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December 16, 2008
Shock! Subaru pull out of World Rally Championship!
Subaru has announced its decision to withdraw from the 2009 World Rally Championship.
Source: RallySportMag
This sudden decision was in response to the widespread economic downturn that is affecting the entire automotive industry, and follows Suzuki’s withdrawal announced yesterday.
After 20 years in the sport, during which time the Prodrive-run Subaru World Rally Team has won six World Rally Championship titles, this is not only sad news for Subaru and the team, but also for millions of rallying fans around the world. Thanks to its highly successful World Rally Championship programme, Subaru has developed into one of the world’s most widely recognised and evocative automotive brands.
Prodrive chairman, David Richards, said: “Subaru’s departure from the World Rally Championship is a great loss as it is one of the sport’s icons. The Subaru World Rally Team has created true champions such as Colin McRae and Richard Burns and its absence will be felt by many the world over. Although this decision closes a significant chapter in Prodrive’s history, our focus now turns to the future.”
For many, Prodrive and Subaru are synonymous, given the long-standing and close association between the two companies. However, while the Subaru World Rally Team historically represented a significant part of Prodrive’s business, today it accounts for no more than 20 per cent of the company’s turnover.
Prodrive will look to redeploy as many of the rally team as possible in other areas of its business operations, which have grown to span advanced engineering and manufacturing for the automotive, defence, marine and aerospace industries, in addition to other motorsport programmes.
Despite the current economic downturn, Prodrive’s automotive engineering business remains buoyant as it works with vehicle manufacturers to accelerate the development of next generation fuel-efficient vehicles and alternative fuel technologies.
Together with Subaru, Prodrive’s commitment to its customer rally teams will also continue unabated for 2009 and beyond. Over the past 15 years, Prodrive has sold close to 500 rally cars to more than 400 private competitors and independent rally teams in 47 countries. During this time, Prodrive’s customers have won five consecutive Production World Rally Championships and countless international rallies. In 2008, Prodrive-supported customer teams have claimed eight rally championship titles around the world.
Looking ahead, 2010 will see the introduction of new World Rally Championship technical regulations, which provide Prodrive with an opportunity to prepare for re-entering the championship with a new team and build on its 24 years of World Rally Championship experience and success.
The withdrawal of Subaru and Suzuki in the last 24 hours leaves just two manufacturers in the sport - Citroen and Ford.
Source: RallySportMag
Technorati Tags: subaru, wrc, prodrive, swrt, subaru world rally team
- Posted in : Motorsports, News
- Author : admin
Now that’s just bloody great! No Subaru in WRC, no Honda in F1 and Moto GP. 2009 will be a very sad year for motorsport
Humm..So this is how it will go from here.
Subaru exits WRC then they will stop producing Imprezas. Next Toyota will close the Subaru brand and absorb their technology into the Scion brand.
Give it five years.
That would be absolutely ridiculos and unfortunately likely. Killing the scooby would be killing a motorsport icon, but those bloody businessmen don’t really care about such things.
well, maybe Subaru is trying to sort things out in the difficult economical situation
wrc is dying. it will be replaced with S2000 class in next few years.. and subaru has no s2000 car. so why should they spent their motorsport budget on unsuccessfull wrc imprezas, instead of investing in development of new S2000 class car?
This is exactly it. Honestly, I don’t know what the F&@% is wrong with FIA, this S2000 crap is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard but what can you do? Here’s hoping for brighter days for Subaru and WRC…
they wanna make s2000+ class. “plus” means turbocharger.
GOSH! what a mark this will leave in rally history, but well look at it this way, SUBARU IS the ones who pushed wrc to its limits and new horizons! well hope we still get imprezas, i dont want to loose my favourite car, it will be like loosing a family memeber! Please subaru dont do that to us!
subaru already left a mark in rally history. actually audi and subaru - these companies made rally popular
the wrc is even more boring now. I think oo one will stay out in the rain to watch Sebastien Leon winning race after race. It’s sad that this happens but maybe in a couple of years they will be back.
they definetly will go back in action
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo don’t do that stupid thing whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy????
they making a strange look for impreza then they will finish the rally then one day the impreza will be dead?? and the whole subaru wiil be closed..what a stupid managers
bgad 7aram
yeah, they put an automatic gearbox in a STI now..
it’s a sad news for all of us. no more hardcore machinery..
Dude check ur facts
the sti doesnt have an automatic gearbox, and they havnt said that it ever will in the future. but maybe the legacy turbo will.
my bad, looks like i need to check my facts
i still unbeleive that iam very sad
Very shocking, and it still hasn’t hit me yet…
Sad but true…
WRC will never be the same…
I dont get it. what ever happened to the rules of supply and demand. these automakers are complaning about huge drops in sales but the msrp for a new wrx sti is still over 30k and it just keeps going up. it seem that the only solution the big automakers can come up with is to cut jobs, close plants, and beg the government/s for bailout lones. if they want to sell some cars cut the prices. i hate to say this because im a huge subaru fan but if you ask me i think subaru brought it on them selves. and that goes for every large corporation not just subaru not just the automakers but everyone. theres just too much greed in this world. i just dont get it.
greedy?????????
the real fact of the matter is that we, the public, started this down turn.
if you demand a great product at a cheaper price what else can large companies do but step up their scale of production to reduce overheads?
nothing is the answer, how can you make a car as good as the sti and expect to make a profit by making 10000 a year worlwide.
you cant, you need to make 100000 to make a profit, so when the s”!t hits the fan there is nothing to do but close plants and lose workers.
obviously some companies are guilty of bad management but not subaru,
if you are such a clever chap why dont you send them your cv and explain how you can help subaru make the same profit with the same overheads in a market reduced by 20%.
muppett
hey, 30k for a new wrx sti is not much. we have $55k price on it in europe..
and the gas here is also more expensive then in us
Scooby blog, is not working at all, slowest in updates, in fact no updates at all. Such a disgrace to Subaru.
‘cmon it’s a just non-commercial blog made for fun by a subaru fan (he’s my friend)
he’s busy on his full-time work, with his social life. no time for updating the site..
[…] sudden decision was in response to the widespread economic downturn that is affecting the entire automotive industry, and follows Suzuki’s withdrawal announced […]
I now have a broken heart
Wait, I don’t think we should be that sad. I think the reason for this is because of the economic crisis that is going on right now, and maybe later, when the crisis is wonover, subaru might rejoin the rally, and make a great come back with some amazingly designed Impreza or something.
and thinking about only for and citroen competing with each other makes me wanna laugh. ahahaha
crisis is the heads of ppl
stop talking about it to stop it
[…] has been put up for sale by the Japanese firm’s official partner in the WRC (before its decision to withdraw from the sport late last year, that is), Prodrive. The two-door Impreza WRC was the very first car built under the […]
whatever. fk the world. me and my outback are going to live in the woods. live off the land. make moonshine and ethanol. yeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwww