So this years and previous several years regulations for cars have been:
1600cc turbocharged 4 cylinder engines, 4wd, sequential gearboxes, had been on stick, last 2 years back on paddles, fairly limited aero over road car silhouette. Approx 300bhp.
For 2017, an extra 80bhp or so (I don’t think they were ever actually 300bhp anyway, surely more) by way of a bigger turbo restrictor. A fair chunk more torque, more fancy diffs, lots more aero, wider and longer cars permitted in wheelbase/track and body.
Should be more exciting, I’ve seen three of them test in person, VW (who now won’t be competing), Citroen and M Sport (Ford). The cars certainly seem to slide and oversteer more, all on gravel. Though on tar I think the aero will make them stick to the road like they’re on rails. I think they’ve missed a trick by allowing so much aero really, less grip than power is what makes the spectacle.
So, VW have pulled out for 2017, but Toyota are coming in, so we will have:
Citroen C3 (proper works team)
Hyundai i20 (proper works team)
Ford Fiesta (M Sport – Cumbria, with a little bit of Ford money and help)
Toyota Yaris (Tommi Makinen Racing for Toyota)
VW pulling out has screwed up the driver market somewhat, but it’s arguably done the sport a favour, lots of drivers moved around and in new cars.
Kris Meeke (the man from Dungannon) in the Citroen C3, Elfyn Evans (Gwyndaf’s boy) in a 2016 Fiesta in the WRC cup class.
4 times and reigning World Champion Sebastien Ogier in the M Sport Fiesta, that’s hell of a deal for them. Saw him test the Fiesta a few weeks ago, he was instantly rapid and looked visibly faster than his team mate Ott Tanak, who has been in the car a lot, it was Ogier’s first time.
Edited to say: Aero and bodywork will not survive on gravel, been to the above tests and on every run (sub 5 miles generally) cars have ripped bits off left right and centre. M Sport had a huge pile of bumpers and splitters from 2 days testing, there were 2 mechanics nearly constantly trying to patch them back together all day when I was there.