title: Audi 80

text: In Europe, the 90 designation for five-cylinder models was dropped for this generation, and all saloons were badged as 80, regardless of which engine they had. Audi of America went the opposite direction, and sold the saloon as the 90. B4s for the American market typically offered more luxury and style even in the standard version, such as automatic transmission, cruise control, air conditioning and leather seats, all of which were usually optional at additional cost on European models.


title: Audi 80

text: Because the United States does not recognise the international ECE Regulations on auto safety components and constructions, but rather maintains its own Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, the front of the B4 had to be specially redesigned for vehicles sold in North America. The front and bumper had to be designed to accommodate impact energy absorbers not required outside North America. Instead of the dual-reflector headlamps, a single-reflector design was used inboard of an amber combination turn signal, parking, and side marker lamp and reflector wrapping around the corner, and fog lamps smaller than the rest-of-world items were placed the corners of the bumper air duct.


title: Audi 80

text: European market cars were now available with a selection of inline four-cylinder engines, as well as the familiar in-line five, and two different new V6 engines (2.6-litre and 2.8-litre); the later 2.8-litre V6 was the only engine available for vehicles sold in North America. As another first, Audi introduced a new high-torque, direct-injection, turbocharged diesel engine, the 1.9-litre TDI (Turbocharged Direct Injection). The standard 1.8-litre petrol engine of the B3 was discontinued; a two-litre, , four-cylinder petrol engine, a variation of the previously known 2.0 E engine, was now available for the base model.


title: Audi 80

text: Altogether, although some layouts were not available everywhere outside Germany, Audi offered the following engine range for the 80/90 B4:


title: Audi 80

text: Most petrol versions could be ordered with quattro permanent four-wheel-drive; at the time, however, it could only be combined with a five-speed manual transmission. Additionally, Audi built about 2500 units of the "Quattro Competition" for the German and European market. It was a street homologation of the B4-based Super Tourenwagen Cup (STW) race car saloon with four-wheel drive and a modified , 16-valve, two-litre petrol engine. The powertrain had its roots in the two-litre, four-cylinder inline engines that most European Audi 80s were equipped with at the time. On the outside, the "Quattro Competition" featured the same bumpers as the S2, V6 headlights, and a rear wing mounted on the bootlid. Together with the S2 and the RS2 Avant, the "Quattro Competition" has become an increasingly rare and highly sought-after collector's item.


title: Audi 80

text: Together with the saloon, Audi produced a B4-based estate, the "Audi 80 Avant", and a convertible, the Audi Cabriolet, which was largely based on the B3 Coupé. This meant that Audi now had saloon, coupé, cabriolet, and estate variants of the 80 available to European customers. For the North American market, however, Audi only sold coupés during the 1990 and 1991 model years, and the station wagon was never officially available.


title: Audi 80

text: As of the 1994 model year, a limited edition model, known as "Europa", was introduced on the European market. It could be ordered both as a saloon and an Avant. It was factory-equipped with power mirrors, alloy wheels, rear seat headrests, an airbag steering wheel, and offered a choice between power sunroof or air conditioning. It came in five different special colours. For "regular" 1994 B4 saloons and Avants, standard features as well as options available were stepped up too, including an airbag steering wheel and redesigned door liners (standard), and passenger airbags and a built-in engine immobiliser (optional).


title: Audi 80

text: The 80-series was effectively replaced by the new Audi A4 in 1996, a variant of the 1998 (B5) Volkswagen Passat. By that time it was feeling very dated in comparison with more modern rivals like the BMW E36. Production ceased at a time when prestige European manufacturers were making the transition of older executive saloons to newer models based on newer platforms in the compact executive car market.


title: Audi 80

text: The B4 saloon was discontinued at the end of the 1994. The Avant (only built for left-hand drive markets and never sold in the UK) was axed in 1995, and the Coupé (with no immediate replacement) followed suit in 1996. The Cabriolet, however, continued in production until August 2000. The B4 platform saloon was replaced by the Audi A4 for the 1995 model year (1996 in North America), followed by a new "A4 Avant" later in 1996 - sold in right-hand drive for the UK market for the first time. A mid-sized convertible was not available again until 2002, when the A4 Cabriolet was introduced. Since 2007, Audi has produced Audi A5 - which is similar in concept to the old 80-based Coupé.


title: Audi 80

text: Audi developed a sports version of the Coupé in 1990, called the Audi Coupé S2. This replaced the famous Audi Quattro and was capable of 150 mph. In 1993, the S2 received some cosmetic updates, including new AVUS-style alloy wheels, ellipsoid beam (projector) headlamps and clear front indicator lenses. This coincided with the introduction of the five-door S2 Avant, along with a limited run of four-door S2 sedan models, of which 306 were produced. The S2 saloon and Avant feature a lot of similarities in the rear axle support system to the later B5 A4 quattro. The B4 platform S2 Avant was also used between 1993 and 1995 as the basis for Audi's RS2 Avant super-sports estate, which was modified for Audi with assistance from Porsche.


title: Audi 80

text: The Audi RS2 Avant is fitted with a similar 2.2-litre turbocharged engine to the S2, but producing . It can accelerate from in 4.8 seconds and has a top speed of .


title: Audi 80

text: The Audi RS2 was generally only available as an Avant, although four 4-door saloon models were officially produced by the factory, including one for the chief of the RS2 development programme. The RS2 was at least partially assembled at Porsche's Rossle-Bau plant in Zuffenhausen. Prior to manufacturing the RS2, the Porsche Zuffenhausen assembly line was busy producing the high-performance W124 bodystyle Mercedes-Benz 500E. The RS2/Porsche link is further exemplified by the RS2's dual circuit Porsche braking system (wearing Brembo calipers with a Porsche name), 7.0Jx17" alloy wheels which were identical in design to the Porsche 911 Turbo wheels of that era, and side view mirrors are also borrowed from the Porsche 911 Turbo. Additionally, the word "PORSCHE" is inscribed in the RS2 factory emblems affixed to the tailgate and front grille, and on the engine's inlet manifold. Porsche modified the Avant S2 body optics, added more power, better brakes, bigger anti-roll bars to front and rear, fine tuned the interior – and a super-sports estate was born. Porsche's involvement in the project was on the strict understanding that a coupé model would not be produced, as this was felt to be too close to Porsche's own products.


title: Audi 80

text: Audi assigned its individual models ""Typ"" codes, in addition to the primary Volkswagen Group B platform codes:


title: Audi 80

text: The Audi 90 is best known for its heavy dominance in the IMSA GT Championship under the IMSA GTO category as well as in the Trans Am Series in the late eighties.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW) is an American professional wrestling promotion and former developmental promotion based in Louisville, Kentucky. The company is currently run by Al Snow and Matt Jones and Louisville mayor elect, Craig Greenberg.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: OVW was initially a member promotion of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) from its inception in 1993 until 2000, when it became the primary developmental territory for the World Wrestling Federation, which is now known today as the WWE. It remained in this role from 2000 until February 7, 2008, when the promotion became unaffiliated. In November 2011, OVW became the developmental territory for Impact Wrestling (then known as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling or TNA). This relationship initially ended on November 2, 2013, but on March 19, 2019, the two promotions re-established their developmental agreement. In 2020, OVW stopped becoming a developmental promotion and transformed into a full-fledged TV promotion featuring superstars such as Jessie Godderz, Mahabali Shera and current OVW National Heavyweight Champion James Storm.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: OVW's television programming originates from the Davis Arena in the Buechel neighborhood of Louisville. Their weekly series, known informally as OVW TV, currently airs locally on WBNA-21 and is streaming online via FITE TV as well as the promotion's YouTube channel. As of 2020, through various syndication and distribution deals, OVW's weekly series is available to view in over 100 million households in the U.S, and to over 700 million worldwide.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: OVW was founded by Nightmare Danny Davis in 1993 as a National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) member promotion under the name NWA Ohio Valley. The company primarily ran shows in the Kentucky and Indiana territories that were formerly run by the United States Wrestling Association, with weekly shows run out of the original Davis Arena in Jeffersonville, Indiana, with larger shows run out of the Louisville Gardens in Louisville, Kentucky.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: In 1997, OVW ended its relationship with the NWA and renamed itself Ohio Valley Wrestling. Later that year, Trailer Park Trash became the first OVW Heavyweight Champion by defeating Vic the Bruiser.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: On January 11, 1998, OVW taped the first episode of its weekly television series, emanating from the original Davis Arena in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Louisville Gardens ring announcer Dean Hill served as play by play commentator alongside Faye Davis as the Ring Announcer. The show featured an introduction to the company by owner Danny Davis, with a main event of Nick Dinsmore and Rob Conway vs Juan Hurtado and The Intern.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: In 1999, WWF creative team member Jim Cornette bought a stake in OVW. Cornette, taking on the role of booker and show writer while appearing in an on-camera commentator role, made his first televised appearance on July 10, 1999, and spoke of the changes that were to take place. The first group of developmental talent included future stars such as John Cena, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar and Batista.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: OVW held its final show at the original Davis Arena on August 21, 2002, headlined by a match between Damaja and Rene Dupree. On September 4, 2002, the company would debut its show at the current Davis Arena at 4400 Shepherdsville Rd in Louisville, Ky. On July 10, 2005 Jim Cornette parted ways with WWE and was relieved of his duties overseeing OVW. This resulted from an incident where Cornette reportedly slapped an OVW beginners class student Anthony Carelli for having an inappropriate reaction to being confronted by a horror-themed wrestler called The Boogeyman during a match at an OVW live show. The two have not been on positive terms since, even having a confrontation during an event both were performing at as recently as October 2017. Cornette was replaced by WWE Trainer Al Snow on the announce team, and Snow was replaced as creative director/producer by Paul Heyman. This arrangement would be short-lived, however, as WWE would eventually put Heyman in charge of the revival of ECW as a WWE brand. Eventually the booking duties would go to Al Snow, who would have the longest tenure outside of Cornette. Jim Cornette sold his stake in OVW to Davis in 2007.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: In 2007, WWE launched Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in Tampa, Florida to serve as a new developmental territory. OVW and FCW simultaneously trained WWE prospects for a brief period, but on February 7, 2008, WWE announced that it had ended its relationship with OVW, moving all contracted talent to FCW. WWE-contracted talent also made occasional appearances on OVW shows, including a match between John Cena and Lance Cade as the main event for the final Kentucky Kingdom show. However, FCW was dissolved in 2012 and was relaunched as NXT, formerly a reality/scripted television program that existed in its format from 2010 to 2012, replacing the ECW brand.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: In 2009, OVW alumnus John "Bradshaw" Layfield would leave WWE to sponsor OVW. On September 8, 2010, in what was dubbed the company's "season premiere", Danny Davis, who himself was making his return for the first time in over a year, announced that Jim Cornette was returning to his role as match maker of the company. Cornette, who was also executive producer of Ring of Honor's HDNet show, "Ring of Honor Wrestling", announced that ROH talent were going to work in OVW, along with other new and returning OVW members of the roster.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: On November 7, 2011, it was announced that OVW and Impact Wrestling (then known as TNA Wrestling), had reached an agreement for the former to become an official training and developmental territory. This agreement would end on November 2, 2013, due to a financial dispute.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: On April 6, 2018, it was announced that professional wrestler Al Snow was purchasing the promotion from Danny Davis, who was planning to retire but didn't want to shut the company down. On September 12, 2018, it was announced that Ohio Valley Wrestling would be merging with Top Notch Boxing, a major boxing promotion in Louisville, to form the Gladiator Sports Network. OVW's first event under the Gladiator Sports banner was the 1000th episode special of its television series on October 10, 2018, from Louisville's Fourth Street Live!. This was OVW's first ever live televised event and it was streamed on FITE TV. The event featured a tournament to crown the vacant OVW championship featuring both current and past stars as well as a tribute to the companies founders.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: On October 29, 2018, the brand announced an international expansion of its wrestling school and television product to the European Market labeled OVW-EU. Most of the schools now affiliated with the OVW Brand outside the United States were formally with the "Al Snow Wrestling Academy" brand which was merged with OVW upon the purchase by Gladiator Sports. This expands Ohio Valley Wrestling to a total of 17 wrestling schools worldwide. An on-demand service, which will air past and current editions of the original American brand plus the possibility of a future OVW UK Brand, was also announced. The service would officially launch on the third week of March 2019 at a cost of $4.99 a month.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: In February 2019, OVW would announce a partnership with Impact Wrestling to produce an exclusive event for Impact's Global Wrestling Network (GWN). The event, titled Clash in the Bluegrass, would be an Impact One Night Only special held on March 2, 2019, in Davis Arena. The full-length event would stream on GWN on March 9, 2019. Clash in the Bluegrass would mark the first collaboration between OVW and Impact since 2013, and would be the first time the new Davis Arena has ever sold out an event via pre-sale tickets. On March 19, 2019, Impact announced that the company had entered a new partnership with OVW as its developmental territory.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: In April 2019, local media in Louisville reported that OVW was developing a formal vocational educational program in professional wrestling through the Al Snow Wrestling Academy, and had applied for accreditation with the Kentucky Department of Education. On September 15, the school was approved by the state of Kentucky, making it the first officially accredited professional wrestling trade school.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: In October 2020, OVW announced a partnership with Qatar Pro Wrestling. That same month, Game+, a Canadian channel owned by Impact's parent company, Anthem Sports & Entertainment, began syndicating OVW's television program in Canada and the United States.


title: Ohio Valley Wrestling

text: On January 5, 2021, OVW announced that Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio and Craig Greenberg of 21c Museum Hotels were lead investors in a group that purchased a majority interest in the company. Snow continues to run the promotion's day-to-day operations. Later that year, Louisville TV station WDRB reported that OVW was preparing to move into a building in the city's St. Joseph neighborhood that had served as a University of Louisville employee fitness center before being closed in 2019. If zoning approval is obtained, both OVW and the Al Snow Wrestling Academy will operate out of that facility.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: Hitman: Absolution is a 2012 stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix's European subsidiary. It is the fifth installment in the "Hitman" series and the sequel to 2006's "". Before release, the developers stated that "Absolution" would be easier to play and more accessible, while still retaining hardcore aspects of the franchise. The game was released on 20 November 2012 (which is in the 47th week of the year in reference to the protagonist, Agent 47) for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. On 15 May 2014, "Hitman: Absolution – Elite Edition" was released for OS X by Feral Interactive; it contained all previously released downloadable content, including "Hitman: Sniper Challenge", a "making of" documentary, and a 72-page artbook.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: "Hitman: Absolution"s single-player story follows Agent 47's efforts to protect a genetically-engineered teenage girl from various criminal syndicates and his former employers, the International Contract Agency (ICA), who want to use her potential as an assassin for their own ends. The game was met with a polarized reception. Most positive comments were concerning the game's graphics, environments and locations, and the varied gameplay options. However, many critics disliked the game for its linear structure as opposed to the open ended nature of previous installments. As of March 2013, the game had sold over 3.6 million copies. A sequel, "Hitman", was released in 2016. On 11 January 2019, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released the enhanced versions of "Absolution" and "" for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as part of the "Hitman HD Enhanced Collection".


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: "Hitman: Absolution" is a stealth game in which the player assumes the role of a hitman named Agent 47. Presented from a third-person perspective, the gameplay centers around completing set objectives within a series of levels. Objectives can range from simply reaching the end of the level, to eliminating specific individuals. The players choose how to complete each level, taking branching paths to get to a target or location. Players may use pistols, bottles or bricks, assault rifles, shotguns, fiber-wire, or steel pipe against enemies if opting for the action-oriented approach, or avoid enemies altogether, not being seen, using disguises, blending into the environment, and only attacking the set target(s), if using the stealth-oriented approach. Agent 47 also has the 'Instinct' ability that lets the player monitor enemies more easily. There are also environmental ways to kill or distract individuals; players can use poison to spike coffee, pull switches to make a disco ball fall and break, cause a massive explosion at a gas station, pull a switch to cause scaffolding to fall down, cause fires, or set off fireworks. Players complete chapters in order to progress through the story. The player journeys to various locations, including a mansion, library, strip club, gun store, wrestling arena, courthouse, and hotel during the story.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: The game introduces an online option to the series, 'Contracts', where players can create their own missions for other players to complete. Players choose one of the areas from the game's story missions and decide which non-player characters (NPCs) are required to be eliminated, what weapon must be used to eliminate each target, what disguise is required, whether the body must be hidden or not and if the player is allowed to be spotted by the AI. "Contracts" was shut down in May 2018 due to IO Interactive not owning or controlling the online servers but needing to comply with GDPR legislation.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: The genetically-engineered assassin Agent 47 (David Bateson) receives a contract from his employers, the International Contract Agency (ICA), to kill his former handler Diana Burnwood (Marsha Thomason), who betrayed the ICA for unknown reasons and sabotaged their funding and database, forcing them to reform. When he confronts Diana, 47 learns that she betrayed the ICA to protect a genetically-engineered teenage girl named Victoria (Isabelle Fuhrman) from a life of violence as an assassin. As Diana seemingly dies after being shot by 47, he agrees to protect Victoria, causing his new handler, Benjamin Travis (Powers Boothe), to brand him a traitor.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: After dropping Victoria off at the Redwood Orphanage in Chicago, 47, seeking information about her and the ICA, meets disgraced Agency informant Birdie (Steven Bauer), who asks him to assassinate a local crime boss (James Sie). After the hit, Birdie informs him of Blake Dexter (Keith Carradine), head of a home defense system company, who has taken an interest in Victoria. 47 sneaks into Dexter's room at the Terminus Hotel and learns that he is planning to kidnap Victoria and sell her to the highest bidder. 47 attempts to kill Dexter, but is knocked out, framed for the murder of a maid, and left to die in Dexter's suite, which has been set on fire. After escaping from the hotel and the police, he kills Dexter's informant Dom Osmond (Jon Curry) at his strip club, but learns of a group of mercenaries led by Edward Wade (Larry Cedar) hired by Dexter to capture Victoria. Despite 47's efforts to stop them, they capture Birdie, who betrays Victoria's location to save himself. 47 defends Victoria at the orphanage and kills Wade, but Dexter's son Lenny (Shane Stevens) grabs Victoria and escapes.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: In the town of Hope, South Dakota, firmly ruled by Dexter's private military company, 47 eliminates Lenny's gang, the "Hope Cougars", who were planning to kidnap Victoria from Dexter and sell her to a rival weapons company, and interrogates Lenny over Victoria's location before killing him or leaving him to die in the desert. He later infiltrates Dexter Industries' laboratory to kill the scientists who examined Victoria and destroy their research data on her, and kills Dexter's deformed bodyguard Sanchez (Isaac C. Singleton Jr.) in an underground cage fight. While recuperating at a hotel, 47 is attacked by "The Saints", Travis's personal hit squad, but manages to eliminate them, causing a furious Travis to send a larger group of ICA operatives after him.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: 47 eventually finds Victoria in the Hope Courthouse jail, but is captured and tortured by Dexter, until the latter is called off to a meeting with Travis, who wants to buy Victoria for $10 million. 47 escapes into the streets and pursues Hope's corrupt sheriff Clive Skurky (Jon Gries), who is on Dexter's payroll, while avoiding ICA agents searching for him. After being cornered, Skurky reveals that Dexter is heading back to Chicago, and is killed by 47. Returning to Chicago, 47 infiltrates Blackwater Park, where Travis is meeting with Dexter to buy Victoria, and kills Dexter's secretary Layla Stockton (Traci Lords), before pursuing Dexter himself to the top of the park. Dexter tries to escape with Victoria on a helicopter after ordering his men to blow up the building, but 47 mortally wounds him and rescues Victoria. After lamenting the loss of his son and money, Dexter is left to die alone.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: Several months later, Travis and his men visit Diana's grave, suspecting she has faked her death, but 47 ambushes them, as he was tasked to do so in a letter left by Diana, which also mentioned that Victoria was created by Travis's funding without his ICA superiors' knowledge. After 47 wounds him, Travis rants at him for wasting Victoria's potential for the ICA, and asks whether Diana is really dead, to which 47 responds "You will never know" before killing him. It is later revealed that Diana did in fact fake her death, and is looking after Victoria at her mansion, while 47 watches them from the distance.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: The game ends with a message from Diana to Agent 47 welcoming him back to the ICA and thanking him for his help. In the final scene, Detective Cosmo Faulkner (Jonathan Adams), who has been tracking 47 since the Terminus Hotel fire, is having trouble discovering 47's identity until Birdie appears and offers to help him for a price.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: Though plans to continue the "Hitman" franchise were first announced in 2007, it was not until May 2009 that Eidos confirmed the game was in development. Certain plot details for the game were rumored in 2009, stating that the game's story would lead Agent 47 to a low point from which he would have to rebuild himself. On 20 April 2011, Square Enix filed the trademark for the name "Hitman: Absolution" in Europe, leading sites to speculate that it would be the name of the fifth "Hitman" game. On 6 May 2011, a teaser trailer was released, confirming the title "Hitman: Absolution". The trailer briefly showed Agent 47 attaching a suppressor and a rattlesnake coiled around his signature Silverballer pistol. It has been reported the game will be a "familiar and yet significantly different experience from other "Hitman" games." On 9 October 2011, a full gameplay trailer entitled "Run for Your Life" was released.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: The "Professional Edition" of "Hitman: Absolution" features Professional Clamshell packaging for the game, a "Hitman" art book, making of DVD and the "Agency Gun Pack" DLC.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: "Hitman: Sniper Challenge", a single sniping mission, was developed by IO Interactive, originally as a pre-order bonus, available to people who pre-order the game. The code would be supplied by retailers upon pre-order of the game, and could be collected from retailers before release as a download code before the game's release. At the time of pre-order, "Sniper Challenge" was redeemable via the PSN Store, Xbox Live Marketplace and PC. While the console version launched worldwide on 15 May 2012, the PC version wasn't released until 1 August 2012.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: Square Enix announced special "Hitman: Absolution" pre-order bonuses for selected retailers. For Steam purchased games, these downloadable content are available as well. These items only work for Contract mode and not the single-player story mode.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: "Hitman: Absolution" received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Positive reviews came from GamesRadar+, calling it "one of the strongest entries in the series to date", and "Game Informer", who wrote that "devising a strategy, using the environment and disguises to your advantage, and leaving before anyone knows you're there are the hallmarks of a perfect hit, and "Absolution" proves Agent 47 is still gaming's premier hitman."


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: "Edge" gave it 7/10, saying "the game has taken a unique formula and diluted it". VentureBeat gave it 7.5/10 saying ""Absolution" aims high but misses the mark." Eurogamer gave it 7/10 saying "Agent 47 doesn't begin "Hitman: Absolution" with amnesia, but the six years that have passed since we last took control of him in "" do seem to have dulled his creators' recollections of what made him so popular in the first place." GameSpot gave it 7.5/10 saying ""Hitman: Absolution"s vivid world and enjoyable stealth-action gameplay overshadow its few notable inconsistencies." IGN gave it 9/10 saying "It's nice to have a game that doesn't just encourage improvisation; it requires it." Kotaku gave "Absolution" a positive review. Giant Bomb gave it 4/5, as did Joystiq. Destructoid gave it 8.5/10. 1Up.com gave the game an A- saying ""Hitman Absolution" didn't win me over with its story, but its gameplay maintains a standard of excellence and introduces a level of choice that deserves your attention."


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: "The Daily Telegraph" gave the game a 2/5 saying "Despite the fact that "Absolution" is a hugely disappointing entry into the canon, "Hitman" is still a fabulous series." "International Business Times" gave the game a 5/10 saying "An unremarkable, derivative clone of a game that's barely a shadow of what "Hitman" used to be." "VideoGamer.com" gave it 5/10 saying "The problem with "Absolution" is that its new custodians from the "" team seem to have fundamentally misunderstood what made "Hitman" great." "PC Gamer" gave it 66% saying "A passable stealth game, but one that betrays almost everything that, until now, has made "Hitman" great." GameTrailers gave it 6.9/10 saying "It's clear that a good deal of effort was put into crafting "Hitman: Absolution"s world. This makes its flaws all the more unfortunate." The "New Statesman" gave no rating but said "If developers want to win back fans when they revisit established franchises maybe they should look to what made those games popular in the first place and by doing so maybe they'd avoid stepping on a rake or two." "The Irish Times" gave no score but said "The move away from the completely open world may leave some hardcore fans of "Hitman" disappointed." The "Daily Record" gave the game 3/5 saying "While it's more accessible than previous "Hitman" games, "Absolution" loses a lot of the freedom that fans of the franchise love, and perhaps doesn't necessarily fit the "Hitman" name any longer." "The Escapist" gave no score but said ""Hitman: Absolution" is not the best nor the worst "Hitman"". "The Guardian" gave it 3/5 saying "The game may look better and play better than any "Hitman" game before it, but one can only marvel at how IO managed to lose sight of their IP's most appealing aspects so often."


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: On 26 March 2013, Square Enix announced that the game had sold about 3.6 million copies at retail, but has failed to reach predicted sales targets.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: Shortly after launch, scores of complaints came in about the game crashing, freezing and corrupting file saves on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, rendering many of the games unplayable. On 26 November 2012, IO Interactive stated that they were working around the clock to try and fix these technical errors, but also stated that they did not know what exactly was causing the errors, so a patch may take some time.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: The patch for the PS3 version was released on 11 December 2012, while the Xbox 360 patch was released on 20 December 2012.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: On 29 May 2012, a cinematic teaser trailer, produced by Square Enix's CGI studio Visual Works, titled "Attack of the Saints", was released. The trailer's depiction of "gun-toting, PVC and latex-clad nuns being killed in a hail of bullets" sparked controversy over the allegedly sexist portrayal of women. IO Interactive's Tore Blystad, the game's director, later apologized, stating they're "sorry that we offended people" and that it "was truly not the intention of the trailer."


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: On 4 December 2012, IO Interactive faced heavy criticism for releasing a "Hitman: Absolution" Facebook app that allowed users to identify and threaten Facebook friends for assassination. Methods of identifying female friends included "her hairy legs", "her muffin top" and "her small tits". Methods of identifying male friends included "his ginger hair", "his shit hair" and "his tiny penis". Users could choose a reason to kill their friend, such as the fact that they "smell bad" or were cheating on their partner. Friends received a personalised video on their Facebook wall identifying them as a target. Signing up to watch the video presented recipients with a mixture of their own photos and Facebook details merged into a video of "Hitman" character Agent 47 shooting them. IO Interactive admitted the promotional app was in bad taste and removed it the same day.


title: Hitman: Absolution

text: "Hitman: Absolution" was nominated for 'Best Action Game' at the 9th British Academy Games Awards. It was nominated for 'Action Game of the Year', 'Outstanding Achievement in Animation' and 'Outstanding Achievement in Visual Engineering' at the 2013 D.I.C.E. Awards.


title: Black Desert Online

text: Black Desert Online () is a sandbox-oriented fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Korean video game developer Pearl Abyss and originally published for Microsoft Windows in 2015. A mobile version titled Black Desert Mobile was initially released in Asia by early 2019, and worldwide in December 2019. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions, known simply as Black Desert, were released in 2019. The game is free-to-play in some parts of the world, but follows a buy-to-play business model in other editions, including the English-language editions.


title: Black Desert Online

text: In 2018, Pearl Abyss began work on a prequel to the timeline of "Black Desert", titled "Crimson Desert", but during development it became a separate, stand alone IP with a different storyline and new characters.


title: Black Desert Online

text: The combat in "Black Desert Online" is action based, requiring manual aiming and free movement similar to those found in third-person shooters. The game offers housing, fishing, farming, and trading, as well as large player versus player siege events, and castle battles. It is well regarded for its advanced and in-depth character customization.


title: Black Desert Online

text: An active combat system requires precise manual aiming, dodging and using combos, unlike the tab-targeting system seen in most MMORPGs. Skills can be activated through use of combos for attacking, dodging or blocking. Players are also able to engage in mounted combat. Mounts are acquired by taming in the wild, and players are able to breed special mounts by mating certain types. Mounts require feeding and care, cannot be stored in the inventory, and may be killed.


title: Black Desert Online

text: The game includes a number of features to assist with immersion and the sandbox aspect. The dynamic, worldwide weather system includes large-scale events such as typhoons and will influence gameplay. Localized weather will include events such as temporary fog, which players may exploit to launch surprise attacks on rival guild structures. There is also a dynamic day/night cycle with a gradual progression of lighting effects. During the night some non-player characters (NPCs) will become unavailable as they return home and the monsters will drop more loot. Different game content is available depending upon whether it is night or day. Player housing is instanced and varies in size and location. Players are able to furnish and equip their housing by purchasing furniture through NPCs or through crafting.


title: Black Desert Online

text: "Black Desert Online" takes place in a high fantasy setting and revolves around the conflict between two rival nations, the Republic of Calpheon and the Kingdom of Valencia. Calpheon is very materialistic whereas Valencia is very spiritual.


title: Black Desert Online

text: Long ago, the four main areas, Calpheon, Serendia, Balenos, and Mediah, were at peace. This all changed when the Black Death started spreading via merchants from Valencia, in an area east of Mediah that controlled trading. Many around the world died of the plague. Some who did not, were expelled due to the black death causing paranoia. Eventually, the three of the main areas made an alliance and began a war that lasted for 30 years; with Mediah profiting the most by harvesting black stones and trading it to the others.


title: Black Desert Online

text: After the war, the alliance slowly started to conduct trades with Valencia once again. Tensions arose when the other areas discovered the importance of black stones. Desperate to gain wealth, they began to search for black stones as well. Calpheon had no area that harbored the precious black stones, thus they stole from the rest. This created further conflicts with Valencia, due to the fact that Valencia has a vast Black Desert which holds many black stones.


title: Black Desert Online

text: "Black Desert Online" has been in development since 2010. The Korean studio Pearl Abyss was founded in September 2010 by Kim Daeil, previously a developer with Hangame and NHN Gaming, and began development of "Black Desert Online" shortly after. The game uses Pearl Abyss' custom Black Desert game engine specifically created to handle the fast rendering required for its seamless world and large-scale castle sieges with a lot of characters.


title: Black Desert Online

text: After agreeing a Japanese publishing deal with GameOn Japan on 8 September 2012 Pearl Abyss began releasing details of the game to the public. In November 2012 the game was demonstrated at G-Star. "Black Desert Online" was also showcased at Gamescom 2013.


title: Black Desert Online

text: "Black Desert Online" entered closed beta testing in October 2013. A second, three week long closed beta test begun in April 2014. Open beta was launched in December 2014.


title: Black Desert Online

text: The game was released in Korea, Japan and Russia in 2015, in North America and Europe on 3 March 2016, in South America, Turkey, and countries in the Middle East and North Africa region in 2017 and Southeast Asia in 2018. "Black Desert Online" uses a free-to-play model in Korea, Japan and Russia, while in Taiwan, South East Asia, Europe, North America and South America the game uses a buy-to-play model.


title: Black Desert Online

text: The Mediah Expansion was released in the North American/European version on 30 March 2016. Mediah Part 2 was released on 4 May 2016. The new classes called the Musa, the Maehwa, the Kunoichi and the Ninja were released for play in 2016, followed by the Dark Knight and the Striker in 2017, the Lahn in 2018, and the Shai in 2019. The Valencia I Expansion was released in the North American / European version on 29 June 2016. All expansions and class additions have been free of charge in the buy-to-play model, with no plans of charging for additional future content stated. An updated PC version retitled "Black Desert Remastered", featuring new visuals and new audio, was released on 22 August 2018.


title: Black Desert Online

text: In October 2015, "Black Desert Online" was published and localized in Russia by Cypriot publisher GameNet. This contract expired on October 12, 2018, without an agreement as to account information, including character data. Pearl Abyss has apologized to Russian players and announced they would self-publish in Russia when their own localization efforts were completed. In April 2018, Pearl Abyss announced that it would be changing service providers on North American servers to improve stability. In February 2019, changes were made to the Marketplace to create the new Central Market, which features more user-friendly ways to buy and sell items from the Marketplace.


title: Black Desert Online

text: A major content update was included with the Drakania & Eternal Winter update on April 6, 2022. This update included a new region and class.


title: Black Desert Online

text: Pearl Abyss Japan announced that the service is operated in 150 countries in Japan.Bonus points are given to logged-in players as a 150-country operation gift.


title: Black Desert Online

text: At the Taipei Games Show in January 2017, Pearl Abyss stated Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game are in development, and was confirmed again by Pearl Abyss in March. The Xbox One version, simply titled "Black Desert", was revealed during Microsoft's E3 2017 press conference. It was launched live in North America and Europe on 4 March 2019, following multiple beta releases since 2018. In terms of content, however, the Xbox version of game was about three years behind the PC version upon its release. The Striker, Dark Knight, Lahn, and Musa classes were made available for the Xbox One players in April 2019.


title: Black Desert Online

text: The console versions will feature support for cross-platform play between both consoles in March 2020.


title: Black Desert Online

text: In August 2017, Pearl Abyss has released an official teaser for "Black Desert Mobile". It was released for the Android and iOS in February 2018, initially only in Korea, Japan and Taiwan, with the English version released in December 2019, during The Game Awards 2019.


title: Black Desert Online

text: Warrior is a weathered veteran that takes advantage of his physical strength by executing skills while wielding a one-handed longsword and shield. Charging into the heat of battle, he can grab and smash his enemies or deliver a swift and mighty strike with his longsword. He can also absorb hits on the frontline with his shield. He is an extremely versatile fighter on the battlefield who can get through even the toughest of situations.https://www.naeu.playblackdesert.com/en-US/GameInfo/Class?classType=0


title: Black Desert Online

text: "Black Desert" beta has been well received. The full game has received mixed or average reviews from critics, currently holding an average score of 70/100 across the PC, PS4, and Xbox One versions on Metacritic.


title: Black Desert Online

text: In April 2016, the publisher Kakao Games announced that "Black Desert Online" had achieved sales of 400,000 copies in its first month on the European and North American markets and was showing an average of 100,000 concurrent users. By March 2017, "Black Desert" had 3.4 million registered players in North America and Europe. By May 2018, more than 1.2 million copies of the game have sold on Steam in Europe and North America. As of September 2018, the game had over 10million registered users worldwide.


title: Black Desert Online

text: By April 2019, the game had reached over 18 million players, and its total revenue had passed $1 billion. , the game has reached 40million players and grossed worldwide.


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: Colin Arthur O'Donoghue (born 26 January 1981) is an Irish actor and musician, best known for portraying Captain Killian "Hook" Jones on the ABC TV show "Once Upon a Time". He appeared in the 2011 horror thriller film "The Rite" (2011) as a skeptical novice priest, Michael Kovak. He portrayed the character of Douxie Casperan in the Guillermo del Toro animated series "Tales of Arcadia" for Netflix"." He is also portraying Gordon Cooper on Disney+ Original Series "The Right Stuff". He starred in "Dolly Parton's Heartstrings" as J.J. Sneed.


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: Colin O'Donoghue, the son of Con and Mary O'Donoghue, was born and raised in Drogheda, County Louth, in a Roman Catholic family. He has an older brother named Allen. He is the cousin of musician Harry O'Donoghue. He attended Dundalk Grammar School, and later The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin. At age 16, he went to Paris for a month to learn French.


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: O'Donoghue's early career was mainly split between theatre and television work in Ireland and the UK. In 2003, he won the Irish Film and Television Award for "Best New Talent" for his role as Norman in "Home For Christmas".


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: In 2009, he appeared as Duke Philip of Bavaria in an episode of season 3 of the Showtime historical-fiction series "The Tudors". He made his Hollywood film debut alongside Anthony Hopkins in the horror thriller film "The Rite" (2011). He made an audition video for "The Rite" in a friend's home studio in Drogheda and sent it to the United States. He plays guitar and sings in a band called The Enemies, formed in 2003 in Ireland.


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: In 2012, O'Donoghue was cast as Captain Hook/Killian Jones, love interest of the main heroine Emma Swan, in the second season of the hit ABC series "Once Upon a Time". In 2014, O'Donoghue was cast as the main character in "The Dust Storm", an independent film set in Nashville, Tennessee as a musician named Brennan.


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: Christina Perri wrote a song, "The Words", which she dedicated to Colin's character (Captain Hook) in "Once Upon a Time".


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: In December 2018, O'Donoghue was cast in an episode of the Netflix anthology drama series, "Heartstrings". The series premiered on 22 November 2019.


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: O'Donoghue was part of the five-piece Irish band, "The Enemies", which was formed in 2003 by O'Donoghue and a close friend, Ronan McQuillan. The Enemies released their self-titled debut EP on 7 March 2011 prior to their self-funded first album on track. He played guitar and sang backing vocals on the band's first EP and debut album.


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: Although the band was unsigned, it was commissioned by General Motors to record tracks for their "Chevy route 66" online campaign. The band worked on the music for Coca-Cola's "5BY20" project. Their debut album "Sounds Big on the Radio" was to be released in March 2013, which was later scheduled for 2014. In May 2013, he announced he was leaving the band due to the filming schedule of "Once Upon a Time".


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: For his role in "Home for Christmas", he was awarded Best New Talent at the 1st Irish Film & Television Awards, held on 1 November 2003.


title: Colin O'Donoghue

text: O'Donoghue married his wife Helen, a schoolteacher, in 2009, shortly after his appearance on "The Tudors". The couple have been together since they were eighteen and have two children: a son and a daughter.


title: Rallying

text: Rally is a wide-ranging form of motorsport with various competitive motoring elements such as speed tests (often called "rally racing)," navigation tests, or the ability to reach waypoints or a destination at a prescribed time or average speed. Rallies may be short in the form of trials at a single venue, or several thousand miles long in an extreme endurance rally.


title: Rallying

text: Depending on the format, rallies may be organised on private or public roads, open or closed to traffic, or off-road in the form of cross country or rally-raid. Competitors can use production vehicles which must be road-legal if being used on open roads or specially built competition vehicles suited to crossing specific terrain.


title: Rallying

text: Rallying is typically distinguished from other forms of motorsport by not running directly against other competitors over laps of a circuit, but instead in a point-to-point format in which participants leave at regular intervals from one or more start points.


title: Rallying

text: Road rallies are the original form held on highways open to public traffic. In its annually published International Sporting Code, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) includes the following definition of rally:Rallies run entirely on open, public roads may have a competitive element based on accurate timekeeping, navigation, vehicle reliability, endurance, or motoring ability (autotesting), or any combination at the organiser's will. Some common types are: regularity rally, also known as a Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rally, testing ability to stay on track and on time, Monte-Carlo styles (Monte Carlo, Pan Am, Pan Carlo, Continental) rally (testing navigation and timing), and various Gimmick rally types (testing logic, observation or treasure hunts). These rallies are primarily amateur events. Many early road rallies were called trials although this term is now mainly applied to the specialist form of climbing or crossing difficult terrain or other extreme tests of motoring.Stage rallying simply divides the route from the start to the finish of any rally into stages, not necessarily exclusively for speed tests on "special stages". Each stage may have different targets or rules attached. In the FIA ecoRally Cup for example, energy performance is measured on regularity stages ran in conformity with the clock. A gimmick rally may have stages with varying difficulty of the puzzle element.


