more than £35k on its own. I know there's one on eBay for £26k ish, but that's fairly standard!   

No-one can go into rallying, racing, rallycross or any other top-end motor sport unless they have a huge bankroll behind them. Looking at some of the rigs supporting the rallycross boys at Lydden the other week demonstrates there's lots of wonga tied up there too. Many of the all-singing, all-dancing rigs would cost well over £100k on their own, without looking at paying for the competition cars, spare parts, travel costs, entry fees, driver fees, crew, managers.... good grief!    Enough money to run a small country!

Yours humbly, Steve