Suzuki's Awful WRC Program?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ค. 2023
- It's always cool seeing new manufacturers enter the World Rally Championship. All kinds of unique shapes and body styles tackling a hugely varied mix of demanding terrain. This effort though, didn't go so well.
- ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
Suzuki does have a trend of withdrawing from championships whenever things finally start improving
MotoGP moment
@@matsimmo6208 Supercross/pro motocross moment
EWC moment
Pikes peak moment
I think it's a Japanese thing in general. Look at Nissan at Le Mans or Toyota in F1. Hell I'm surprised Toyota's WEC program lasted this long considering they didn't start winning championships or Le Mans until 2018
I imagine the name Sebastien works like a skills multiplier for drivers based on their country, with Sebastian and France being the best combo.
the same applies to Brazilians, normal name unusual last name
Bourdais, Ogier and Loeb have 21 major championships between them...
@@-tiofer-8943 We should all be terrified of Luis Purpleelephant dominating everything he touches. He's already lapping established competitors in the McDonalds NorthEast Premier Karting League...
That Sebastian guy from F1 is not bad too
@@woodenhoe (narrator: not Sebastian Speed)
Suzuki always seems to get good when it decides to bail. It's hilarious. Shame because I'd love to have seen what it could've done given enough time, hell, it could've been really good and may have stuck around.
Other suggestions to have if you want:
Nissan's Awful LMP1 Program
Lotus' Awful IndyCar Program
Toyota's Awful F1 Program
Multimatic's Awful LMP2 Program
Another idea: Lotus' Awful LMP1 program
@davecity and seat
@davecity oh it's so much worse with Skoda than you'd think.
@davecity to be fair, most of that was because they didn't have a suitable car and the Octavia at least was a very reliable car. But the Fabia got screwed by internal VW motorsport politics
@davecity the higher-ups demanded control on suspension setups. When McRae had his one-off drive in Australia 2005, he demanded the right to set up the car himself. He was running 2nd when a gearbox change that was unnecessary was forced on him to get the car DQ'd.
Based on comments from drivers years later about 2008 season:
-Teamboss seen early in the video, stopped showing up to events in February
-There was rarely testing, so day 1 of the event was used for testing and setting up the car.
-Car had pretty much 0 upgrades from pre-season tests done in December 2007.
-Car always had small issues, rarely could drivers go full attack on stages.
So drivers realised pretty early, that this team was dead in water, and pretty much drove through the events.
Regarding decision to leave WRC:
There was end of the season dinner in Wales after the event. This was pretty much first time since Monte Carlo, that Suzuki representitives was seen. They told everybody that there wont be 2009 season for the team, thanks and bye.
So drivers just got paid to have fun pretty much?
@@GewelReal I think it was quite far from fun for professional drivers.
@@GewelReal I imagine it must be quite frustrating if you're trying to compete but the car just never works right.
@@GewelReal pros don't have fun that easily
I was thinking throughout the video that they are having the same issues over and over again. Broken suspension. Broken suspension. Broken suspension. A pretty telling sign that there was no upgrading being done.
Not really awful imo, but the economic downturn really hurt them so they bailed out.
The SX4 is one of my favorite WRC car
They should have absolutely beat the snot out of those Frenchies WRC
I suspect that the main reason they went with the SX4 instead of the swift was because it did have some name recognition from having dominated at pikes peak for several years beforehand, the problem was that the pikes peak SX4 was built under pikes peak's "carte blanche" rules which basically meant that so long as it met the safety standards of the event they could do whatever they wanted with it.
Having 900+ horsepower, a drastically widened stance, a specially designed full time four wheel drive system, custom tires and group c level areo is what allowed the pikes peak SX4 to overcome all of its handling deficiencies.
But they couldn't do that in the WRC so the SX4 always going to be doomed to fail because it was too short, too narrow and too tall to be stable at the speeds it needed to travel in order too be competitive.
