The WRC features three support championships, the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC, formerly the WRC Academy), the World Rally Championship-2, and the World Rally Championship-3 which are contested on the same events and stages as the WRC, but with different regulations. World Rally Cars are built on production 1.6-litre four-cylinder cars, but feature turbochargers, anti-lag systems, four-wheel-drive, sequential gearboxes, aerodynamic parts and other enhancements brought the price of a WRC car to around €700,000 (US$1 million). It evolved from Group A cars which replaced the banned Group B supercars. The World Rally Car is the current car specification in the series. The WRC was formed from well-known and popular international rallies, most of which had previously been part of the European Rally Championship or the International Championship for Manufacturers, and the series was first contested in 1973. Each rally is usually split into 15–25 special stages which are run against the clock on closed roads. The series currently consists of 12 two to three-day events driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers and manufacturers, with a new teams championship added in 2021.
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, governed and organised by the FIA.
