By Kamil Kaluski
The 2017 Monte Carlo Rally starts today. Premiering at that rally is the Fiat 124 Abart R-GT. It has a 300-horsepower 1.8-liter engine. Those horses go to the rear wheels via a seven-speed sequential-shift gearbox. Two wheel drive is a requirement of Group R-GT in which the Fiat is in.
Col de Turini is a famous, steep, high elevation, 31-kilometer pass in the French Alps. This year there is a lot of snow on it, possibly making things very interesting.
Image source: AxisOfOversteer
Jeff Glucker 
Greg Kachadurian
Continuing a proud Abarth tradition…Wiith all the retro marketing that entails.
http://cdn.speednik.com/files/2016/03/2016-03-04_01-30-24.jpg
http://images.honestjohn.co.uk/imagecache/file/fit/730×700/media/5560725/Fiat%20124%20Rally%20Spider%20(1).jpg
Note the IRS instead of the standard 124 live axle. They did major changes back then too.
Looking at the entry list there is car 21 to be driven by the legendary Francois Delecour and car 25 of Fabio Andolfi (formerly ran in WRC3). The third car in R-GT is a Porsche (911 GT3 variant) of Romain Dumas, who has just finished the Dakar in a very creditable 8th place – talk about an impressive year to follow winning Le Mans and Pikes Peak!
Also there are a couple of the new rear-engine Renault Twingos on the entry list too, it will be interesting to see how they go as rally cars. Mini-911’s?
I hope R-GT gets TV coverage in WRC. I’d rather watch these, 911s and Toyota GT86s all sliding round over some 4WD thing in a Hyundai hatcback bodyshell.
Agreed. The current cars that are so far removed from what people drive, even in the rallying heartland of Europe, seem like the entrants have taken the regs too much in the direction of what makes for a great rally car rather than what makes an appealing series. The cars are rocketships, but speed in isolation is fairly meaningless, ie if they were 10% faster or slower no-one would really notice.