This article is a not very practical inventory of niche models (only upcoming and discontinued cars), taking advantage of the imminent launch of Toyota's GR Yaris, the first half of this article first briefly introduces what kind of race Toyota's GR Yaris racing car, and then lists the models we can buy in China with the same "rally pedigree".
On the eve of this year's Beijing Auto Show, Toyota finally announced that it would introduce the GR Yaris model, which has been on the market for three years, to Chinese mainland, and this time it is also synchronized with overseas. Compared with the old model, the new model has made a lot of upgrades, strengthening the rigidity of the body through welding, further increasing the horsepower, adding 8AT gearbox options, and so on. Specific information about GR Yaris is widely available on the Internet and will not be described in detail in this article.
In addition to the mechanical hardware and specs, the GR Yaris is also talked about by fans about its rally pedigree, as it is a civilian car based on a WRC racing car. If you haven't paid attention to automobile events, let's first take a brief look at the WRC, its full name is World Rally Championship, that is, the World Rally Championship, which belongs to the top of the pyramid in rally events. Every car manufacturer wants to win an award here, so you can imagine how valuable it is.
(It can be seen that the Drivers' Championship + Constructors' Championship in the past two years have been won by Toyota GR Yaris)
In recent years, the participating manufacturers and teams are mainly Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Hyundai and other big manufacturers, and the main competition areas of the WRC are in Europe, and there are almost no official broadcast channels in China, so unlike the TCR Touring Car Championship and Formula 1, the younger generation of fans generally do not know much about the WRC.
(1999 WRC China, Subaru 555 Team's Impreza car)
In fact, the WRC also came to China back then, and the 11th leg of the 1999 season was set up in Huairou, China, coupled with the grand occasion of the Beijing-Hong Kong Rally earlier, many fans at that time would think that this was the starting point of the Chinese rally...... But now, it seems, it was the pinnacle.
Regarding the competition mode of the rally, I believe you have also had a preliminary understanding through the recent movie "Flying Life 2". The biggest difference between rally racing and track racing is that rallies are almost always driven on extreme roads such as mud, gravel, and snow. Due to the rules of taking turns to start the car, there are basically no overtaking shots in rally (the situation where the protagonist is blocked by the car in front of him in Flying Life 2 is almost impossible to happen in real rallying), but on non-paved roads, various shots of the car taking off and drifting through corners can also feast the audience's eyes. Of course, rally racing still has the same place as track racing, that is, the hardware parameters of the vehicle are also strictly limited. In the current WRC car, for example, the displacement is limited to 1.6 liters, the maximum horsepower must not exceed 300 horsepower, the weight must not be less than 1200 kilograms, and it must be four-wheel drive, etc. Listening to this rule, aren't the above four parameters talking about GR Yaris?
In addition, one of the most important eligibility requirements for the WRC is that the participating models must be based on commercially available production cars, which is currently required to produce 25,000 units for civilian use, compared to much less in the early years. This rule can also be said to have directly spawned the civilian version of the GR Yaris, after all, if the civilian version is not produced, the championship car of the GR Yaris will not be able to compete in the WRC, and there are benefits, and the sale of the civilian version can also spread the high research and development costs of rally cars.
Mitsubishi EVO and Subaru Impreza
After a brief understanding of WRC, let's return to the title and take stock of the "racing" that can be used on the road in China. In fact, there are many civilian cars with WRC pedigree in China, and we will list them in order of popularity, and the first one must be the two protagonists in the "Red and Blue War" that JDM fans often talk about, namely the legendary Mitsubishi EVO and Subaru Impreza. These two cars also appeared frequently in various film and television works in the early years, such as the movie "Thunderbolt" starring Jackie Chan, and the Japanese anime "Initial D". At the end of the last century, the two companies were basically competing for the championship, but unfortunately, due to financial crises and other reasons, Mitsubishi and Subaru have withdrawn from the WRC competition in 2005 and 2008 respectively.
(By the way, I would like to note here that the EVO that can be bought in China at present is basically the 9th and 10th generation of EVO after Mitsubishi withdrew from the WRC)
(WRC Champions for the 1995-1999 season, Drivers' Champion on the left and Constructors' Champion on the right)
Ford Fiesta ST
If the price of the above two cars is higher (whether it is a new car back then or a used car today), then there is also an unpopular and cost-effective "WRC civilian car", which is the Ford Fiesta ST launched in China in 2013. But compared to the GR Yaris, Subaru Impreza, and Mitsubishi EVO, the Fiesta ST may not be as retrue to the WRC cars, with the 1.6T engine producing 182 hp and only front-wheel drive. However, considering the sales guide price of Carnival ST 185,900 and the release time (it has been 10 years), according to the standard of "small steel cannon", Carnival ST is still definitely a work of conscience.
(Although the number of WRC championships of the Fiesta model is not as large as that of Toyota in recent years, it can also be called a champion car)
雪铁龙C4 Coupe和DS3
(左C4 Coupe,右DS3)
Still too expensive and unpopular enough? Then you might as well take a look at these two, the Citroen C4 Coupe and the DS3. After the "red and blue battle", Citroen and Peugeot also dominated the WRC rally for a long time, and the corresponding civilian models were the 206RC and Senna Coupe. However, neither of the above two cars has been officially introduced to the mainland, so I will not elaborate here, only the C4 Coupe and DS3, the champion cars of 07-12, have been officially introduced. However, in terms of performance, their civilian version is not as good as the Carnival ST above, and I believe that the owners who chose them were more concerned about their exquisite exterior and interior design.
(The dominance of Peugeot and Citroen can be seen from the list of champions from 2000 to 2012)
In the above-mentioned several champion cars, in addition to the unannounced price of Toyota GR Yaris ready to introduce, other models have been out of sale for many years, in China want to start can only look for second-hand cars, and Mitsubishi EVO 9 generation has now become a "financial product", its price is more than 400,000 yuan, and even the Mitsubishi EVO 9 generation with a low number of kilometers has a sky-high price. On the other hand, the price of the Mitsubishi EVO 10 has been lower, and the sellers of the automatic transmission model are only half of the EVO 9, and the last original manual transmission version is limited and scarce due to the reasons (original manual!). It's not a later self-change! Only those with a small number of kilometers can be sold for more than 300,000-400,000 yuan. As for the Subaru Impreza STI, it is generally around 200,000, of course, the non-STI version will be cheaper, and even tens of thousands of dollars are traded, such as the Carnival ST is 5-80,000. Finally, the Citroen DS3 and C4 Coupe are cabbage prices compared to other models, and the current residual value is only 2-30,000 yuan.