Generally unknown here in the US, Abarth competition vehicles achieved a spectacular win record in their class for hill-climb and track racing.Over a ten year period, their cars set 113 world and European records on the Monza circuit. Here’s the 1969 Abarth 2000 Sport Spider (with Fiat engine).
An ultracar, they said.
For those unknowledgeable of what rally racing is like… it’s (quite often) super-high performance beefed-up vehicles going balls-out on roadways meant more for tractors.
What’s the point? That car is so low, you couldn’t even lap the Nurburgring in it without leaving half the car behind on the track.
Rally? More like back country drift.
Looks like fun but bystanders are flirting with death.
That’s fairly sensible by rally fan standards. Check out the old group B footage from the 80s.
The crowd reaction shots were a bit much.
Woooooooah bo-bo-bo-bo-bo?
Yep! Same with one-upmanship.
Rally is all about driving incredibly fast on roads and trails not made for such excursions. Apparently, they’re crazy about it in Europe.
Yea, the thing with the bystanders is disturbing… and not just about standing so close to the action. Their reactions are… just… just…!!!
Rally is awesome! There’s quite a following in North America, too, and there’s less money behind the teams, so the cars are more in the range of “started with an econobox and added a lot of expensive mods” vs “started with a hypercar and shaved it down to look like an econobox.”
A very popular car in Europe for WRC (that near enough fits the above category) is Peugeot’s 307. And its liveries come in all sorts of delicious flavors!
I’ve seen the build videos for the high budget WRCs. Unless they’ve changed a lot over the past 5 years, WRCs more closely resemble F1 cars under the skin than the off-the-lot P307s and Ford Fiestas they are supposed to be.
As is US stock car races, only the “box” survives and makes it to track. 
Yup. Though I imagine some of the privateer teams in the other classes of WRC build from real consumer cars, much like in NA.
Welp. “Rally” has had its day on BB… and that’s an accomplishment. Now for Formula 1. I am so looking forward to the new cars for 2022; the redesign will make the events much, much more competitive. 2022 still shows the 'halo" driver protection (the T-bar that drivers get to stare at). There’s serious talk about replacing those with fighter jet aircraft-type canopies at some point in the future. I’m definitely happy to see the vehicles eschew all the pointy/sharp aerodynamic protuberances that seemed (to me) a threat to drivers during cockpit entry/exit. Read on for what the improvements are.
