Rally News

[Acropolis]

The wrc.com review: Neste Oil Rally Finland

Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala is not your typical rally driver, or even your typical Finn. For a start, he doesn’t drink. After celebrating his first win on the Rally Finland - an event that every Finnish driver desperately wants to win - he conceded that on this one occasion he might “taste” a bit of Champagne, but that he certainly wasn’t going to drink.

Unlike many of his tongue-tied compatriots, Latvala also frequently talks - at great length - as if he has swallowed a dictionary. How many other drivers regularly use words such as ‘paradoxical’?...

Off-Topic: show

That's it. It's official. I'm in love I mean, a bespectacled speed demon word nerd who doesn't drink??? We're so compatible!!! Jari-Mari, come to Manila!

And, oh... thanks, Sleen

Off-Topic: show

Dindi, I knew it! I knew it!!! When I read sentences like "he doesn't drink" and "talks as if he has swallowed a dictionary" and stuff like that, plus the glasses... OMG!!!

oh my, he looks like my kind of person too.....but then I love Kimi for being the way he is...

[dindi]

The wrc.com review: Neste Oil Rally Finland

Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala is not your typical rally driver, or even your typical Finn. For a start, he doesn’t drink. After celebrating his first win on the Rally Finland - an event that every Finnish driver desperately wants to win - he conceded that on this one occasion he might “taste” a bit of Champagne, but that he certainly wasn’t going to drink.

Unlike many of his tongue-tied compatriots, Latvala also frequently talks - at great length - as if he has swallowed a dictionary. How many other drivers regularly use words such as ‘paradoxical’?...

Off-Topic: show

That's it. It's official. I'm in love I mean, a bespectacled speed demon word nerd who doesn't drink??? We're so compatible!!! Jari-Mari, come to Manila!

And, oh... thanks, Sleen

Off-Topic: show

Dindi, I knew it! I knew it!!! When I read sentences like "he doesn't drink" and "talks as if he has swallowed a dictionary" and stuff like that, plus the glasses... OMG!!!

Off-Topic: show

That is uncanny, Kinga You always know what I think.

Come to think of it, Jari-Mari must be considered weird for a Finn He must've been an oddball growing up...

[Kinga]

The wrc.com review: Neste Oil Rally Finland

Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala is not your typical rally driver, or even your typical Finn. For a start, he doesn’t drink. After celebrating his first win on the Rally Finland - an event that every Finnish driver desperately wants to win - he conceded that on this one occasion he might “taste” a bit of Champagne, but that he certainly wasn’t going to drink.

Unlike many of his tongue-tied compatriots, Latvala also frequently talks - at great length - as if he has swallowed a dictionary. How many other drivers regularly use words such as ‘paradoxical’?...

Off-Topic: show

That's it. It's official. I'm in love I mean, a bespectacled speed demon word nerd who doesn't drink??? We're so compatible!!! Jari-Mari, come to Manila!

And, oh... thanks, Sleen

Off-Topic: show

Dindi, I knew it! I knew it!!! When I read sentences like "he doesn't drink" and "talks as if he has swallowed a dictionary" and stuff like that, plus the glasses... OMG!!!

Off-Topic: show

That is uncanny, Kinga You always know what I think.

Off-Topic: show

No surprise there at all!

[saif]

Rival teams welcome MINI to the WRC fold



Bosses of the Ford and Citroen teams have welcomed MINI’s decision to tackle a selected programme of world championship rallies in 2011 ahead of a full attack from 2012.

Citroen team head Olivier Quesnel said the announcement by MINI last month was a firm indication that the WRC was set for a bright future, while Malcolm Wilson, his counterpart at Ford, said the move sent out a “great message” for the WRC.

“It’s really good news for WRC first of all and now I’m really sure the worst is behind us because we can think that other manufacturers will come in the future,” said Quesnel. “For Citroen to have MINI, especially because we will have the DS3, is the best news we can have. We are very pleased.”

Wilson added: “It’s great it’s been confirmed because it’s been on the cards for so long. It sends out a great message for the WRC that we’ve got another important manufacturer coming into the championship, which is something we’ve all been hoping would happen. It can only be a benefit to the championship and I hope MINI coming in has the desired effect.”

Both Quesnel and Wilson recalled early memories of MINI competing in its heyday in the 1960s with the Cooper S model.

