Why Audi stopped rallying

[Kwattro at aol.com]

In a message dated 01-05-08 15:59:11 EDT, you write:

<< Okay, group B was banned. But all the other manufacturers switched to WRC,
 why not Audi?
  >>


It's similar to the porsche situation in GT cars - they saw the market 
changing (ie, they no longer were marketing the Ur-Q as their staple, but 
rather the 80Q and 100/200Q's, so their efforts switched to marketing those 
cars.  At the same time, the shift of Audi had become to compete with BMW.  
BMW, at that time, was heavily involved in road racing (and still is).  The 
obvious progression to market the cars was to compete in road race events, 
since the mega-buck rally cars were essentially dead.  It wasn't until 
recently (read, Subaru imprezza v. Mitsu Lancer Evo) that rallying became 
interesting to the general motorsport public again, and now (A4 era) Audi has 
no car really to compete (the S3/A3 is the exception, but not particularly 
applicable.) in the rally championship.  One could ask the similar question 
to Porsche and the post 962, post IMSA era - why didn't they pursue the GT1 
project more?  The answer, quite simply, is where is the market?  How many 
GT1's did Porsche sell?  How many 911 GT3's and GT3R's can it sell (and now, 
the $175,000 GT2 Turbo - which, trust me, will fly out of the showroom) With 
only 11,000 Ur's produced, it didn't make sense for a small company to 
continue on that path...especially when it was competeing against the likes 
of BMW, at their heyday in the late 80's.

Later!
Carter