That Sinking Feeling....

...is what I have in my stomach right now. Peugeot and Citroen have apparently announced they are withdrawing from the WRC at the end of 2005. :bloated:

What does that make it? Subaru vs. Ford vs. Skoda? Or did Skoda already pull out? We are so going to win (Subaru, that is).

But really, though, somebody else will enter (Honda? TRD? Scion? Audi? GM? MOPAR? Suzuki? VW?) or they'll change the rules to make it less of a money game and then *everybody* will be back in. There are a boatload of eligible manufacturers out there that are just unwilling to spend the money on the development. WRC just isn't cost-effective unless you're Subaru or Mitsubishi and you have an AWD car on the market. Ford might have sold some Foci, too, but for most of the manufacturers the cost-benefit ratio is just dismal for WRC. Especially since the hottest world markets can't buy most of those cars (USA, Japan, China).

Unfortunatley it is not "apparently" and it is confirmed. I followed a car program program when they interviewed Provera and Frequelin which gives the reason for this retirement. The result of the PSA group have not been that good this year and the increase of cost to run in WRC have decided them to stop the rally program. They were giving it one more year for Peugeot to try to win the title back and for Citroen to give them the chance to defend it. After that they shown David Richard who didn't seem bothered at all and Mosley who looked a bit more worried but says that it wasn't a problem... as long as nobody else retired too.