“My memory was as an eight-year-old watching it on the RAC Rally in Whinlatter,” said Wilson. “It was such a small car with sparks coming off the sump guard but no other cars were doing that.”

Quesnel said: “When I was young I used to live in Cannes and I went to see the Monte [Carlo Rally] with my scooter when I was 16. I went to see during the night and I see the MINI. It was a good choice.”

Speaking to World Rally Radio, David Richards, whose Prodrive organisation is developing the MINI Countryman WRCs, added: “The championship has so much to offer. It’s had a difficult period but now with a clear calendar and future, plus an injection of new manufacturers, it’s on its way back up. I’m pretty sure MINI coming will wake up a lot of people.”

http://www.wrc.com/news/rival-teams-wel ... ?fid=13454

[luieluv]

MINI’s return to the WRC - David Richards Q&A

Subaru’s decision to withdraw from rallying in 2008 sent a shockwave through the sport and ended an association with British motorsport firm Prodrive that stretched back almost two decades.

Now Prodrive is back, with a new partnership with BMW Motorsport and MINI, and a new World Rally Car, the Countryman, under development ahead of a WRC debut in 2011.

Heading the project is Prodrive’s chairman, and WRC title winning co-driver, David Richards - the man who first brought Subaru into the WRC back in 1989.

Talking on the World Rally Championship’s official radio station, Richards explained how the new team had come about, how the car was coming along, and why he prefers to take some risks when it comes to choosing a driver-line-up...

The MINI project marks the public return of Prodrive to the WRC, two years after Subaru pulled out in 2008. How did you keep the team running in the meantime?

“We had some extraordinary talent in the team and we knew that if we took our time and didn’t do anything immediately people would disappear into other areas. Some people did, of course, but we put many on sabbaticals and had some working on other projects. To the core team and we said right, your job is to design the ultimate rally car according to the new regulations.”

“The traditional way of producing a rally car is that a manufacturer comes along and asks you to make a car out of this product. Instead, we took the new regulations and said, right, what would the ultimate car look like? We used reverse engineering. Three months in, we looked at what we’d got and analysed this against the cars of all the manufacturers in the world. By March 2009 we had come up with 11 target cars. Then we went to talk to the manufacturers.”

So the MINI lends itself well to the WRC treatment?

“Ironically the MINI wasn’t on that list because the car as we knew it was too small. It just didn’t fit the rules. But during discussions we found out that a new, larger car was in development - the four-door Countryman - and it went straight to the top of our list. Firstly, as being just about perfect in dimensions and layout, and secondly being one of the most iconic names and rally brands ever.”

When did work on the Countryman start?

“By June 2009 we’d narrowed things down to three manufacturers and three products we thought were suited. At the same time we continued work on common elements of the project: We decided which manufacturer we wanted to work with on a new design of steering rack, and were working with a suspension manufacturer on a new damper concept. It was the first chance for us to have the time to do these things in a logical, methodical way. By December it was decided that we were going to be working with MINI and they gave us car data for us to start designing from. So we’ve been working on the actual car for nearly nine months now and the first car is ready bar an engine.”

When will BMW motorsport give you the first proper engine?

“Regulations from the FIA were a little delayed in terms of the turbocharger and other details engine, but we expect the first engines to be with us by the middle of August. We’ll start shakedown of the first cars by the end of August.”

And how soon after that before the car is ready to rally?

“But from there on it’s probably another six months before you can finish the development programme, the homologation work, produce spare parts and make sure that everything is right. It will be the middle of next year before we’re competing.”

Next year you’ll be pitting the new MINI against cars from established WRC manufacturers Ford and Citroen. How do you think it will fare?

“There’s no way you can underestimate the strength of the competition, but we’ve done this very methodically. We’ve done it with a lot of experience of what is required to win and with the cooperation of BMW Motorsport on the engine side as well, so we’re under no illusions about what the task is and how good the car has got to be. But the basic MINI starts off as being a superb product and this new Countryman is a great product and around it we will build a very special car.”

And it’s a new car which you’ll sell to private competitors?

“Absolutely. It’s what we did with Subaru in the past and selling customer cars is something we will continue with this programme. We’ve taken a number of orders already from our existing customers, who clearly we have to prioritise, but we expect to be producing one of these cars every fortnight from the latter part of this year. These customer cars will be identical to the ones we’ll run ourselves in the WRC. It works from both sides; it gives economies of scale and increased developing and testing wherever they are in the world.”

