1997 World Rally Championship

For the 1997 season, Group A was partially replaced by the World Rally Car, with manufacturers given the option which regulations to construct to. One inherent benefit to manufacturers by adopting WRC regulations was removing the need to mass-produce road-going versions of the cars that they competed with, under the previous rules for homologation. This meant that vehicles such as the Escort RS Cosworth and Subaru Impreza Turbo no longer had to be mass-produced for general sale in order to compete at World Championship level, and thus acting as a means of attracting increased competition and involvement by manufacturers.

In due course the World Rally Car rules would bring new manufacturs into the sport, but the start of 1997 featured the same three manufacturers as the previous season. Both Ford and Subaru switched to WRC in 1997, whereas Mitsubishi stayed with Group A to maintain the links to their Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution road cars. Subaru's transition was much more gradual for similar reasons, with the early Subaru Impreza WRCs still largely Group A in nature. By mid season Toyota Team Europe were back with the new Corolla World Rally Car.

In the few years that follow, the Championship saw the added presence of WRC cars from companies such as Hyundai, Seat, Citroën, and Peugeot, who would all compete under WRC regulations without having to manufacture equivalent specialised road cars for public sale.

One major flaw in the new class system was exposed by the increasing speed of the naturally aspirated front-wheel-drive FIA 2-Litre World Rally Cup cars. The tarmac specification cars built by Peugeot and Renault that competed in the all-tarmac French and Spanish championships became major threats on WRC tarmac events Rallye Catalunya and the Tour de Corse with Gilles Panizzi defeating all but two of the WRC four-wheel-drive turbos in his Peugeot 306 Maxi, taking third place in both events.

The 1997 championship was contested over fourteen rounds in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania. The event rotation system used in previous three seasons was dropped.

Events also became shorter and more compact, and

More information Rd., Start date ...

Rd.	Start date	Finish date	Rally	Rally headquarters	Surface	Stages	Distance
1	18 January	22 January	65th Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo	Monte Carlo	Mixed	18	398.30 km
2	7 February	10 February	46th International Swedish Rally	Karlstad, Värmland County	Snow	24	411.17 km
3	1 March	3 March	45th Safari Rally Kenya	Nairobi	Gravel	13	1318.0 km
4	23 March	26 March	31st TAP Rallye de Portugal	Figueira da Foz, Coimbra	Gravel	31	419.78 km
5	14 April	16 April	33rd Rallye Catalunya - Costa Brava - Rallye de España	Lloret de Mar, Catalonia	Tarmac	18	387.70 km
6	5 May	7 May	41st Tour de Corse - Rallye de France	Ajaccio, Corsica	Tarmac	18	408.0 km
7	22 May	25 May	17th Rally Argentina	Carlos Paz, Córdoba	Gravel	23	413.4 km
8	8 June	10 June	44th Acropolis Rally	Athens	Gravel	20	402.86 km
9	2 August	5 August	28th Smokefree Rally New Zealand	Manukau, Auckland	Gravel	24	395.99 km
10	29 August	31 August	47th Neste Rally Finland	Jyväskylä, Central Finland	Gravel	22	381.55 km
11	19 September	21 September	22nd Rally of Indonesia	Medan, North Sumatra	Gravel	22	402.17 km
12	12 October	15 October	39th Rallye Sanremo - Rallye d'Italia	Sanremo, Liguria	Tarmac	25	396.21 km
13	30 October	2 November	10th API Rally Australia	Perth, Western Australia	Gravel	24	421.42 km
14	23 November	25 November	54th Network Q RAC Rally	Cheltenham, Gloucestershire	Gravel	26	381.11 km
Sources:[1][2]

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