title: Rallying

text: Road rallies must use special stages where speed is used to determine the classification of the rally's competitors; the quickest time to complete the special stages wins the rally. These are sections of road closed to traffic and authorised to be used for speed tests. Special stages are linked by open roads where navigation, timekeeping, and road traffic law rules must be adhered to also. These open road sections are sometimes called transport stages, somewhat complementing special stages in the make-up of a stage rally. These are the most common format of professional and commercial rallies and rally championships. The FIA organises the World Rally Championship, Regional Rally Championships; and many countries' motorsport governing bodies organise domestic rallying championships using speed competitions. The stages may vary from flat asphalt and mountain passes to rough forest tracks, from ice and snow to desert sand, each chosen to provide a challenge for the crew and a test of the car's performance and reliability. A single-venue rally takes place without the need for public road sections though the format and rules remain.


title: Rallying

text: In the wake of the ever more advanced rally cars of the late 20th and 21st century is a trend towards historic rallying (also known as classic rallying), in which older cars can continue to rally. Historic rallies are usually regularity rallies with no speed tests arranged. This discipline attracts some former professional drivers back into the sport. Other drivers started their competition careers in historic rallying.


title: Rallying

text: Also known as cross country, rally-raid or baja, these rallies take place mostly off-road using similar competitive elements to road and special stage rallying competitions. When off-road, waypoints and markers are often set, and the competitor can choose how best to cross the terrain to the next point. The challenge is mostly navigational and endurance. The World Rally-Raid Championship was inaugurated in 2022, including the annual Dakar Rally in its calendar, with joint sanctioning by the FIA and FIM.


title: Rallying

text: Assemblies of car enthusiasts and their vehicles may still colloquially be called rallies, even if they involve merely the task of getting to the location (often on a trailer). However, static assemblies that simply 'meet' (akin to a caravan or steam rally) are not considered a form of motorsport. A touring assembly may have an organised route and simple passage controls but not any form of competition held or prizes given. One example, the Gumball 3000, which calls itself "'a rally not a race"', explicitly states in its terms that no form of competition between participants must take place. The FIA defined this activity under 'rally of the touring kind' at least until 2007, though have now separated the term 'Touring Assembly' without using the word rally in its definition.


title: Rallying

text: The word 'rally' comes from the French verb "'rallier"', meaning to reunite or regroup urgently during a battle. It was in use since at least the seventeenth century and continues to mean to synergise with haste for a purpose. By the time of the invention of the motor car, it was in use as a noun to define the organised mass gathering of people, not to protest or demonstrate, but to promote or celebrate a social, political or religious cause. Motor car rallies were probably being arranged as motor clubs and automobile associations were beginning to form shortly after the first motor cars were being produced.


title: Rallying

text: "Auto Rallies" were common events in the USA in the early twentieth century for the purpose of political caucusing, however many of these rallies were coincidentally aimed at motorists who could attend in convenient fashion rather than being a motoring rally. One early example of a true motor rally, the 1909 Auto Rally Day in Denison, Iowa, gathered approximately 100 vehicles owned by local residents for no other real reason than to give rides to members of the public, using fuel paid for by local businessmen who hoped the event would help sell cars.In the case of the 1910 Good Roads Rally held in Charleston, South Carolina, a rally was organised to promote the need for better roads. The rally itself had no competition and most vehicles were expected to be parked for its duration. The programme included a visit to some ongoing roadworks, a vehicle parade, with food, drink, dancing and music also arranged. However, the Automobile Club of Columbia who had members attending the event, independently organised their own road competition to contest on the journey between the two cities. A prize of $10 was awarded to the motorist "approximating the most ideal schedule" between two secret points along the route and who had "the most nearly correct idea of a pleasant and sensible pleasure tour" between the two cities. Though this format of competition itself would later become known as a regularity 'rally', it wasn't at the time, however the trophy and prize were awarded at the rally.


title: Rallying

text: The first known use of the word rally to include a road competition was the 1911 Monaco Rally (later Monte Carlo Rally). It was organised by a group of wealthy locals who formed the "Sport Automobile Vélocipédique Monégasque" and bankrolled by the "Société des Bains de Mer" (the "sea bathing company"), the operators of the famous casino who were keen to attract wealthy and adventurous motorists to their 'rallying point'. Competitors could start at various locations but with a speed limit of 25kph imposed, the competitive elements were partly based on cleanliness, condition and elegance of the cars and required a jury to choose a winner. However, getting to Monaco in winter was a challenge in itself. A second event was held in 1912.


title: Rallying

text: Rallying as a form of road competition can be traced back to the origins of motorsport, including the world's first known motor race; the 1894 Paris–Rouen Horseless Carriage Competition ("Concours des Voitures sans Chevaux"). Sponsored by a Paris newspaper, "Le Petit Journal", it attracted considerable public interest and entries from leading manufacturers. The official winner was Albert Lemaître driving a 3 hp Peugeot, although the "Comte" de Dion had finished first but his steam-powered vehicle was ineligible for the official competition.


title: Rallying

text: The event led to a period of city-to-city road races being organised in Europe and the USA, which introduced many of the features found in later rallies: individual start times with cars running against the clock rather than head to head; time controls at the entry and exit points of towns along the way; road books and route notes; and driving over long distances on ordinary, mainly gravel, roads, facing hazards such as dust, traffic, pedestrians and farm animals.


title: Rallying

text: From 24 September-3 October 1895, the "Automobile Club de France" sponsored the longest race to date, a event from Bordeaux to Agen and back. Because it was held in ten stages, it can be considered the first stage rally. The first three places were taken by a Panhard, a Panhard, and a three-wheeler De Dion-Bouton.


title: Rallying

text: In the Paris–Madrid race of May 1903, the Mors of took just under five and a quarter hours for the to Bordeaux, an average of 105 km/h (65.3 mph). Speeds had now exceeded the safe limits of dusty highways thronged with spectators and open to other traffic, people and animals and there were numerous crashes, many injuries and eight deaths. The French government stopped the race and banned this style of event. From then on, racing in Europe (apart from Italy) would be on closed circuits, initially on long loops of public highway and then, in 1907, on the first purpose-built track, England's Brooklands.


title: Rallying

text: Italy had been running road competitions since 1895, when a reliability trial was run from Turin to Asti and back. The country's first true motor race was held in 1897 along the shore of Lake Maggiore, from Arona to Stresa and back. This led to a long tradition of road racing, including events like Sicily's Targa Florio (from 1906) and "Giro di Sicilia" (Tour of Sicily, 1914), which went right round the island, both of which continued on and off until after World War II. The first Alpine event was held in 1898, the Austrian Touring Club's three-day Automobile Run through South Tyrol, which included the infamous Stelvio Pass.


title: Rallying

text: In Britain, the legal maximum speed of precluded road racing, but in April and May 1900, the Automobile Club of Great Britain (the forerunner of the Royal Automobile Club) organised the Thousand Mile Trial, a 15-day event linking Britain's major cities in order to promote this novel form of transport. Seventy vehicles took part, the majority of them trade entries. They had to complete thirteen stages of route varying in length from at average speeds of up to the legal limit of , and tackle six hillclimb or speed tests. On rest days and at lunch halts, the cars were shown to the public in exhibition halls. This event was followed in 1901 by a five-day trial based in Glasgow The Scottish Automobile Club organised an annual Glasgow–London non-stop trial from 1902 to 1904, then the Scottish Reliability Trial from 1905. The Motor Cycling Club allowed cars to enter its trials and runs from 1904 (London–Edinburgh, London–Land's End, London–Exeter). In 1908 the Royal Automobile Club held its International Touring Car Trial, and in 1914 the Light Car Trial for manufacturers of cars up to 1400 cc, to test comparative performances. In 1924, the exercise was repeated as the Small Car Trials.


title: Rallying

text: In Germany, the Herkomer Trophy was first held in 1905, and again in 1906. This challenging five-day event attracted over 100 entrants to tackle its road section, a hillclimb and a speed trial, but it was marred by poor organisation and confusing regulations. One participant had been Prince Henry of Austria, who with the Imperial Automobile Club of Germany, later created the first "Prinz Heinrich Fahrt" (Prince Henry Trial) in 1908. Another trial was held in 1910. These were very successful, attracting top drivers and works cars from major teams – several manufacturers added "Prince Henry" models to their ranges. The first Alpine Trial was held in 1909, in Austria, and by 1914 this was the toughest event of its kind, producing a star performance from Britain's James Radley in his Rolls-Royce Alpine Eagle.


title: Rallying

text: Two ultra-long distance challenges took place at this time. The Peking-Paris of 1907 was not officially a competition, but a "raid", the French term for an expedition or collective endeavour whose promoters, the newspaper "Le Matin", rather optimistically expected participants to help each other; it was 'won' by Prince Scipione Borghese, Luigi Barzini, and Ettore Guizzardi in an Itala. The New York–Paris of the following year, which went via Japan and Siberia, was won by George Schuster and others in a Thomas Flyer. Each event attracted only a handful of adventurous souls, but in both cases the successful drivers exhibited characteristics modern rally drivers would recognise: meticulous preparation, mechanical skill, resourcefulness, perseverance and a certain single-minded ruthlessness. Rather gentler (and more akin to modern rallying) was the Glidden Tour, run by the American Automobile Association between 1902 and 1913, which had timed legs between control points and a marking system to determine the winners.


title: Rallying

text: The First World War brought a lull to motorsport. The Monte Carlo Rally was not revived until 1924, but since then, apart from World War II and its aftermath, it has been an annual event and remains a regular round of the World Rally Championship. In the 1930s, helped by the tough winters, it became the premier European rally, attracting 300 or more participants.


title: Rallying

text: In the 1920s, numerous variations on the Alpine theme sprang up in Austria, Italy, France, Switzerland and Germany. The most important of these were Austria's "Alpenfahrt", which continued into its 44th edition in 1973, Italy's "Coppa delle Alpi", and the "Coupe Internationale des Alpes" (International Alpine Trial), organised jointly by the automobile clubs of Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and, latterly, France. This last event, run from 1928 to 1936, attracted strong international fields vying for an individual Glacier Cup or a team Alpine Cup, including successful Talbot, Riley, MG and Triumph teams from Britain and increasingly strong and well funded works representation from Adolf Hitler's Germany, keen to prove its engineering and sporting prowess with successful marques like Adler, Wanderer and Trumpf.


