Well, the WRC in the mid to late 90's saw some of the weakest competition in recent memory.
Subaru's dominance in the late 90's was mainly because their main competition being pretty weak. Ford dropped factory support for a few years. Mitsubishi effectively ran one car for Makinen (the second driver always got the shaft in those days) and Toyota had the cheating scandal.
Also, when the WRC spec cars started replacing the Group A cars in 1998, the ballgame changed. The homologation rules changed quite a bit, and allowed manufacturers more leniency on what could be changed from the road-going version. Subaru was able to get the jump, but shortly afterwards Ford and Peugeot were able to catch up.
Basically, saying that the GC chassis is better because it was more successful in its era of rallying is not fair. The sport and the competition changed a lot between the GC and GD eras and the correlation does not equal causation.
__________________
While a standard engine is powered by a belt connected to the crankshaft, a turbo engine runs on its own exhaust steam, making it more energy efficient. -- CNN
|