Irish Rallying

X1R

Just wondering if anyone has noticed the amount of top class mk II escorts that are appearing on our stages this year? Joe Connolly has a brand new escort built by Den Motorsport costing over 100k sterling.
Is the recession over in rallying terms on our little rally mad isle??

willier

I was at the Mayo stages at the weekend and the amount of good MKII's running in it was staggering. There does seem to be alot more of them out than usual. The Nenagh Stages 2 weeks ago was as good. Both rallys made the Galway Int look very poor indeed!
Mayo was more like a MKII Escort Challenge than a round of the National Championship. Great viewing I have to say. And they weren't minding them either. There'll be some amount of tail lights bought for Escorts after the weekend!

De Hipster

I think there are a number of factors...Between the recession, changes to WRC regulations and cheaper to run MKIIs rallying in Ireland is changing with the times.

Although relatively expensive in terms of MKII, the top end are still substantially cheaper than running the WRC front of field equivalent, they also make for a much more interesting spectacle and more challenging driver skillset.

cian1500ww

It's great that we have so many drivers dedicated to using the good old Mk2 Escort. For them to compete at the highest level in a Mk2 they need to spend that kind of money as these cars are nothing like the Mk2's 20 years ago. There is no better car to watch then a Mk2, hopefully they'll be on the stages for as long as possible

X1R

cian1500ww wrote: »

It's great that we have so many drivers dedicated to using the good old Mk2 Escort. For them to compete at the highest level in a Mk2 they need to spend that kind of money as these cars are nothing like the Mk2's 20 years ago. There is no better car to watch then a Mk2, hopefully they'll be on the stages for as long as possible

AMEN !!! I drove a hired MK II on a local event a few years ago and the difference in driving them hard compaired to fwd is savage. You could fire it into a bend and then just sort it out half way through the bend.
However the speed that the top lads are getting means that they are on the door handles. Between reiger suspensions and selholm sequntial geearboxes, the progression of the mkII has been faster and more advanced then that of the s1600 or even the s2000 and that is down to the likes of Frank Kelly, Daniel McKenna, Eugene Ferry etc, Den Motorsport, Montgomery Motorsport,Camillus Bradley etc. There is nothing like an escort on full rack through 3's and 4's.

wireless101

X1R wrote: »

AMEN !!! I drove a hired MK II on a local event a few years ago and the difference in driving them hard compaired to fwd is savage. You could fire it into a bend and then just sort it out half way through the bend.
However the speed that the top lads are getting means that they are on the door handles. Between reiger suspensions and selholm sequntial geearboxes, the progression of the mkII has been faster and more advanced then that of the s1600 or even the s2000 and that is down to the likes of Frank Kelly, Daniel McKenna, Eugene Ferry etc, Den Motorsport, Montgomery Motorsport,Camillus Bradley etc. There is nothing like an escort on full rack through 3's and 4's.

+1

tabby aspreme

roll on the 9th of may, mk2 challenge carlow stages

hi_sir_2.5

i wouldnt get to excited about the carlow challange when did you ever see the cream of irish mk2s at it last years one was pretty poor unless you get the top men of the moment like daniel mckenna mandy kelly declan boyle camulis bradley rodney wilton gary mcphliphs and the like i wouldnt get too excited.
if you want to go to a rally and see decent mk2s go to donegal international even decent national rounds like monaghan cavan sligo or the donegal harvest,the carlow thing is normaly made up of a few watery irish and a midlen welsh driver or two

willier

I agree. Went to the Carlow stages MK2 Challenge a couple of times a was dissappointed to be honest. The best of the Irish MK2's don't do it. This years Nenagh and Mayo stages rally had the best MK2 entry I've seen in ages and the rallying was unreal. They were pushing really hard.

X1R

Just wondering from your user name, what are you driving?? Is there a clue in there or just aspirations ??