Haha they need adaptation to do that. They should be keep Swift as rally car
The shortness of the SX4 wasn't entirely a bad thing; as Peugeot's 206 and Skoda's Fabia proved, a smaller platform allowed for greater manuverability in narrow roads and tighter low-speed corners.
@@legoferrari14 still doesn't change the fact that the car was pretty tall as well.
@@gathel8574 they did have a Swift rally car, although they only provided the body. It was called Subaru Justy. It's basically a Swift Mk. II GTi with 4wd. It's still popular for hobby racing and backshack tuning because it's dirt cheap
in racing terms, carte blanche is Formula Libre
This seems like the beginning of a very good new series focusing on failed racing projects. This being WRC content is also a W
This may become a new series if people are interested. They're really enjoyable to do, albeit very time consuming.
@@tydyeracinggaming4742 I would like to see you cover the failure of Peugeot 307
@@tydyeracinggaming4742 We greatly appreciate all of your work.
The SX4 was quite popular here in Quebec, since it was pretty alone in its category as a compact car offering an AWD version, and it’s absolutely awesome for our weather.
Then in 2013 they just left North America, as the sales of the SX4 were doing quite well, so it’s pretty funny to see that even in championships they tended to pull out at the worst moments too
I still see plenty of SX4s on the road today (including my mom’s 2012, which she bought new) and a lot of them for sale on the used market, and that accounts for the fact that the most recent model available here is now 10 years old and that the parts are very expensive now, so it really is a bummer lol
Never get between Suzuki and their plans to bail at the worst possible moment.
Would be cool if you did a video on the failed Mini WRC program in the early 2010s
If I remember right, it was more a failure then the Suzuki's and they had some serious drivers. Probably one of the ugliest wrc cars ever as well
@@cillian303 It was only failed because BMW withdrew everything and left prodrive after the program really started... the car was also built to the spirit of the new 1.6 regulations and was cost effective, something M-Sport and certainly Citroen didnt.
@@cillian303 Really? I honestly like the countryman wrc, I wonder if that ukrainian team is still using it?
@@prodrive7105 Which is a shame. Had a quick look at the results, and they're not terrible all things considered. In 3 years, and 15 rallies all up, it raked in 3 podiums.
@@prodrive7105 BMW has a history of doing shit like this. IIRC they were the ones that pushed to introduce KERS into Formula 1, only to later on ditch the sport because, wait for it, 'it became too expensive'. That and abandoning development of the '08 Sauber BMW when Kubica had a chance to fight for the championship, only to deliver a mediocre '09 car.
Fuck them.
Suzuki: Can we be a competitive manufacturer in __________ competition ?
Goes well.
Suzuki : Yes we can that be it, shut down project.
That's frustrating AF.
Citroen vetoed Suzuki making a proper head for the engine.
Problem with small restrictor turbo engines is that you need a special stroke/bore ratio as you go for more torque than revs. You also need special parameters from the head.
Suzuki had a good idea of how to redeem the effort with “small” changes to the engine that would have made them much more competitive.
As they did vs Subarus active anti toll bars, which was instrumental in making the Subaru - because of polar inertia - Citroen vetoed the Suzuki engine changes, and Suzuki was dead in the water.
Citroens close ties with the French FIA made them too strong when it came to hurting other initiatives, which again hurt the championship.
At least it was preserved in GT5
That’s the legacy I remember this car from. Gran Turismo 5
True dat. :)
0:14 this one is such a good looking car
Perhaps a video on the Volkswagen Group's ill-fated first ventures in the World Rally Car class might be in order? SEAT and Skoda fought against each other for resources until the Spanish manufacturer pulled out but even then Skoda couldn't hack it, not even with Colin McRae at the wheel.
While Skoda have become renowned in the second-tier divisions since (Super 2000, R5 and most recently Rally2), SEAT's WRC project was an abject failure
The Octavia WRC is one sexxy rally car though
Skoda fabia is the best rally car you can buy and race in any national championship.
Can you argue both programmes weren't a failure though because this was when there was easily 20-30 WRC cars in the event, and both marques did score points
@@christiantracey915 their only sucess is that they were better than privateers with far less budget, they did managed to get a few podiums between them, kudos to that, but they still sucked major ass
The Fabia WRC was truly a mess of a car
Well it is unfortunate that Suzuki didn’t had the best WRC stint, even if there was potential to do something decent in the championship. At least that SX4 rally car looked pretty cool!
I'd never known Suzuki tried the big leagues, just the junior WRC. I wish they had success in the WRC, but knowing Suzuki's stance on motorsports, they would've bailed after 2008 even if they had humiliated Citroen and Ford.
Suzuki pulled out of MotoGP at the end of 2022. Their final race? They won. They won the world championship just 2 years prior. Suzuki just like to pull the plug on projects on a whim and leave hundreds of people without jobs with little notice.
I know right. I was actually sad when they pulled out of MotoGP. 😢
@@Time-iz-money Same. They were my favourite team.
@@tdyerwestfield Same, and always will be :)
I wonder why they failed on WRC when they did pretty well on the lower category (Super 1600/Junior WRC back then)
Maybe if not for the economy crisis it might improve in the later seasons.
They used the Swift there, which is a small hatchback. In WRC, they used the SX4, which is a Crossover SUV
Gotta say I love these videos, started with the jag GT programme one and now got recommended this one. Definitely subbing - love the nerdiness of bringing these stories to light!
Suzuki sounds like they just came here to build a rally car and to have some fun, instead of being sweaty all the time.
Very interesting you cover the Suzuki SX4 WRC, very much forgotten car.
The overriding question seems if we think it had potential or was always to be a disaster.
I was definitely in the "it's going to be never ending disaster" corner. It wasn't only the short wheelbase but that its centre of gravity was very high, basically being an SUV. I always felt Suzuki was a little blindfolded after their JWRC successes. They competed in the privateer designed JWRC very much as a full works team with 4-5 drivers every years and despite this Goliath Suzuki was regularly beaten by David-privateers, only twice they won JWRC, both with PG Andersson. Further I would think the Swift was a much better base car than the SX4.
In the end I must however admit: I realised in your video that I had completely forgotten how the results improved that much in the last few events of the SX4.
Funny at the start of the video you make the comparison between Suzuki SX4 and Fiat Panda 4x4. Indeed for Europe Fiat sold a rebadged version of the SX4 called the Fiat Sedici. That was still Suzuki designed and built, but for Fiat it filled a gap slightly above the Panda 4x4, before they had the 500X.
I also read the comments below on how little testing there was, how quickly the program was canned..... In this context I always find it fascinating looking at the build numbers so to say, single car histories.
The choice of drivers meanwhile seems surprising, but was quite good. With their extensive JWRC program it would have been a sin not to take one of their JWRC drivers, which was GP Andersson. To take Gardemeister may surprise, but I guess Sebastian Lindholm also had a lot of experience, but wasn't the youngest or didn't even want a full season. With so many teams many brilliant drivers also were under contract already. Gardemeister had WRC car experience before in Seat Cordoba, Skoda Octavia and Fabia, Mitsubishi Lancer, Ford Focus, Citroen Xsara and Peugeot 307, if you want to develop, Gardemeister was clearly the guy to have. Question seems, did Suzuki really want to develop?
It seems at first they tested more than any team before, no less then 7 chassis built for testing. Chassis 1-4 were sole test cars, never seen in public. Chassis 7 was the car they used for Corsica and Wales 2007. When they started the 2008 programm the first cars for Monte etc were already C008 for Toni & C009 for PG. On the rougher far away rallies we then saw some of the later test cars C005 & C006 used in competition.
In contrast to some of the comments here, there was an Evo2 version of the SX4 WRC debuting in Finland 2008. But how much of an evolution was this really? There were no visible changes and I myself made a note in those days about the Evo2: In Suzuki's own words before the debut in Finland 2008: "The team has been building two brand new SX4 WRCs from scratch - which incorporate some important weight-saving gains in the bodyshell without compromising strength or stiffness."
Indeed Finland 2008 saw the debut of SX4 WRC chassis 11+12 - and in the case of C12 converted straight into a wright off following PG's crash. Later we saw even a Chassis 13 for Gardemeister, which didn't seem an unlucky number at all. Whatever the evolution from Finland 2008 was, it was at that time the results started to come.
On the other hand, all these numbers I told now do raise questions. 13 chassis seems quite a lot for such a short lived program. What happened to chassis 10? Did it ever exist? Test car for the Evo2? If so why, they had enough cars by then. Alongside C10, early test cars C1-4 were never seen in public.
And what happened to the cars once the program was finished? One of them I know ended up in Barbados, out of all places. And maybe even more curious, the last one, chassis 13, today sits in the Toyota museum in Japan! It seems even Toyota shows more interest in this project today than Suzuki itself! And what then happened to the remaining 11 cars?
I note in Suzuki's words, Suzuki didn't cancel the SX4 WRC project, they suspended it. OK? I am not sure I look forward to see them again, but I am definitely looking forward to learn for how many more years they have suspended their WRC program!
I also note in those days I described Suzuki as very arrogant. And someone below comments that Monster Tajima didn't turn up to the WRC events at some point, showing little interest by Suzuki.
Hmm, I think this was quite a hint into another direction. I now researched my old files and found that before the 2008 season Suzuki claimed in press releases: 'they wanted to get podiums in their learning year 2008 and win the World title in 2009'. Hmm, that already felt arrogant. With a base car that had so many visible flaws for a sports car. (And don't say it was never meant to be a sports car, this only does underline this road car was never a suitable base for motorsports!)
For some reason I actually do have a soft spot for Monster Tajima. He was more a victim, I am pretty sure after serving Suzuki for decades, Suzuki HQ didn't take even half a year into the SX4 program to sack Monster! After sacking Monster, the car was still lame, so next they sacked Michel Nandon, then Mario Fornaris.... Both guys developped the 206 WRC, Fornaris today builds engines for Skodas Rally2 projects....
All these guys lost their jobs when it seemed so obvious the base car was the problem. But Suzuki wouldn't admit it. Sorry to call them arrogant, but it basically was like put Verstappen into a Ford Transit for the next GT Race and if he doesn't beat the Porsches, Ferraris, Lambos and Astons of this World: "There is nothing wrong with my Transit, it's Verstappen's fault, he clearly is a crap driver!"
@@chrisbiewer-rallye-info very interesting👍
I believe the Barbados car was built by MML sport using some Lancer WRC04/05 parts.
I believe some in the Finnish rally community say that Suzuki was a poorly managed team. Rumor has it that Suzuki owes money to a supplier.
@@michaelhorgan9525 Wasn't that Hyundai? It might be both though.
I absolutely love the suzuki rally efforts, with an emphasis on the SX4. I love the whole idea, the car, the team and the colors. I have on e of the team shirts and i adore it. Glad to see it get representation!
I think it's cool to do mini documentaries if you will on these cars because even though they didn't achieve great results, it's still amazing they existed at all.
Huge fan of your mini documentaries (and the bigger ones too). This, the Jaguar GT video, and the immaculate CLK-GTR video are my favourites of yours by far 💯 Keep it up!!
Thanks for the very kind words. Hearing people really enjoy the videos always helps with motivation. They take a long time to make, but I hope the effort is worth it. There will certainly be more videos like this.
@@tydyeracinggaming4742 sounds good to me - I really appreciate the extra time and effort these videos take to put together. All the best with future content, and thanks for your time!
Superb video! Thank you for producing this!
Another car pulled from WRC just as it started to get its act together. The same happened with the Skoda Fabia and the last Evo which showed a few flashes of goodness in the hands of Gigi Galli. Much like the Accent WRC, the SX4 could have really been something if the engine had been sorted out
TH-cam recommendations strikes! Very nice video man, keep it up!
