>Yep. They'll sell a few thousand of the things, make a
>gazillion $$$ in the process, & laugh all the way to the
>bank. What a blunder!!!!
In the context of this forum which is about gravel rally in USA, yeah.
As much as I think the Sub-a-rat is well, sub a rat ie lower than a rat, not just from certain limitations in the engine design and materials (restricted deck height(since it has to have room for _two block head combos between the inner fender wells_), which leads to reduced conrod center to center lenght which results in crappy rod/stroke ratio; an incredibly flimsy crankshaft,junk con rods, and in the past anyway truly trashy cast, not forged, pistons, with cheap weak design: slotted oil return rather than drilled., the piston crowns with the truly bizzzare rectangular dish is plain stupid, and attempt to do something differently for the sake of difference, and finally the packaging restrictions that led to the short block height has a knock on effect of dictating a very short piston compression height, making it difficult to move the ring pack away from the crown.)(All this was just from rebuilding a dead Sti,so it is not merely my personal opinion, it is measurable, verifiable and obvious if you go into the motors)
but that isn't important IN THIS CONTEXT.
Joe, most of the people I know starting out in rally don't have the money to run out and buy a new car, strip it prep it and the crash it.
So most the people I know look for USED cars.
And , as the general trend in North America rallying is toward accepting certain class sizes which predominate worldwide, this decision to sell a 2.5l means that these cars will be useless as potential rally car starter projects when they reach the 3rd and 4th hand markets.
I think it can be read one way: In their rally program they will continue to import drivers and cars and prep things sold elsewhere, not here.
I read this as indicating the same sort of contempt for the concept of competitior support, and in the same vein as the first hand reports of their behavior in MFG council meetings and their arrogant and dismissive responses to suggestion they say Slow down on transits and in the service areas.
In short, for the Japanese who have tradionally had such good long term 10+ year planning in marketing, they have shot themselves in the foot with respect to the longer term results, press, and goodwill which could continue to benifit them were these thing 2 liter and thereby have a second life as viable rally cars.
OK?
Maybe they know they're junk and will be worthless and completely shagged by then?
John Vanlandingham
Seattle, WA. 98168
Vive le Prole-le-ralliat