World Rally Championship

At an average speed of over 85 mph, Tänak was faster than anyone.

After a string of successful years, Volkswagen Motorsport will be leaving WRC.

We would welcome any sporty car Toyota gives us.

C3 WRC concept looks incredible and could lead to a road-legal hot hatch.

This is easily the coolest Yaris in the world.

Only a few days ago, we mentioned Prodrive and Subaru co-operating to create an Isle of Man rally weapon. Two decades earlier they joined hands and built this 300-hp Impreza WRC for the Scottish rally legend, Colin McRae.

Hyundai hopes to improve in the World Rally Championship with its freshly unveiled New Generation i20 WRC for the 2016 season.

The Subaru WRX STI breaking the automotive lap record at the Isle of Man might be just the beginning of the headlines trumpeting a Subaru racecar. According to the latest rumors, the Japanese brand is looking at taking motorsports more seriously in the future. That could possibly even mean endurance racing at Le Mans.

Rallying requires lightning quick reflexes and the ability to turn off one's sense of self-preservation. This much is not in doubt. Anyone that's ever seen a rally car hurtle along a tree-lined spit of dirt road at high speeds could tell you that. What many people don't know is that it also requires a strong mechanical sense. Knowing how to repair one's car when far from the service garages is a must. A strong sense of ingenuity is pretty handy, as well.

This radio-controlled tribute to Ken Block's Gymkahana 6 is half the length but perhaps twice as hard. HPI racing makes R/C car kits, and to announce their officially licensed version of Block's World Rally Championship Ford Fiesta, they laid out a track mimicking stunts from the most recent drift-o-matic obstacle course.

It's been well over a year since Hyundai revealed its initial prototype for the i20 WRC at the 2012 Paris Auto Show. Now it's revealed the final version (pictured above, complete with Shell Helix livery) and it's also announced the full team that will field it next year in the World Rally Championship, including Thierry Neuville and additional drivers Juho Hänninen, Dani Sordo and Chris Atkinson. That's plenty exciting for rally fans, but the news that caught our attention was buried deeper

It was 1998 when Subaru made some crucial changes to its World Rally Championship Impreza, such as increasing the displacement of the turbocharged flat-four-cylinder engine from 2.0 to 2.2 liters and fitting wide fender flares. Subaru won the WRC manufacturer championship with the car that year, and it also was the year of the automaker's 40th anniversary. To celebrate the milestone, the company came out with this limited-edition, road-going Impreza, the hallowed 22B STI, which looked nearly ide

Professional rally driving is one of the toughest gigs going in motorsports. High speeds, uneven surfaces, varied weather conditions and the occasional flub from driver or co-driver can (and do) conspire to wreak all manner of havoc. Just a fraction too much steering lock, selecting the wrong gear at the wrong time or suffering from a microsecond lapse of attention can cause a racer to end up in the weeds with a quickness.

Rally ace Sébastien Loeb had a rare off in the final World Rally Championship race of his career, as the wet tarmac at the Rally of France saw the French star deposit his Citroen DS3 WRC into the forest. Loeb, who won the WRC's Driver's Championship every year from 2004 to 2012, and co-driver Daniel Elena emerged from their car unscathed.

For the tenth year in a row, a Frenchmen named Sébastien has been named the champion of the World Rally Championship – only it's probably not Sébastien you were expecting. Dethroning Sébastien Loeb from his WRC reign is 29-year-old Sébastien Ogier (shown above, at right) and his Volkswagen Polo R WRC.

It's always a good day when we get to post a video about rally racing. It's even better when that video is of a new WRC competitor undergoing testing. This spy video shows Hyundai's i20 WRC, a car that debuted nearly one year ago at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. It's set to usher in Hyundai's return to top-flight motorsports, and will do battle with the cars from Citroen, Ford and Volkswagen that are currently contesting the 2013 season.

Tragedy stuck this weekend at the site of the ADAC Rallye Deutschland when a driver and co-driver team from the Netherlands were killed in a crash on Saturday. The incident occurred not in the headline World Rally Championship event, but in a classic support rally.

Volkswagen has petitioned the FIA to hold on to the current specifications for cars in the World Rally Championship, according to Autosport.com. The move is evidently an effort to keep as many competitors in the sport as possible, despite the fact that using the current spec racers may actually hurt Volkswagen's chances at winning. The three factory teams currently competing in the WRC are at the end of a three-year homologation cycle at the end of 2013, and new cars are expected to bow next yea

Citroen has taken a unique stab at commemorating Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena's nine World Rally Championship wins. Rather than work up yet another tired video of the champions expounding on the virtues, trials and and tribulations that come with being the very best for nearly a decade straight, the company whipped up a diorama atop Citroen DS3. The scale model covers nine separate rally terrains, including bits from Rally Finland and the Acropolis Rally. Each one of the nine sections feature

Well at least we now know why Ken Block "just ain't care" about smashing up his Ford Fiesta rally car recently. It's because he's getting a full brand makeover including a new team name, new paint scheme and even a new headquarters. Formerly known as Monster World Rally Team, Block and his Fiesta will now be competing under the Hoonigan Racing Division name, which is based out of a new 12,000 square foot facility located in Park City, UT.

It appears that the World Rally Championship has lost another key player. After word that Mini is leaving WRC comes news that Ford is pulling out as well. While Mini's departure was rooted in its tenuous relationship with Prodrive, Ford's exit from the sport is tied to the poor economic climate in Europe.

There was a fair bit of hullabaloo two years ago when Mini announced a return to the World Rally Championship for this season, but the road to making that happen has been as rocky as a gravel stage. It spent 2011 developing its JCW Countryman WRC challenger, changing its mind about how it wanted to work with Prodrive, dumped a driver due to budget issues, then registering its entry after the deadline had passed in a ploy that might or might not have been a protest aimed at the WRC promoter.

Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, for a shocking announcement: Sébastien Loeb has won the 2012 World Rally Championship title, and his Red-Bull-sponsored Citroën team took home the manufacturer's trophy.