Have you selected your development drivers yet?

“There is no shortage of applications. But the initial testing will be done by our engineers and a small group of test drivers who we use historically for doing this work for us in the UK. Most of this will be carried out between now and September when the major testing starts in Spain or Portugal. I would expect we’ll have one or two drivers signed up by then.”

And what about your works team drivers beyond that? Names including Markko Martin and Marcus Gronholm have been linked to MINI.

“Markko has done work for us in the past and Marcus is a great friend of ours who did the Portugal Rally in one of our cars last year. But there is also young talent out there and we must take some risks with this programme. If I look back at how we were so successful in the past it wasn’t by making safe decisions - it was choosing young McRae when everyone told me he would never get to the end of any events. And look what happened. And then picking up RB and working with him and getting him to the WRC title. That’s what we’re about and that’s what I intent to make sure MINI is all about for the future.”

And what chance for a British driver?

“Mini is an international brand and we need to get the best drivers in it and get the best opportunity for success, but I’d very much like to see a British driver in the team. After all, it was Paddy Hopkirk who scored the last great victories for MINI and wouldn’t it be great to see that repeated with another British driver? But let’s see how things evolve over the next couple of years. We’re not rushing into anything yet and our full programme doesn’t really commence until 2012 - so we’ve got a little time yet.”

http://www.wrc.com/news/features/minis- ... &page=3905

[luieluv]

PG Andersson after the meeting at Prodrive: The ball with me

Rally Star PG Andersson, 30, is approaching new Mini World Cup team. Yesterday, he made a brief visit to the factory in England.

- There is an interest on their part, "he told VF-gate.

PG Andersson were not many quiet days after the second spot in the Finnish World Rally Championship. Yesterday, he flew to England and visited the headquarters of Prodrive in Banbury to familiarize themselves further with the new World Cup team.

Prodrive, who previously ran the venture Subaru World Rally Championship, has now been given the responsibility to take care of the BMW Mini's comeback in the WRC circus.

- I looked around and talked to the people. There was not much more than that this time.

• You did not receive a contract proposal with you?

- I am not ...

- No, We have not arrived. But it feels like they are interested.

PG also met with Prodrive chief David Richards briefly during his visit.

- We just talked a bit fast. If what I imagine and so.

• It sounds as yet that their interest is high?

- It feels like it.

• Will you get to test drive the car?

- The ball is in my hands a bit there. We'll see.

• How does the car look like?

- I saw it only from a distance and it was some stuff missing, the engine for example. But it is certainly good.

Prodrive is responsible for the development of the car (Mini Count Ryman) and BMW, which owns the Mini brand, will supply engines.

- They know what they do, they've very little experience. I'm sure it will be fine.

PG Andersson hope alongside the Mini even get an offer from Ford for next season.

- It would be interesting to know what they have in mind, if there is a chance. The dream would surely be able to choose. But it can be that I'm standing there after the season without anything at all.

Mini plans to run selected races in Cup next season and then play a full part in a multi-year effort from 2012 onwards.

http://www.vf.se/sport/bilsport/p-g-and ... en-hos-mig

[Sébastien Loeb]

Thanks luieluv
I think Mads and Marcus in MINI next year

[dindi]

Would be awesome if Bosse came back!

[Dracaena]

Would be awesome if Bosse came back!

It would be awesome for the sport and for the fans. He's a fabulous driver and a very entertaining personality.

But I also feel a bit sad about it. After he had retired he told the media that he found it difficult to suddenly be home all the time. He and his wife even gave an interview together about how the new situation was difficult for both of them. They suddenly had to learn to live together day in day out whereas before Marcus had been gone a lot of the time and his wife was running the show at home. (I actually didn't read that article, I just saw the front cover, but I think that's about how it went.) That's why I'm a bit sad, it seems that he didn't cope to the new situation and had to statrt rallying again (not unlike a certain Mr Schumacher). I just hope that his wife is also happy about him rallying again (I don't know why I should care but I do). The problem is that some day he'll have to retire again. Or maybe he'll drive until he dies of old age behind the wheel...