title: Rallying

text: The French started their own "Rallye des Alpes Françaises" in 1932, which continued after World War II as the "Rallye International des Alpes", the name often shortened to "Coupe des Alpes". Other rallies started between the wars included Britain's RAC Rally (1932) and Belgium's "Liège-Rome-Liège" or just Liège, officially called "Le Marathon de la Route" (1931), two events of radically different character; the former a gentle tour between cities from various start points, "rallying" at a seaside resort with a series of manoeuvrability and car control tests; the latter a thinly disguised road race over some of Europe's toughest mountain roads.


title: Rallying

text: In Ireland, the first "Ulster Motor Rally" (1931) was run from multiple starting points. After several years in this format, it transitioned into the Circuit of Ireland Rally. In Italy, Benito Mussolini's government encouraged motorsport of all kinds and facilitated road racing, so the sport quickly restarted after World War I. In 1927 the "Mille Miglia" (Thousand Mile) was founded, run over a loop of highways from Brescia to Rome and back. It continued in this form until 1938.


title: Rallying

text: The Liège of August 1939 was the last major event before World War II. Belgium's Jean Trasenster (Bugatti) and France's Jean Trevoux (Hotchkiss) tied for first place, denying the German works teams shortly before their countries were overrun. This was one of five Liège wins for Trasenster; Trevoux won four Montes between 1934 and 1951.


title: Rallying

text: Rallying was again slow to get under way after a major war, but by the 1950s there were many long-distance road rallies. In Europe, the Monte Carlo Rally, the French and Austrian Alpines, and the Liège were joined by a host of new events that quickly established themselves as classics: the Lisbon Rally (Portugal, 1947), the Tulip Rally (the Netherlands, 1949), the Rally to the Midnight Sun (Sweden, 1951, now the Swedish Rally), the Rally of the 1000 Lakes (Finland, 1951 – now the Rally Finland), and the Acropolis Rally (Greece, 1956). The RAC Rally gained International status on its return in 1951, but for 10 years its emphasis on map-reading navigation and short manoeuvrability tests made it unpopular with foreign crews. The "FIA" created in 1953 a European Rally Championship (at first called the "Touring Championship") of eleven events; it was first won by Helmut Polensky of Germany. This was the premier international rallying championship until 1973, when the FIA created the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers.


title: Rallying

text: Initially, most of the major post-war rallies were fairly gentlemanly, but the organisers of the French Alpine and the Liège (which moved its turning point from Rome into Yugoslavia in 1956) straight away set difficult time schedules: the "Automobile Club de Marseille et Provence" laid on a long tough route over a succession of rugged passes, stated that cars would have to be driven flat out from start to finish, and gave a coveted "Coupe des Alpes" ("Alpine Cup") to anyone achieving an unpenalised run; while Belgium's Royal Motor Union made clear no car was expected to finish the Liège unpenalised – when one did (1951 winner Johnny Claes in a Jaguar XK120) they tightened the timing to make sure it never happened again. These two events became the ones for "the men" to do. The Monte, because of its glamour, got the media coverage and the biggest entries (and in snowy years was also a genuine challenge); while the Acropolis took advantage of Greece's appalling roads to become a truly tough event. In 1956 came Corsica's "Tour de Corse", 24 hours of virtually non-stop flat out driving on some of the narrowest and twistiest mountain roads on the planet – the first major rally to be won by a woman, Belgium's , in a Renault Dauphine.


title: Rallying

text: These events were road races in all but name, but in Italy such races were still allowed, and the "Mille Miglia" continued until a serious accident in 1957 caused it to be banned. Meanwhile, in 1981, the "Tour de France" was revived by the Automobile-Club de Nice as a different kind of rally, based primarily on a series of races at circuits and hillclimbs around the country. It was successful for a while and continued until 1986. It spawned similar events in a few other countries, but none survive.


title: Rallying

text: In countries where there was no shortage of demanding roads across remote terrain, other events sprang up. In South America, the biggest of these took the form of long distance city to city races, each around , divided into daily legs. The first was the "Gran Premio del Norte" of 1940, run from Buenos Aires to Lima and back; it was won by Juan Manuel Fangio in a much modified Chevrolet coupé. This event was repeated in 1947, and in 1948 an even more ambitious one was held, the "Gran Premio de la América del Sur" from Buenos Aires to Caracas, Venezuela—Fangio had an accident in which his co-driver was killed. Then in 1950 came the fast and dangerous Carrera Panamericana, a road race in stages across Mexico to celebrate the opening of the asphalt highway between the Guatemala and United States borders, which ran until 1954. All these events fell victim to the cost – financial, social and environmental – of putting them on in an increasingly complex and developed world, although smaller road races continued long after, and a few still do in countries like Bolivia.


title: Rallying

text: In Africa, 1950 saw the first French-run "Méditerranée-le Cap", a rally from the Mediterranean to South Africa; it was run on and off until 1961, when the new political situation hastened its demise. In 1953 East Africa saw the demanding Coronation Safari, which went on to become the Safari Rally and a World Championship round, to be followed in due course by the Rallye du Maroc and the Rallye Côte d'Ivoire. Australia's Redex Round Australia Trial also dates from 1953, although this remained isolated from the rest of the rallying world.


title: Rallying

text: Canada hosted one of the world's longest and most gruelling rallies in the 1960s, the Shell 4000 Rally. It was the only one sanctioned by the FIA in North America.


title: Rallying

text: The quest for longer and tougher events saw the re-establishment of the intercontinental rallies beginning with the London–Sydney Marathon held in 1968. The rally trekked across Europe, the Middle-East and the sub-continent before boarding a ship in Bombay to arrive in Fremantle eight days later before the final push across Australia to Sydney. It attracted over 100 crews including a number of works teams and top drivers; it was won by the Hillman Hunter of Andrew Cowan/Brian Coyle/Colin Malkin. The huge success of this event saw the creation of the World Cup Rallies, linked to Association Football's FIFA World Cup. The first was the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally which saw competitors travel from London eastwards across to Bulgaria before turning westwards on a more southerly route before boarding a ship in Lisbon. Disembarking in Rio de Janeiro the route travelled southward into Argentina before turning northwards along the western coast of South America before arriving in Mexico City. The Ford Escort of Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palm won. These were followed in 1974 by the London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally, and in 1977 by the Singapore Airlines London-Sydney Rally.


title: Rallying

text: The 1974 London-Sahara-Munich World Cup Rally followed four years later. The rally travelled southwards into Africa but a navigational error saw most of the rally become lost in Algerian desert. Eventually only seven teams reached the southernmost point of the rally in Nigeria with five teams making it back to West Germany having driven all legs and only the winning team completing the full distance. This, coupled with the economic climate of the 1970s the heat went out of intercontinental rallying after a second London–Sydney Marathon in 1977. The concept was revived in 1979 for the inaugural Paris-Dakar Rally. The success of the "Dakar" would eventually see intercontinental rallying recognised as its own discipline; the Rally Raid.


title: Rallying

text: Rallying became very popular in Sweden and Finland in the 1950s, thanks in part to the invention there of the "specialsträcka" (Swedish) or "erikoiskoe" (Finnish), or special stage. These were shorter sections of route, usually on minor or private roads—predominantly gravel in these countries—away from habitation and traffic, which were separately timed. These provided the solution to the conflict inherent in the notion of driving as fast as possible on ordinary roads. The idea spread to other countries, albeit more slowly to the most demanding events.


title: Rallying

text: The RAC Rally had formally become an International event in 1951, but Britain's laws precluded the closure of public highways for special stages. This meant it had to rely on short manoeuvrability tests, regularity sections and night map-reading navigation to find a winner, which made it unattractive to foreign crews. In 1961, Jack Kemsley was able to persuade the Forestry Commission to open their many hundreds of miles of well surfaced and sinuous gravel roads, and the event was transformed into one of the most demanding and popular in the calendar, by 1983 having over of stage. It was later renamed Rally GB.


title: Rallying

text: Rallying also took off in Spain and Portugal and by the 1960s had spread to their colonial territories in the mid-Atlantic. By the end of the 1960s events had not only begun in Madeira and the Canary Islands, but also on the far-flung Azores


title: Rallying

text: The introduction of the special stage effectively brought rallying into its modern form. Since then, the nature of the events has evolved relatively slowly though over time, rallies have tended to become shorter in distance, but also allowing for more events to be organised. Some of the older international events have gone, replaced by others from a much wider spread of countries around the world and many more local events.


title: Rallying

text: The World Rally Championship was inaugurated in 1973 at first only for manufacturers and won that first year by Alpine-Renault. Not until 1979 was there a World Rally Championship for Drivers, won by Björn Waldegård. Popular international rallies were included in the championship and professional drivers have been employed alongside amateur entrants for the entirety of its existence. In the 21st century the events began to take a common 'clover-leaf' format instead of the touring A-B format. A central service park would provide the base for all the teams and officials, including all overnight halts, with the special stages within reach of the service park.


title: Rallying

text: In 1967, a group of American off-roaders created the Mexican 1000 rally, a tough 1,000-mile race for cars and motorcycles which ran the length of the Baja California peninsula, much of it initially over roadless desert. Which quickly gained fame as the Baja 1000, today run by the SCORE International. "Baja" events, relatively short cross-country rallies, now take place in a number of other countries worldwide.


title: Rallying

text: In 1979, a young Frenchman, Thierry Sabine, founded an institution when he organized the first "rallye-raid" from Paris to Dakar, in Senegal, the event now called the Dakar Rally. From amateur beginnings it quickly became a massive commercial circus catering for cars, motorcycles and trucks, and spawned other similar events. From 2008 to 2019, it was held in South America before moving to Saudi Arabia exclusively in 2020.


