World Rally Championship (WRC) Top level of global rallying run by FIA, consists of rallies held around the world. Winner of the series is declared World Champion of that season.
World Rally Car (WRC) Introduced in 1997 as a new way to homologate Group A cars. Earlier all homologated cars were required to be available to the public, thus such classic cars like Toyota Celica or Lancia Integrale were available in road going versions too. However, not every manufacturer wanted to offer such, usually very expensive, car in their model range. To attract more manufacturers in World Rallying, FIA allowed construction of rally cars by taking any sufficiently produced platform, which could then be fitted with 4WD drive and 2 liter turbo engine, even if no such model variant existed, to create Group A rally car. Because of this, there are no high performance variants of Ford Focus or Toyota Corolla even though they compete rallies in WRC form. Amendment: Ford has since introduced a high performance Focus.
Yump Term referring to crests and jumping in Rally Finland. Originates from less-than perfect pronounciation of the early Flying Finns but is today widely used.
Zero-cars Before the stage is declated open for rally cars, it is run through by three so-called zero-cars 0, 00 and 000. Their aim is to check that road is in safe condition and warn spectators about the arrival of first full speed rally car. Zero-cars are driven by experienced rally drivers and are often prepared like proper rally cars but also carry siren and flashing lights on roof. Each successive zero-car passes the stage at higher speed than previous one.
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