[rbVmVlQ2]

Alister McRae- Got awesome drives with Subaru, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Group N Subaru and now Proton and not not done anything worthwhile with any of them. I am open to rebuttals on his performances in these cars.

Guy Wilks- I like him but I cannot understand what has gone wrong in IRC, JWRC, PWRC and why he couldn't get money for a WRC Subaru. I think there is something in that.

Armin Schwartz- Good guy but only won 1 rally and was in several good cars Toyota, Ford (hyundai, skoda were bad)

Freddy Loix- Good in IRC but didn't do anything in WRC. Maybe he was OK in Sweden in 2003.

Bruno Thiry- similar to Loix

Petter Solberg- Should have defended his 2003 title and won some more rallies. The 2006-7 Subarus were not as bad as 2008 was.

[Wavgbtif]

Alister McRae- Got awesome drives with Subaru, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Group N Subaru and now Proton and not not done anything worthwhile with any of them. I am open to rebuttals on his performances in these cars.
.

2 events (Bulldog and RAC) in a Subaru WRC at the end of '98, was doing very well on the RAC till an off in fog, did well against his team mates in his other WRC drives, getting past it now but I think he deserved all the chances he got

I dont like the title of this thread, but if you want to talk about drivers who have had more opportunity than their talent deserves maybe Henning deserves a mention? That said he has gone out and got the sponsors

[netamargr]

Alister McRae- Got awesome drives with Subaru, Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Group N Subaru and now Proton and not not done anything worthwhile with any of them. I am open to rebuttals on his performances in these cars.

Guy Wilks- I like him but I cannot understand what has gone wrong in IRC, JWRC, PWRC and why he couldn't get money for a WRC Subaru. I think there is something in that.

Armin Schwartz- Good guy but only won 1 rally and was in several good cars Toyota, Ford (hyundai, skoda were bad)

Freddy Loix- Good in IRC but didn't do anything in WRC. Maybe he was OK in Sweden in 2003.

Bruno Thiry- similar to Loix

Petter Solberg- Should have defended his 2003 title and won some more rallies. The 2006-7 Subarus were not as bad as 2008 was.

You are putting some very complicated stuff into very simple sentences About Loix - name one number 2 Mitshubishi driver who did well in a Makkinen-oriented team , with Makkinen-developed cars with Makkinen-developed set up ? About Solberg , the last competitive model was the S11 ...

[karkinadze]

Burns did well when was mitsu nr2.

[netamargr]

Burns did well when was mitsu nr2.

Okay except for him ...

[PPActionnGuys]

Have people forgotten when Loix drove the Toyota, both the Celica & Corolla? He put in some very impressive drives. I wouldn't take too much notice of what happened at Mitsubishi, especially after the Safari accident.

[karkinadze]

Liked what he did in 1998 Acropolis with corolla.

[netamargr]

If the question was who is the most underrated driver , only one name would come to my mind : Dani Sordo .

[Trikaduliana]

If the question was who is the most underrated driver , only one name would come to my mind : Dani Sordo .

i think such thread would make much more sense..... Auriol would be my answer.

[netamargr]

i think such thread would make much more sense..... Auriol would be my answer.

True , I can't really think of any driver who is overrated ... Underrated , however , there are quite a lot of them ...

[rbVmVlQ2]

I would also add Burns to over-rated (but I want to do it in the most respectful manner possible). He got 10 wins, which I w\think considering the circumstances was impressive. He did win in Mitsubishi with Tommi, unlike Loix. He got a video game that I think was a bit over-rated as it was not so good on ps2 but seems to have a life of its own on PC. I was disappointed when he went to Peugeot for 2002. I think that the writing was on the wall of the garage there that he wasn't going to be allowed to win a rally (this is one of the reasons I think he is a bit overrated). In my view he went to Peugeot to get a good car which is fine but he would have mounted a more robust defense of his title in the Subaru. Also, Burns did tend to over think things and I think that may have caused him to lose focus and give away some of the wins he should have had (I would site some of his performances in Finland from 1999-2001).

That being said I did admire his driving style, which is now ubiquitous in the WRC to all driver who want to do well. I think that is his main legacy.

Can we have a thread concerning under-performing manufacturers. People seem to use them as red herring arguments to beat Ford, Subaru and even Mini when they can't think of anything better to add.

[Scukonahuy]

Freddy Loix- Good in IRC but didn't do anything in WRC. Maybe he was OK in Sweden in 2003.