title: Rallying

text: All rallies follow at least one itinerary, essentially a schedule of the points along the route that define the rally. A common (single) itinerary may begin and end with a ceremonial start and finish that confirm the bounds of the competition. Many rally's itineraries are divided into legs, usually corresponding with days on multi-day rallies dividing overnight rest periods; sections, usually between "services" or "regroups"; and stages, individual point-to-point lengths of road. A loop is often used to describe a section that begins and ends in the same place, for example from a central service park.


title: Rallying

text: A time control is usually found at each point on the itinerary, a timecard is carried by the crews and handed to an official at each control point to be filled in as proof of following the itinerary correctly. As crews start each leg, section and stage at intervals (for example of two minutes), each crew will have a different due or target time to arrive at each control, with penalties applied for being too early or late.


title: Rallying

text: Long rallies may include one or more service, a window of time where mechanics are permitted to repair or prepare the car. Outside these services only the driver and co-driver can work on the car, although they must still respect the timing requirements of the rally. A flexi-service allows teams to use the same group of mechanics with flexibility in the timing, for example if two cars are due to arrive at two minute intervals, the second cars' 45 minute service can be delayed whilst the first car is serviced. During overnight halts between legs cars are held in a quarantine environment called parc fermé where it is not permitted to work on the cars.


title: Rallying

text: Other examples of features of an itinerary include passage controls, which ensure competitors are following the correct route but have no due time window, the timecard may be stamped or the cars may be observed by officials. Refuel, light fitting and tyre zones allow competitors to refuel, fit lights for "night stages" run in darkness, or exchange used tyres for new. Regroups act like a holding pen and are used to gather competitors in one location.


title: Rallying

text: A road book may be published and distributed to competitors detailing the itinerary, the route they must follow and any supplementary regulations they must follow. The route can be marked out in tulip diagrams, a form of illustrating the navigational requirements or other standard icons.


title: Rallying

text: Special stages (SS) must be used when using timing for classifying competitors in speed competitions. These stages are preceded by a time control marking the boundary of a road section and the special stage. The competitors proceed to the start line from where they begin the special stage at a prescribed time, and are timed until they cross the flying finish in motion before safely coming to a stop at the stop control which acts as a time control for the following road section and the place for the crews to find out their time of completing the stage. To avoid interruptions and hindering other competitors the road between the time control and the end of the start line zone, and between the flying finish and stop control are both considered as under parc fermé conditions, crews are not allowed to get out of their car.


title: Rallying

text: A Super Special Stage runs contrary to the ordinary running of a special stage, the reasons for which should be explained in the supplementary regulations. This may be where head-to-head stages are run in a crossover loop style, or if a short asphalt city stage with donuts around hay bails is run on a gravel rally for example.


title: Rallying

text: A Power Stage is used in the WRC and European Rally Championship, it is simply a nominated special stage that alone awards championship points to the fastest crews.


title: Rallying

text: A Shakedown is often included in an itinerary but does not form part of the competition. Crews can do multiple passes of a special stage to practice or trial different set ups. In some championships, a Qualifying Stage may also run alongside a shakedown to determine road order, the order in which competitors will compete.


title: Rallying

text: Pacenotes are a unique and major tool in modern special stage rallying. They provide a detailed description of the course and conditions ahead and allow the driver to form a mental image beyond the visible to be able to drive as fast as possible.


title: Rallying

text: In many rallies, including those of the World Rally Championship (WRC), drivers are allowed to run on the special stages of the course before the competition begins and create their own pacenotes. This process is called reconnaissance or recce and a low maximum speed is imposed. During reconnaissance, the co-driver writes down shorthand notes on how to best drive the stage. Usually, the drivers call out the turns and road conditions for the co-drivers to write down. These pacenotes are then read aloud through an internal intercom system during the actual rally, allowing the driver to anticipate the upcoming terrain and thus take the course as fast as possible.


title: Rallying

text: Other rallies provide organizer-created "route notes" also referred to as "stage notes" and disallow reconnaissance and use of custom pacenotes. These notes are usually created using a predetermined format, from which a co-driver can optionally add comments or transpose into other pacenote notations. Many North American rallies do not conduct reconnaissance but provide stage notes through the use of the Jemba Inertia Notes System, due to time and budget constraints.


title: Rallying

text: In the past, most rally courses were not allowed to be scanned prior to the race, and the co-drivers used only maps supplied by the organization. The exact route of the rally often remained secret until they were contested. Modern rallies have mostly converted to using organizer-supplied notes or allowing full reconnaissance, as opposed to racing the stages blindly.


title: Rallying

text: Though not necessary for all rallies, many road rallies have a central service park that acts as a base for servicing, scrutineering, parc fermé and playing host to Rally Headquarters, where the rally officials assemble. Service parks can also be a spectator attraction in their own right, with opportunities to meet and greet the crews and commercial outlets providing goods and services. If the rally is of the touring A to B kind there may be multiple service parks that may be very small and only used once each meaning teams carry as little as possible for simple logistics purposes. A remote service is a small service used once when there are stages far away from a central service park.


title: Rallying

text: In off-road cross countries the service area and support teams may travel with the competitors along the route in a Bivouac. The word means 'camp' and many participants indeed sleep in tents overnight.


title: Rallying

text: The driver is the person who drives the car during the rally. Regardless of the type of rally, a driver needs a driver's license issued by a competent authority. No prior experience of rallying is necessary and a debutant can hypothetically compete with a world champion on unfamiliar roads even in speed competitions.


title: Rallying

text: Unless the car is in a scheduled service, only the driver and co-driver can repair or work on the car during the rally with no external assistance allowed. Spectators assisting a crashed car is technically a breach of the rules but is usually overlooked. Driver's and co-drivers often have to make running-repairs and have to change punctured wheels themselves.


title: Rallying

text: Often, a distinction is made between so called 'works' drivers and privateer drivers. The first is one who competes for a team, usually that of a manufacturer, who provides the car, parts, repairs, logistics and the support personnel. Most of the works drivers of the 1950s were amateurs, paid little or nothing, reimbursed their expenses and given bonuses for winning. Then in 1960 came arguably the first rallying superstar (and one of the first to be paid to rally full-time), Sweden's Erik Carlsson, driving for Saab. Contrarily a privateer has to meet all the organization requirements and expenses involved in competing and usually competes for the enjoyment rather than using the sport as a means of promotion or contesting a full championship.


title: Rallying

text: A "specialist driver" is used to describe a driver who may have the skills and aptitude to win a rally of a certain surface but not on another. In the World Rally Championship which consists of different surfaces, a tarmac specialist driver may be employed by a team for example, on only the tarmac rounds. A privateer snow specialist may only enter the snow rounds. Some examples of specialist drivers are Gilles Panizzi, who obtained several victories on asphalt in the WRC while on gravel never passed fifth place; Shekhar Mehta won five editions of the Safari Rally however he never aspired to win the world championship and the Swede Mats Jonsson achieved his only two victories in the world, in the Rally Sweden. Historically, manufacturers always used local drivers due to their experience which ensured a certain result.


title: Rallying

text: Unlike in many other sports, rally has no gender barriers and everybody can compete on equal terms in this regard, although historically there were cups and trophies only for women. One of the first prominent names was that of the Brit Pat Moss, sister of F1 driver Stirling Moss, who won several rallies in her time. Later, Italy's Antonella Mandello, Germany's Isolde Holderies, Britain's Louise Aitken Walker and Sweden's Pernilla Waldridson stood out. The most notable was France's Michèle Mouton who with co-driver, Fabrizia Pons, became the first women to achieve victories in the world championship, in addition to the championship runner-up slots in 1982. As co-pilots in addition to the aforementioned Pons, the French Michèle Espinos "Biche" stood out, the Swedish Tina Thorner, the Venezuelan Ana Goñi or the Austrian Ilka Minor.


title: Rallying

text: The co-driver accompanies the driver inside the car during a "rally" stage and is sometimes called a navigator. The co-driver and driver may swap roles although this is uncommon. On all rallies their responsibilities are mostly organizational, assisting to ensure the route is adhered to, the correct timing of the itinerary is met, ensuring completion of the timecard and avoiding penalties for being early or late when arriving at time controls. Usually the co-driver maintains communication with the team as the rally progresses.


title: Rallying

text: On special stages the co-driver's role is to notate pace notes during reconnaissance and recite them at the correct point the driver demands when competing. This is a skill in itself as it requires reading the notes of the unseen road ahead from a page whilst keeping track of the current location. Theoretically, the more pacenotes a co-driver can deliver gives the driver more detail of the road ahead. Incorrect pace notes called at very high speeds on blind corners or crests can easily lead to accidents.


title: Rallying

text: The co-driver often exercises an important role in strategy, monitoring the state of rivals and in many cases acting as a psychologist, since they also encourages and advise the driver. The rapport between driver and co-driver must therefore be essential and it is common for a driver to change partners throughout their career if they do not feel comfortable. Perhaps for this reason it is very common to find relatives competing. Examples of this are the Panizzi brothers, who raced in France and the world championship, the Vallejo brothers in Spain or the world champion Marcus Grönholm who took his brother-in-law as co-driver during his career.


title: Rallying

text: A rally team is not required and can exist in various forms but is usually only found in professional or commercial speed competition rallying such as is found in the WRC where manufacturer teams are required to enter multiple cars. Commercial teams exist to provide a service to privateers. A driver, co-driver and friends volunteering to help can also be called a team.


title: Rallying

text: Auto manufacturers had entered cars in rallies, and in their forerunner and cousin events, from the very beginning. The 1894 Paris-Rouen race was mainly a competition between them, while the Thousand Mile Trial of 1900 had more trade than private entries. From the time that speed limits were introduced to the various nation's roads, rallies became mostly about reliability than speed. As a result rallies and trials became a great proving ground for any standard production vehicle, with no real need to purposely build a rally competition car until the special stage was introduced in the 1950s.