Thank you for the great videos and have a great day. :)
Love the vid, need more of WRC content like this!
Very fascinating! Always learning something new.
I wish more manufacturers could be as brave as Suzuki
Loved them. It was awesome having them in the wrc, but such a damn shame they had so little success
Having driven a few lightly modified Sidekicks, I bet they could have improved. Those things are shockingly capable on variable surfaces.
I don't think the program itself deserves to be called awful. As the video and the team itself stated: they looked at 2008 as a development year, and they did just that: developed the car further and further. Too bad the higher-us pulled the plug, just when they started showing decent results. We'll never know what their true potential was.
It's quite funny how many technical problems they had considering that the regular SX4 is borderline indestructable.
"On paper" that car had the same figures as all the others. But I guess that would've made them, on paper, equal first with everyone else, so you have a point
fun fact: Peugeot's 307 WRC car was based on the CC (coupe-cabrio) version
I love these types of videos from you
They take a long time to make, but when they're completed, they're always the best to watch back when checking the video before it renders. Glad that others seem to be enjoying it too.
@@tydyeracinggaming4742 big worth mate
One of the most frustrating things for a pilot is when the problem is beyond the capabilities of your own skill.
Even Subaru quit WRC for good at the same time due to the global economic meltdown. I think the Suzuki SX4 did pretty well in its first year against extremely experienced competitor teams. You can compare for instance to Skoda's or Hyundai's 1st years in WRC (1999 and 2000), and it's not markedly worse.
Suzuki WRC
but do you know about Proton Satria WRC?
Would be awesome to have something similar for the Aston Martin LMP1 programme, or even just a shorter video on the AMRone that killed astons lmp1 project. Similar to the jaguar gt2 video.
Loving the content!
Glad you're enjoying the videos! An episode or two on those projects could very well happen.
I’m sure you would have gotten a copyright strike from FOM but, at “rank amateurs” you ought to have showed the picture of one of the Alpine’s from Baku for the meme
great content, as usual, (the sx4 platform was shared with Lancia Musa/Fiat Idea) looking forward to the Mitsubishi Awful WRC program
Hello TyeDye, I love this series, and since I'm an die hard car racing fan, I have some recommendations for future videos like this.
Alfa Romeo TCR program
BMW Formula E program
Jaguar in Formula 1
Toyota in Formula 1
Lotus in IndyCar
Lotus in LMP2
Skoda in WRC
Seat in WRC
Aston Martin in DTM
Subaru in F1
Lotus in GT1
Maserati in GT3
Mercedes-Benz in V8 Supercars
Volvo in V8 Supercars
I hope this in the future evolves into an idea for a great video. Have a great day
having heard a few perspectives from people involved in the program, suzuki went in pretty half heartedly from the beginning and measured the programs success purely as a marketing exercise. apparently monster promised alot more than he delivered with the engine development, something about a new head. it would have been cool to see the modern Swift Sport lining up in the modern era of rallying
Tomi Tuominen (Toni Gardemeister's co-driver) had a rally podcast and when Gardemeister was a guest in it, they shared some hilarious stories from their time in team Suzuki. All in Finnish sadly.
great video and analysis of the Suzuki WRC !
As soon as they said they're using SX4 and not Swift, yeah, i don't think it's gonna work. It's definitely NOT a Performance vehicle
One of my favorite wrc cars, really iconic
I'd like to see Tajima-san himself giving a shot in Suzuki WRC
As bad as it is it will always have a special place in my heart for being the rally car in gran turismo 5s arcade mode. One of the only videogame modes i played for a few years as a kid.
You could also make a video about Skoda's and Hyundai's early attempt in WRC.
By mid season rumours were spreading in finnish rally circles that Gardemaister was extremely disappointed with the the team. There was practically no testing between events, no technical upgrades and in early season Sx4 didn't even have launch control or radios... While traveling in the events the team would usually book them in cheap and crappy hotels.
