MINI finally confirms their entry into the 2012 World Rally Championship after missing the official entry deadline of December the 19th. MINI has had issues with coverage of the event in the past and it seems has tried to make a statement about their dilemma. A source in the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) said, “We have...
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MINI‘s hopes for capturing the 2012 World Championship Rally title took a big blow before the effort even started. Mini has missed the deadline for signing up for next years championship, which expired at midnight, last night. The Mini rally car, which is based on the Countryman model is prepared by Prodrive in Banbury, U.K....
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Dacia has taken quite a different approach in revealing its latest minivan, Lodgy. Rather than traveling the usual auto show circuit and looking pretty on rotating pedestals, a unique, race-prepped Dacia Lodgy has been made to compete in France’s ice rally series, the Trophée Andros, months before any information on the production model is available....
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Valentino Rossi is clearly a warrior on all things two-wheeled. Rossi won his first 125cc championship in 1997, a 250cc World Championship in 1999, a 500cc World Championship in 2001, back-to-back World GP Championships in 2002 and 2003 with Honda, and another back-to-back in 2004 and 2005 with Yamaha. It would take until 2008 for...
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Earlier in the month we reported that Volkswagen was testing their new WRC Polo R with Carlos Sainz behind the wheel, and now there’s video from Sainz’s testing sessions along with the official announcement of VW signing Sebastian Ogier as their first driver for the FIA World Rally Championship alongside Julien Ingrassia as his co-driver....
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Volkswagen’s WRC entry in the form of a Polo R is out testing a little over a year before its official competition debut. The Polo R recently got its first bout of testing on a 1.5-mile tarmac track out in the vineyards in Trier, Germany. Behind the wheel during test was Dakar winner Carlos Sainz...
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Prodrive is synonymous with turning everyday family runabouts into championship winning rally cars. Most recently, they have competed with a Mini Countryman, which is faring quite well so far. Now Prodrive is turning its attention to making a special version of a Countryman for those who don’t have a race seat in the FIA Rally...
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Ask someone from Volkswagen what their most important reveal is at the Frankfurt Auto Show and the answer will be simple: the Up!, the diminutive city car with a 1.0-liter 3-cylinder engine. That’s all well and good, but what about a car (another small car we might add) that’s just awesome. We are, of course,...
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Subaru may decide to have a separate WRX line different from the Impreza family in a move to create a more dedicated performance range for the automaker. The new Impreza goes on sale this fall and is expected to be a significantly higher volume model than any of its predecessors. Subaru may chose to separate the...
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After years of Citroen dominating the World Rally Championship, Fiat is getting ready to challenge the French automaker’s dominance with their own entry, based on the Punto Abarth. The Abarth has been racing in the International Rally Challenge and national rally championships with the Punto S200. The S2000 has done considerably well in a number...
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Volkswagen gave us a first look at their Polo R WRC, a competition version of their Polo R hot hatch destined for the World Rally Championship. Powered by a 1.6L TSI four-cylinder engine, the all-wheel drive Polo R makes 296 horsepower thanks to turbocharging and direct injection. The usual competition modifications, like a rollcage, bucket...
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The president of Mitsubishi, Osamu Masuko, is “very interested” in producing electric Formula 1 cars, with an eye to mutually compatible technology with their road cars. The governing body of Formula 1, the Federation Internationale de lÀutomobile, announced this month that it is working with representatives of the European Commission to develop a racing series for...
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It’s been 40-some odd years, but Mini is finally returning to the world rally stage. The Mini WRC Team will be competing in the 2011 World Rally Championship with the John Cooper Works Countryman, as modified by legendary performance company Prodrive. The team was recently launched in its factory in Oxford in a nostalgia-laden gala that...
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Former F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen will join NASCAR, in a surprise move, a departure from his previous endeavors in Formula 1 and rally racing. A Finnish newspaper, cited by Autosport, claims that Raikkonen will start out in the Truck series before moving on to both the Nationwide and Sprint cup car series. No start...
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Known for pulling wild stunts behind the wheel of his Ford Fiesta rally car, Ken Block had zero intention of rolling the high-powered machine five times. But that’s just what happened during a shakedown of the car ahead of the Rally of Portugal event this weekend. Block, and co-pilot Alex Gelsomino were both admitted to...
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One obvious sign of economies returning to full steam is increased involvement by automakers in the incredibly expensive field of motorsports. A valuable R&D experience regardless of the outcome, the marketing aspect depends solely on if you win. With a Charlie Sheen obsession for “winning”, Volkswagen aims to get involved directly with the prestigious World...
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Robert Kubica, one of Formula-One’s finest drivers, suffered a terrible crash over the weekend, when his Skoda Fabia rally-car slid off the road and hit a church wall. The crash took place just 4-miles from the start of the Ronde di Andora rally in Italy. The 26 year-old Polish star has suffered massive injury to...
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After teasing us with a hopped-up version at the Paris Auto Show, MINI has now revealed the official race-prepped Countryman WRC machine. Unveiled in Monte Carlo, MINI brought out drivers Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke, as well as the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally winning Mini Cooper and drivers Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk to celebrate....
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With a huge gulf existing between the road-going version of the MINI Countryman and the WRC-ready version, a halo version that could bridge the gap between urban crossover and full-blown race car could be an asset for MINI, and help them leverage some of the image boost that their rally program will provide, especially in...
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Ken Block’s Gymkhana videos are a lot of sound and fury but ultimately signify nothing. A combination of great editing, a specially prepared car and an unrivaled hype machine has propelled Block to the top of the Youtube heap. But his newest video, barely 2 minutes in length, is genuinely awesome. Piloting a 1978 Ford...
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German firm X-Raid is already preparing a MINI Countryman, a vehicle that’s been on sale for less than a month, for competition in the upcoming Dakar rally. While most of the photos show a finished product, the vehicle prep shots show a pretty thorough re-working of the biggest MINI, as well as a gorgeous custom...
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Recently Ford announced that it would be retiring the Focus from WRC racing duty as new rules will see the switch to using the Fiesta and a smaller 1.6-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder. To celebrate the car and honor its legacy Ford of Europe has put together a 5 minute tribute video, packed full of jumps, crashes...
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It’s not unheard of for tuner-type wannabes to refer to their modified sport compact as a “race car” – but what if you really could buy a suite of parts that would turn your econobox into a real, full blown rally racer? Ford is doing just that with their new R2 rally kit for their...
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Bill Caswell, who famously campaigned a $500 BMW 318i in an FIA-sanctioned rally event, will be bringing his car to SEMA – and turning it into a Baja style off road racer. The build will take place over the course of the SEMA show, with the roll cage on day 1,the suspension on day 2,...
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