2010 World Rally Championship

[Günthar Rowe]

will it be competing in FWD/2WD class or AWD class?

 

[Günthar Rowe]

Well this explains the 1.6L + turbo

BMW’s MINI division will be joining the World Rally Championship’s Super 2000 category next year with a rally-going version of the MINI Countryman called the MINI Countryman WRC, rally-prepped by Prodrive.
The Countryman WRC will be powered by a 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo-charged engine from BMW Motorsport. Super 2000 specs allows for the use of 1,600cc turbocharged engines and four wheel drive as a complement to the 2,000cc normally aspirated engines such as the one found in the Satria Neo Super 2000.
“This is a very exciting new motorsport program. During the 1960s MINI captured the imagination of the world when the tiny car took on the might of V8 powered Fords and won what was then one of the toughest motorsport events, the 4000km Monte Carlo rally. I believe our new MINI will become a firm favourite of the latest generation of rally fans, just as it is adored by its millions of owners across the world,” said Prodrive chairman David Richards.
From BMW’s press release its seems that the Countryman WRC car will be available for customer orders as well and there have already been some bookings. BTW, who knows this new 1.6 liter turbo instead of 2.0 normally aspiration rule might spur Proton to switch its Neo S2000 from the current 2.0 liter Renault to a 1.6 liter Project Phoenix turbo.

 

[Günthar Rowe]

looks hot in the impression....

 

[Aaron DeMarre]

BMW says they are gunning for the title in three years: http://www.rallybuzz.com/mini-want-wrc-title-in-3-years/

I guess they are planning on Loeb and Ogier retiring in three years then?

All kidding aside, it is great to see BMW throw the hat in the ring, so far it looks like the car changes are having a positive effect. Rumors are that Toyota is considering coming back as well. Looks like the smaller cheaper cars are attracting the manufacturers again!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

Lets hope they enter the same spec Mini in the WTCC as well. Then BMW can move on fighting other premium brands in the ALMS and LMS series and no longer have to worry about Seat's and Daewoo's.

 

[Warren Dawes]

I like the look of this plan, very ambitious, but you never know. I'm sure it will be a professionally run team, and I think the MINI has good potential. They will need to get some top drivers though, the drivers make much more impact on these WRC Championships than simply having a strong car. Maybe we might even see an Aussie at the wheel, what is Chris Atkinson doing these days???

Great to see more manufacturers entering WRC, that is what is needed.

 

[mthaleem]

It will be nice to see a Mini in a rally again.

 

[Tim Ling]

great stuff

 

[Dave Stephenson]

Mikko Hirvonen extended his lead in Finland to 4.9sec after setting the fastest time through the 22km Jukojarvi. Hirvonen’s second consecutive stage win came despite an incident 4.6km from the start line when his car struck a roadside post which broke off and struck the windscreen.​

But while his closest rival on Friday’s opener had been his Ford team-mate, this time Citroen C4 drivers Petter Solberg and Sebastien Loeb were second and third quickest. Both Solberg and Loeb edged past Latvala in the overall standings, leaving Latvala fourth, 0.8sec adrift.​

More info:

Stage Times
Split Times
Daily Start Times

 

[Barbje_Keller]

Hirvonen out in 4SS

 

[Omer Said]

Jari-Matti Latvala claimed the biggest win of his World Rally Championship career so far by holding the Citroens to earn victory in his home event Rally Finland.

Latvala became Ford's only hope after his team-mate Mikko Hirvonen - who had set a spectacular early pace - had an enormous crash on Friday morning. Hirvonen's accident had put Petter Solberg (Solberg Citroen) into the lead for a while, but by the middle of day one Latvala had pulled ahead.

read more

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Whatever happened to Kimi? After all this was his home event. No word about him in the article, anyone know?

 

[Omer Said]

Kimi went out of the track, lost nearly 9 minutes, then finished 25th or something around.

 

[Austin Jordan]

title says it all. it was a rally truck race called the california 200. a driver lost control over a jump and ran into the barriers. 8 spectators were killed.

only thing that seperated the cars from the people is barriers. the people are supposed to be way away from the barriers but instead were right next to them. make things worse the driver was blamed for the mess when the track staff should of had something to keep people from the barriers. here's a vid of it:

from what i saw the front of the car came down over the jump and flipped the car into the barriers hitting people. sad story but another reason tracks should make sure drivers and spectators are safe.

 

[Senad Subasic]

The gene pool has improved a bit.

Why not lie in front of the cars, and film them as they jump over you! :good:

Poor driver though... This will haunt him.

 

[Austin Jordan]

yeah i they threw rocks at the driver because he lost control. this rally, you're bound to lose control. i heard people were supposed to be 100ft away. how did they tell that? put a white line and say do not cross? don't see why they were so close.

 

[Mike Bell]

he must have felt like rubes barichello did when he hit massa in the head with something
but he is being blamed but he wasent at fault

 

[Austin Jordan]

exactly. he may of lost control but of course a lot of cars are gonna lose control and crash. the track staff should of made sure that all people were 100ft away like they're supposed to and that they are on only one side of the track (rule aswell)

 

[Koray Can]

People are sometimes (often?) too damn close at WRC rallies, too. The car may have a puncture or something and who knows what it might do even on a straight.

 

[Fredrik Arbegard]

Crowd control in Rally has always been a problem.
Just look at this video from rally portugal in the 80's:

from 1:50 it is just insane.
During those times spectators tried to get as close as possible to the rally cars, Ari Vatanen supposebly said that he could find fingers sometimes of people who had tried to touch the sharp edged Group B cars.
It hasn't changed very much but in WRC they do cancel stages due to overcrowding but obviously they can't in Baja or Dakar.
But as Austin said there has to be a safety zone maintained by marshalls.
And to add it is never the drivers fault when people are plain stupid...