Also famous finnish rally manager Timo Jouhki said in a recent podcast with Tomi Tuominen (Gardemeisters co driver in -08) that during his long career he has worked with many team bosses and stated that one of those team bosses was total idiot and had no clue what he was doing.
He did not mention the name but Tuominen replied "I think I know who you mean"
To which Jouhki added: "Yes, you have worked for him"
Monster Tajima was incredible at the ‘race to the sky’ in New Zealand
If only they could have used the Kizashi as a platform.
That would have looked awesome blasting around world rally events.
Its too heavy... but what an indestructible machine
I have a Suzuki SX four and it’s a great little car, how of a lot of fun especially in the snow or under roads can get the back and out pretty easily with its four-wheel-drive system too bad we didn’t get to see more of it and rally
I know this car from Gran Turismo 5 where I found it gorgeously looking. I didn't know that it was a huge flop. It's a disappointing news for me
I have 2 Suzuki Swift Sport FZ and love them. Never have to repair them.
I'm still salty about Suzuki leaving the U.S. market. My first car, an '03 grand vitara, 20 years old this year, is still kicking! Some of the gaskets are showing their age, but ya know...when you drive a car further than the distance from the earth to the moon, some deterioration is to be expected. My mom had...I think it was a 2010 AWD SX4? That damn thing could scoot!
I'm in the UK and just bought an Ignis Sport. They are bonkers, raw, fun, everything...Yeah is does have the smallest of head gasket leaks, but the engine (M15a) is a ripper and 20 yrs on still dynos higher than originally advertised. I was even looking at importing a white one from Japan (for about £10,000..!). I guess you can import them next year?
9:26 I was at Rally Finland that year and at the stage where Gardemeister went off the course onto the grass opposite to where we were at. Think he took out a flag
nice video!!! shame the Suzuki didn't go further than it did... but as you said, it would struggle to challenge the big boys up front. maybe Suzuki would stand a chance nowadays in the WRC2 against the Skodas... maybe
I’m sorry, but with Suzuki, if it’s not a bike or a monster truck, they can’t shave an air of cheapness in the bad way where I live. Now, the bikes are considered great bikes. Maybe it’s because we didn’t get the best models here?
Considering Suzuki's tumultuous experience with America, probably why.
Yet another victim of racing's biggest nemesis from 2008: The Recession. Its a shame because I thought the car looked amazing and it was neat to see.
Great video man
Glad you enjoyed the video!
If rallying goes electric in the future, I wouldn’t be surprised if Suzuki make a concept and flirt with returning.
The SX4 is a terrible start for a WRC car, short wheelbase & tall.
Look at the lengths Toyota recently went to with the GR Yaris, even lowering the roofline for better centre of gravity.
Suzuki didn't have the budget to start a program like this in my opinion.
Fun fact: in Italy we had the Fiat Sedici, the twin of Suzuki SX4. I would love to see a fictional WRC one! 😅
I've owned a few standard consumer SX4s (written off... twice), they are dead reliable, and fairly comfortable.
The one I have now has 180k miles (290k km), no issues other than clunky struts or sway bushes.
That said, I'd assume the reliability is much worse with the CVT or automatic. And the fuel economy on the AWD models is not particularly great.
I wish we got more engine options here in the People's Republic of the American States, but our comrades at the EPA would shoot anybody for offering a diesel option.
They may suck in WRC, but Escudo for Pikes Peak is a stuff of legends
it was doomed from the start. The geometry of the car never gonna let it succeed
Pity it didn't work out for Suzuki. I remember marshslling on Rally GB and seeing the Ignis & later Swifts compete in JWRC (S1600) and they were both quite spicy.
That's rad - I recently bought an Ignis Sport and it is insanely fun to drive. I've been in some fast cars but the weight of modern cars along with their comfort make them VERY dull in comparison.
People watching WRC Portugal This Weekend
*Insert Below*
were they last in manofactures classification?