title: Rallying

text: Although there had been exceptions like the outlandish Ford V8 specials created for the 1936 Monte Carlo Rally, rallies before World War II had tended to be for standard or near-standard production cars. After the war, most competing cars were production saloons or sports cars, with only minor modifications to improve performance, handling, braking and suspension. This naturally kept costs down and allowed many more people to afford the sport using ordinary cars, compared to the rally specials used today.


title: Rallying

text: In 1954 the FIA introduced Appendix J of the International Sporting Code, classifying touring and sports production cars for use in its competitions, including the new European Rally Championship, and cars had to be homologated in order to compete. The Groups 1–9 within Appendix J changed frequently though Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 and Group 4 generally held the forms of unmodified or modified, series production touring and grand touring cars used in rallying.


title: Rallying

text: As rallying grew in popularity, car companies started to introduce special models or variants for rallying, such as the British Motor Corporation's Mini Cooper, introduced in Group 2 in 1962, and its successor the Mini Cooper S (1963), developed by the Cooper Car Company. Shortly after, Ford of Britain first hired Lotus to create a high-performance version of their Cortina family car, then in 1968 launched the Escort Twin Cam, one of the most successful rally cars of its era. Similarly, Abarth developed high performance versions of Fiats 124 roadster and 131 saloon.


title: Rallying

text: Other manufacturers were not content with modifying their 'bread-and-butter' cars. Renault bankrolled the small volume sports-car maker Alpine to transform their little A110 Berlinette coupé into a world-beating rally car, and hired a skilled team of drivers to pilot it. In 1974 the Lancia Stratos became the first car designed from scratch to win rallies. These makers overcame the rules of FISA (as the FIA was called at the time) by building the requisite number of these models for the road, somewhat inventing the 'homologation special'.


title: Rallying

text: In 1980, a German car maker, Audi, at that time not noted for their interest in rallying, introduced a rather large and heavy coupé version of their family saloon, installed a turbocharged 2.1 litre five-cylinder engine, and fitted it with four-wheel drive, giving birth to the Audi Quattro. International regulations had prohibited four-wheel drive in rallying, but FISA accepted that this was a genuine production car and changed the rules. The Quattro quickly became the car to beat on snow, ice or gravel; and in 1983 took Hannu Mikkola to the World Rally Championship title.


title: Rallying

text: In 1982 the FIA replaced the structure of groups in Appendix J. Rallying, with the young World Rally Championship, now allowed Group N for unmodified touring cars, Group A for modified touring cars and Group B for Grand Touring cars. The low production requirement and loose restrictions of Group B led many manufacturers to develop cars much further removed from production models, and so was created a generation of rallying supercars, of which the most radical and successful were the Peugeot 205 T16, Renault 5 Turbo and the Lancia Delta S4, with lightweight fibreglass bodies roughly the shape of the standard car tacked onto spaceframe chassis, four-wheel drive, and power outputs higher than . This particular era was not to last. On the 1986 Rallye de Portugal, four spectators were killed then two months later on the "Tour de Corse", Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto went over the edge of a mountain road and were incinerated in the fireball that followed. FISA immediately changed the rules again: rallying after 1987 would be in Groups A and N cars, closer to the production model. One notably successful car during this period was the Group A Lancia Delta Integrale, dominating world rallying during 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992 – winning six consecutive manufacturer's world rally championship titles, a feat unbeaten as of 2022. In the 1990s Japanese manufacturers Toyota, Subaru and Mitsubishi also dominated the world rally championships.


title: Rallying

text: Groups N/A/B were not exclusively used in rallying, A and N were also used in circuit touring car racing. Beginning with the 'F2 kit car' in the mid-90s, extensions to Group A and N began to emerge, these were modifications to touring production cars that made them 'a standard rally car'. The World Rally Car formula, introduced to the WRC in 1997, became the flagship car in the manufacturer's championship. This was followed by Super 1600 and Super 2000-Rally, standard formulas for lower classes.


title: Rallying

text: Group R contained a full range of formulae for rally specific cars and was introduced beginning 2008. Cars ranged from budget/entry in the case of R1, to performance in R5. R-GT made provisions for grand touring cars in rallying for the first time since Group B had been banned. In 2019, the Group R ladder became the basis of a new Groups Rally, with hybrid Rally1 vehicles replacing the World Rally Car. This particular car could be built using a spaceframe chassis, another first since the banning of Group B.


title: Rallying

text: Groups T1 and T2 codify cars used in FIA off-road rallies. Group T5 (T4 prior to 2020) was introduced to allow support trucks to enter the rally raids in their own class. Groups T3 and T4 are reserved for side-by-side vehicles and lightweight vehicles, these differ from cars by not having notable parts such as windscreens or doors.


title: Rallying

text: Since 2007 the FIA have arranged an ecoRally Cup in various forms for vehicles with alternative fuel sources or hybrid powertrains. As a regularity rally no speed tests take place meaning competitors can enter using commercially available cars, however purpose-built cars have entered in the solar powered category for example.


title: Rallying

text: The car manufacturer Opel, WRC driver Hayden Paddon and a collaboration of rally team Baumschlager, Kreisel and Škoda have each built electric cars for special stage rallies in the 2020s.


title: Rallying

text: In 2022 Audi entered the Dakar Rally for the first time with their electric Audi RS Q e-tron. Their later entry in the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge resulted in an overall win.


title: Rallying

text: The minimum age and inclusion of a vehicle in a historic rally is at the decision of the organiser. The FIA organises two international competitions for historic rallying: the European Historic Rally Championship, composed of special stage rallies; and the Trophy for Historic Regularity Rallies. In both cases, cars must comply with their Appendix K of the International Sporting Code, which classifies historic vehicles. Many nation's ASNs and independent organisations also arrange historic rallies and championships.


title: Rallying

text: As regularity rallies and touring assemblies take place on open roads without a performance requirement, a rally organiser can hypothetically allow any street legal vehicle to enter. The Wacky Rally will permit campervans, fire appliances, busses or the Batmobile for example. Banger rallies generally permit any car purchased below a given value. The Gumball 3000 is known for permitting luxury and performance cars alongside ordinary cars, vans and some unconventional vehicles.


title: Newsmax TV

text: Newsmax TV is an American conservative television channel owned by Newsmax. The network primarily focuses on opinion-based talk shows. It carries a news/talk format throughout the day and night, with documentaries and films on weekends. During and after the 2020 United States presidential election, it grew rapidly by broadcasting conspiracy theories and baseless allegations of voter fraud.


title: Newsmax TV

text: The channel was created by American journalist and Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy. It launched on June 16, 2014, to 35 million satellite subscribers through DirecTV and Dish Network. As of May 2019, the network reaches about 75 million cable homes and has wide streaming and digital media player/mobile device availability, including on Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Haystack News and more. The channel primarily broadcasts from Newsmax's New York studio on Manhattan's East Side, with headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida and Washington, D.C.


title: Newsmax TV

text: Newsmax TV holds a conservative political stance, broadcasting many programs hosted by conservative media personalities. CEO Christopher Ruddy has compared the network to Fox News. The company has hired many former Fox News Channel program hosts, including Greg Kelly, Rob Schmitt, Bob Sellers, and Heather Childers. "The Washington Post" has described Newsmax as "a landing spot for cable news personalities in need of a new home", citing the network's airing of Mark Halperin and Bill O'Reilly following their resignations from other networks due to allegations of sexual harassment.


title: Newsmax TV

text: In May 2014, U.S. news organization Newsmax announced that it had signed a distribution deal with DirecTV and would launch a national television news channel to compete directly with CNN, Fox News, and other American news networks. It was launched to provide independent news; its founder, Chris Ruddy described it as intended to be a "kinder, gentler Fox News," saying that "Our goal is to be a little more boomer-oriented, more information-based rather than being vituperative and polarizing."


title: Newsmax TV

text: Around the time of the channel launch, Businessweek Bloomberg profiled Ruddy and Newsmax in a feature story entitled "The Next Ailes: Newsmax's Chris Ruddy Preps TV Rival to Fox News. Businessweek Bloomberg reported that Newsmax planned to build off its success as a digital media player to challenge Fox News in the traditional cable arena while developing a stake in the emerging streaming OTT business.


title: Newsmax TV

text: A Fast Company report in December 2020 suggested Newsmax was on a course to "dethrone" Fox with its streaming digital strategy by offering the channel for free to platforms like Roku, YouTube, Pluto, Xumo and others. "You wouldn't know it by looking at cable TV ratings, but Fox News has a problem on its hands," Fast Company wrote, noting that "When you factor in Newsmax's streaming audience, the race between the two right-wing news networks is closer than you might think."


title: Newsmax TV

text: On January 16, 2016, "Dennis Michael Lynch: Unfiltered" debuted on the channel. The program ended after the first segment of the August 10, 2016, episode after Lynch announced that he would resign from the network and made comments defending Fox News Channel and criticizing his network for its reporting of the Trump campaign and suggesting they were restricting his editorial control; he was escorted out from the network's New York studio during what would have been the first commercial break. It was replaced the next Monday with an hour-long video simulcast of radio's "The Howie Carr Show" from WRKO in Boston.


title: Newsmax TV

text: Beginning in 2020, the network significantly ramped up programming, adding evening shows with Greg Kelly, a former Fox News and local affiliate host, and Grant Stinchfield, a former NBC local correspondent and ex-NRA TV host. The network launched "Spicer & Co." on March 3, 2020, featuring former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and co-host Lyndsay Keith, The network's overnight programming is mainly made up of repeats of Newsmax's evening show line-up and historical documentaries.


title: Newsmax TV

text: During the 2020 United States presidential election, then-President Trump began to promote Newsmax over rival competitor Fox News. Trump's preference for Newsmax over Fox News became clearer after the latter became the first news outlet to call Arizona for Democratic challenger Joe Biden. Newsmax has made their more conservative leanings a selling point to disaffected Fox News viewers, as well as employing Fox News alumni to join their lineup on Newsmax TV, such as Rob Schmitt and Greg Kelly.