The Swedish automaker Saab, now owned by Spyker, plans to join Citroen, Ford, Mini and Volkswagen in two years' time. They are currently signing engineers and the Russian Evgeny Novikov has been chosen to drive for them.
Although Citroën and Ford are currently the only two manufacturers competing in the WRC, Mini is one step away from its debut in May in Sardinia and Volkswagen will announce its entry into the WRC next week in Portugal. As originally reported by the Spanish website AS.com, Saab will also be involved in the WRC in the future and their involvement will be timed with the introduction their future compact model, which will be called the 9-2 or the 9-1.
The Swedish brand has been acquired by the Dutch sports car maker Spyker, which is in turn owned by the Russian tycoon Vladimir Antonov, a rally enthusiast who has just bought the North One, the company which owns the television rights to the WRC. His next step will be to introduce Saab to the WRC, a move scheduled for 2013, although it could even be brought forward to next season.
The Swedish firm is not entirely new to rallying, with its four wins in the Rally of Sweden, in 1973, 1977 and 1979 by Stig Blomqvist and with Per Eklund in 1976. At the moment they have already put in their bids to engineers in different specialities and they are preparing the Russian rally driver Evgeny Novikov so that he is ready for the challenge.