[luieluv]

Yes having bosse back would be a treat for all the fans. New and old. But i am afraid that even if bosse would return, he wont do the entire program of the team. He has in the past clearly mentioned that he wont be able to do all the rallies. Perhaps more than 2 would be a good idea for us fans.

[Sébastien Loeb]

thy are 8 drivers Candidates for driving mini car
http://www.autohebdo.fr/rallye/wrc/brev ... avec-mini-

[saif]

thy are 8 drivers Candidates for driving mini car
http://www.autohebdo.fr/rallye/wrc/brev ... avec-mini-

Petter in Mini?

[luieluv]

Legend Alen calls for more two-day rallies

News5th August 2010
By Anthony Peacock

Rally legend Markku Alen thinks that the two-day format pioneered by Rally Finland last week should be adopted by all the rounds of the World Rally Championship.

The 60th anniversary edition of Rally Finland was over in just a couple of days – but both days were long and very intense.

“It reminds me a little bit of how rallying used to be in my day,” said Alen, who was world champion for 11 days at the end of 1986, before the results of that year’s Sanremo Rally were annulled.

“We were flat-out all the time, day and night,” he added. “There was really no time to rest. With just two days, there are fewer stages – and that means that everyone has to push really hard on every stage. Maybe some people will complain about being too tired, but this sport is not meant to be easy.”

Alen also pointed out that one day less of rallying also had cost advantages for both teams and events. “It’s better for everybody,” pointed out the Finn. “The teams spend less on hotels and people. For the organisers it’s also easier as they have one day less to arrange. I think this format could definitely work everywhere.”

link:
http://www.maxrally.com/news/entry/lege ... y_rallies/

[saif]

Saab tipped for WRC comeback



The World Rally Championship's return of retrospective manufacturers looks set to continue, with Saab now tipped to follow Mini back to the sport's highest level.

Saab, which last competed in the WRC in 1979, has been linked to a possible entry in 2012, with the firm's first ever World Rally car running off a possible 9-1 or 9-2 base car.

The engine for the car would be likely to come from BMW, meaning a universal 1.6-litre turbocharged motor for the Mini and Saab.

After being on the verge of collapse late last year, Saab has been purchased by Spyker. Senior officials from Spyker have already met with the sport's organisers - and they are expected to go into the next round of meetings at the Rally of France in early October.

AUTOSPORT's sources stated: "The initial meeting [between Saab and WRC officials, believed to include both the FIA commissions and promoter North One Sport] has happened and there's a huge amount of enthusiasm from all concerned. Like Mini, Saab has a great heritage in the sport and a return to the WRC makes a lot of sense."

North One Sport's Simon Long refused to be drawn on specific manufacturers, but said: "I think Mini's announcement has given people a lot of confidence in the sport. The messages we're getting are all positive."

Volkswagen is believed to be the next manufacturer ready to commit to the WRC, with the German firm expected to begin a limited programme of WRC rounds in 2012 before a possible full entry in 2013.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85860

[luieluv]

Saab tipped for WRC comeback

By David Evans Friday, August 6th 2010, 08:55 GMT

The World Rally Championship's return of retrospective manufacturers looks set to continue, with Saab now tipped to follow Mini back to the sport's highest level.

Saab, which last competed in the WRC in 1979, has been linked to a possible entry in 2012, with the firm's first ever World Rally car running off a possible 9-1 or 9-2 base car.

The engine for the car would be likely to come from BMW, meaning a universal 1.6-litre turbocharged motor for the Mini and Saab.

After being on the verge of collapse late last year, Saab has been purchased by Spyker. Senior officials from Spyker have already met with the sport's organisers - and they are expected to go into the next round of meetings at the Rally of France in early October.

AUTOSPORT's sources stated: "The initial meeting [between Saab and WRC officials, believed to include both the FIA commissions and promoter North One Sport] has happened and there's a huge amount of enthusiasm from all concerned. Like Mini, Saab has a great heritage in the sport and a return to the WRC makes a lot of sense."

North One Sport's Simon Long refused to be drawn on specific manufacturers, but said: "I think Mini's announcement has given people a lot of confidence in the sport. The messages we're getting are all positive."

Volkswagen is believed to be the next manufacturer ready to commit to the WRC, with the German firm expected to begin a limited programme of WRC rounds in 2012 before a possible full entry in 2013.

link:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85860