M-Sport’s new machine

M-Sport have finally announced they’re planning on building a Super 2000 rally car.

The car, based on the new Ford Fiesta, will conform to the new FIA World Rally Championship technical regulations and will be designed by the genius that is Christian Loriaux.

Super 2000 cars were confirmed as being the future of the WRC last month and it looks as though Ford and M-Sport are already planning for the future.

Testing is planned for later this year and the car will be available for national championship competitors in time for the start of the 2010 season.

I’m not keen on the new Super 2000 idea but it’s good to see some teams being proactive in accepting the changes.

A blast from the past!

I was working on Remote:Service’s Calendar (which you should all take a look at) and was looking for some classic footage of the Acropolis Rally of Greece when I came across these absolute classics.

I bet Malcolm Wilson hoped these were hidden away in deep, dark vault somewhere, what a king of style the man was!

I wasn’t even born in 1981, that definitely dates them!

What beauties…..the videos I mean, not Malcolm and Hannu Mikkola parading around semi-naked – some people may tell you I have a bit of a thing for older men but Malcolm and Hannu would be taking it to the extreme, sorry guys, no offence intended!

SAVE OUR JARI-MATTI!

This poor guy’s praying to keep his rallying dreams alive.

If you’re on this site and you’re a rally fan you should be praying too.

Thankfully crash.net have now reported that Malcolm Wilson has confirmed his faith in Jari-Matti in allowing him to compete in Argentina after earlier hinting that his future at Ford was in doubt.

Jari-Matti and Malcolm are all smiles, I doubt there are many smiles in the Ford service area at the moment

Good on you Malcolm – Jari-Matti needs his team and his fans at this difficult time.

But as per usual after something like this you get the armchair critics blasting the poor boy and now he apparently doesn’t deserve his drive as he’s not making the most of his opportunities.

Latvala’s a one off.

I can see where these ‘fans’ are coming from but in my eyes he’s the best we’ve seen in years, maybe he’s just trying too hard.

He’s not a Duval, he’s not arrogant and wasting his chances. He’s quick, exciting to watch and is a genuine guy who’s passionate about what he does.

He has the speed but his unharnessed potential means he can’t take advantage of it – that’s down to the team to help him through.

I can’t begin to imagine how he’s going to tackle Argentina but what he doesn’t need is people turning on him in this stage of his career. We can’t afford to lose him now!

So come on, show your support with Remote:Service!

What a difference a year makes

This time last year we were all basking in the glory of WRC’s ‘saviour’ Jari-Matti Latvala.

His win in Sweden injected a glimmer of excitement to the WRC. He was a champion in waiting but he’s only finished on the podium once this season and has only completed the other two events using the Super Rally system after driver errors forced early retirements.

And you all know what happened this weekend. The less said about that the better.

Now fans on official WRC website the are voting whether he should stay in the team – 50% say yes, 50% say no. Earlier reports on the site also indicated team boss Malcolm Wilson was reconsidering Jari-Matti’s place in the team.

Oh dear.

I hope to high heaven that Jari-Matti’s fans aren’t turning into Lewis Hamilton fans – supporting all the way when things are good, then dropping the driver as soon as things go wrong.

Come on, rally round, show the boy some support.

Too close to home???

I was doing a bit of background research for this post and I came across this little gem and it got me thinking.

His dad is his boss and his mum apparently travels to every WRC event with her boy.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Mr and Mrs Wilson a lot but surely it can’t do much for Matthew’s street cred to have your mum waiting for you in the service park of every rally.

I wonder if Matthew moved to another team, away from the comfort of his family then we’d get a real glimpse of whatever talent his Dad claims he has.

To be honest I think that would be the best thing for him, having a real boss, a different car and a bigger opportunity to prove he’s not just in the WRC because Daddy’s paid for him to be there Antony Warmbold style.

Matthew, Matthew, Matthew, come on, give me a win

The questions is though, can he?

Our young Brit kept his nose clean out in Cyprus, finishing 5th overall he’s now 6th in the championship, two points above Jari-Matti Latvala.

He’s doing well, right?

Well not according to some people.

Since the deaths of Richard Burns and Colin McRae there has been no one with enough talent to make headlines and create interest in the WRC.

If Matthew had enough talent surely he would’ve already excelled on a rally which would have caught our attention.

This is yet to happen and with Matt being the only Brit out there it must knock his confidence when the critics launch the ‘he’s wasting a precious seat’ argument.

Well excuse me, no he’s not.

He may not be the best driver out there and at the moment he can’t be classed as a special driver, only a mere average driver.

But he certainly hasn’t ‘stolen’ anyone else’s opportunity to be in a factory team – I really doubt whether the seat would have existed if Matthew hadn’t come along.

In fact you could argue that his involvement in the WRC has created more opportunities for other up and coming drivers so leave the poor guy alone for once!