The 1977 World Rally Championship was the fifth season of the
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; en, International Automobile Federation) is an association established on 20 June 1904 to represent the interests of motoring organisations and motor car users. It is the governing body for ...
(FIA)
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
(WRC). The schedule was expanded by one event to 11, with some changes to the locations visited. Morocco was dropped from the schedule while new rallies were introduced in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
and
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
Due to internal politics within the company,
Lancia
Lancia () is an Italian car manufacturer and a subsidiary of FCA Italy S.p.A., which is currently a Stellantis division. The present legal entity of Lancia was formed in January 2007 when its corporate parent reorganised its businesses, but it ...
failed to mount a significant effort to capture a fourth consecutive Championship. Instead, corporate partner
Fiat
Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...
led the fight against
Ford
Ford commonly refers to:
* Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford
* Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river
Ford may also refer to:
Ford Motor Company
* Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company
* Ford F ...
, ultimately triumphing in a tightly contested battle that lasted most of the year.
From 1973 to 1978, the WRC only awarded a championship for manufacturers. Scoring was modified in 1977 to a more complex system including points both for overall and group placement. A car would still have to place in the overall top 10 to score points.
In addition to the Championship for Manufacturers, the FIA began awarding the
FIA Cup for Rally Drivers. A total of 20 events were part of this series, including all rallies of the WRC, the five coefficient 4 rallies from the European Championship and four ''FIA Special Events''. Only the best 8 results were counted towards the title: five WRC rallies, two ERC rallies and one Special Event.
Events
Map
Schedule and results
Manufacturers' championship
Cup for drivers
* Waldegård had to drop one of his best results in WRC events because he didn't take part in at least one ERC event, as provided by the regulations.
See also
*
1977 in sports
1977 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
Alpine skiing
* Alpine Skiing World Cup
** Men's overall season champion: Ingemar Stenmark, Sweden
** Women's overall season champion: Lise-Marie Morerod, Switzerland
American football
...
External links
FIA World Rally Championship 1977at ewrc-results.com
{{World Rally Championship results
World Rally Championship
The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...
World Rally Championship seasons