Please do one related to mini wrc
loved the sx4 model, it drifted like no other small 4x4 car
I think that Suzuki did ok. Yes, they usually didn't finish inside the top 10, but do you remember the Mitsubishi WRC at the beginning? Even wIth makinen behind the wheel it was usually outside the top 10. Same with skoda, except they didn't even make it to their first rally stage (Montecarlo 1999), same with Hyundai, and sometimes same with Seat (The tarmac specialist, Liatti, in Sanremo finished 16th, even after 2 years of development). Even Peugeot struggled with its 307 (which admittedly had flaws by design).
In the 90s you could make a winning rally car almost after 1 year or half a season if you had an expert team (Toyota Corolla), but in the late 90s/early 2000s I always though that "developing the car" means "actually we have to carry on struggling while we don't have any chance of competing with the top teams". Everything was too frantic in those in those years in WRC...
Suzuki were content with their car getting seen on a rally circuit.
Should of stuck with the Swift, They're great little cars
suzuki had always been a favourite car for jwrc until c2 1600 came up. so the team had huge potential of making a good wrc. when they pulled out of both wrc and lower classes, skoda filled the gap with fabia s2000 and volkswagen polo r wrc further on
Well, in Barbados, seeing a Suziki is just as common as a Prius or a Corolla
I loved this car in GT5
Ah the swift. I nicknamed it bumblebee cause of its yellow colour
i loved my sx4 and it was 4x4..
Did the cars ever show up anywhere? Or are they gone/presumed scrapped?
Hopefully this starts a series of failed or gone too soon factory efforts in racing, like Nissan in DPi or Volvo in Supercars
We may see more of this sort of thing in the future, as people seem to be enjoying them.
I remembered the failure of Mini, but it's crazy that Suzuki failed so hard I forgot about it
Really good video :) Shame they decided to pull out
Such a shame, I really wanted to see another brand competing as it was getting boring with only Ford and Citroen. I wouldn't say it was awful, it was ok for a first season.
(The closest comparison to the SX4 is the Fiat Sedici , since the latter is litterally a rebadged SX4)
That seems actually quite heavy for a swift but I am biased with driving older cars. My E30 weighs nearly 500 pounds less.
I remember reading something (sorry I can’t for the life of me remember where to cite it) that said essentially Suzuki had all this success with their S1600 car they thought why not make the step up a level. But that on its own does not make it logical to be successful at the next level up.
I love your videos and I love rallying even more than obscure short-lived street circuits 😂 so if this becomes a series that would be very well received!
Glad you're enjoying the videos! I might do more videos like this. Going over things like Skoda, Mini, Seat etc when looking at the rallying landscape.
Rally giants like Subaru and Mitsubishi had already pulled out due to the financial crisis of ~2008 (it affected different places/sectors at different times) so the fact that Suzuki said no more racing is more than understandable. Racing is more often than not a money losing venture for the majority involved, so when the economy itself is down it's even worse.
"we think that we'll do better in competition on closed roads than testing on them" What?
That comment on using the test drivers for the full season? A bit uninformed, Gardemeister and Andersson was a much stronger lineup. Plus those test drivers were not in their prime
can you make the Mini's WRC Program Story Please
They pulled back from Indian Rally scene when they were doing good.. after a decade they have bought products to get back into rally
Some please tell me what's name of the background music???
Please and thank you ☺️.
The first song! Thanks
The first song is "No Talk" by VYEN. All the music I use is in TH-cam's Audio Library.
Shame the title is so sensationalised, it was otherwise a pretty good video. Suzuki was actually disappointed in the "lack of success" of the team, seemingly hoping for consistent podium fighting after just a year of testing. I think Toyota and Honda had the same mentality in the 90-00's as they flip-flopped around F1, so maybe it was a Japanese cultural thing to not accept the lack of immediate dominance (just like in F1)
0:40 sorry dear valued ES viewer, much more interesting table tennis will be on next.