Few 'moments' of Loix:

'96 San-Remo - If I remember right Colin and Carlos fought for the victory, but if we see the last day only - on wet tarmac - Freddy was the quickest guy there with the Celica >

juwra.com**|**Rallies - San Remo 1996 stage winners


In Portugal '98 with the Marlboro-Corolla >

juwra.com**|**Rallies - Portugal 1998 stage winners

[Scukonahuy]

Kenneth Eriksson

If we see him when he was the No.1. at the Mitsu...

[Deseassaugs]

It's hard to say that any are "over rated". There are always some better than others, and someone will always come second.

[itititit]

You are putting some very complicated stuff into very simple sentences About Loix - name one number 2 Mitshubishi driver who did well in a Makkinen-oriented team , with Makkinen-developed cars with Makkinen-developed set up ? About Solberg , the last competitive model was the S11 ...

Never heard of Makkinen. Mäkinen I know, he drove for Mitsubishi, but who is this Makkinen?

I'd say that Meeke is overrated. He has been named the next great british driver after Colin, but he has been now named something like 10 years in a row. We are still waiting.

[IamRobot]

It has to be Freddy Loix.
He has an amazing record of lame excuses.
He looked promising at Toyota but never really delivered. He was once nominated by Ove Andersson (RIP) in Catalunya over Auriol, the latter won the rally, Loix was humiliated and talked a massive load of bs excuses.

Moved to Mitsubishi with big $ in his pockets, had "unfortunate" seat problems in every of his Mitsubishis. Did zero at Mitsubishi.

He then moved to Hyundaï, said between the lines the car was crap, it was ok, but when a semi retired Kankkunen came in, smoking a cigar, driving with one hand, he scored more points than Loix in 9 out of 14 rallies for Loix. Even worse for Loix, Kankkunen scored the majority of Hyundaï's miserable 10 manu points.

He was picked up by Peugeot in 2004, complained a lot about the 307 which obviously was not up the marque's standards, ok, but again failed to collect manu points.
Peugeot fired Loix, called back Rovanperä, immediate effect, Peugeot quickly came back in the makes race.

Loix stayed way too much time in the WRC. His only success is to have delusioned 4 WRC teams.
IRC fits him well.

[EvonsRorgon]

Matt Wilson. He came into the sport on a 5 year plan to become world champion. Big budget, top cars, many rallies. 5 years later and it turns out he is perhaps the worst professional rally driver ever.

[Reftsheette]

It has to be Freddy Loix.
He has an amazing record of lame excuses.
He looked promising at Toyota but never really delivered. He was once nominated by Ove Andersson (RIP) in Catalunya over Auriol, the latter won the rally, Loix was humiliated and talked a massive load of bs excuses.

I think it was rather embarrassing for Andersson. Less experienced Loix came a good 2nd though.

Moved to Mitsubishi with big $ in his pockets, had "unfortunate" seat problems in every of his Mitsubishis. Did zero at Mitsubishi. Marlboro sponsoring obviously helped him. Never on par with Mäkinen, indeed, but we know Mitsubishi was structured around him. '99 Safari crash crushed his confidence a bit.

He then moved to Hyundaï, said between the lines the car was crap, it was ok, but when a semi retired Kankkunen came in, smoking a cigar, driving with one hand, he scored more points than Loix in 9 out of 14 rallies for Loix. Even worse for Loix, Kankkunen scored the majority of Hyundaï's miserable 10 manu points. In such a strong field, the Accent was not good enough for consistent points (especially back then when only places 1 to 6 could score). Did better then teammate Schwarz at least. Remember Loix was quite impressive in Sweden with a broken foot. Outscored (whilst just margely) by Kankkunen, ok, but he is of a different caliber.

He was picked up by Peugeot in 2004, complained a lot about the 307 which obviously was not up the marque's standards, ok, but again failed to collect manu points.
Peugeot fired Loix, called back Rovanperä, immediate effect, Peugeot quickly came back in the makes race. Difficult situation. High profile team, brand new car which wasn't on par with the rest (as Loix, Grönholm complained just as much). Provera didn't want to lose name and took a safe option with Rovanperä on gravel, while I don't think Loix would've done much worse, if any.

Of course by then, Loix was past his prime in WRC. Had he been in a Toyota for '99, things might have panned out different for him.

[karkinadze]

Loix stepped in for peugeot after good performance in GB as a replacement for Burns.

[Hoglaunccoolf]

I would also add Burns to over-rated.

It's not often this happens, but I'm absolutely speechless. How can a Rally driver be considered 'over-rated' after winning the bloody World Championship?!

Some people just shouldn't be allowed on the Internet.