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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Peugeot's Pikes Peak monster specs revealed!

Peugeot have revealed the technical specifications of it's 2013 Pikes Peak challenger, the 208 T16.

The former WRC-winning manufacturer will return to the legendary Colorado hillclimb after a long absence, armed with a brand new car and a driver capable of dominating the whole thing on his own. Being a nine-times World Champion, Sebastian Loeb certainly knows how to get from A to B as fast as possible, and as he is now semi-retired he was Peugeot's perfect choice.

“Your imagination is the only limit” said the engineer given the job of designing the new car, Jean-Christophe Pallier. These words give a small hint towards what kind of machine he and his team have built.

Pallier's creation sports an earth-shattering 875bhp, created by a twin-turbo 3.2 litre V6 (originally designed for Endurance Racing) driving all four wheels underneath a pure carbon fibre body shell. And it's just that as well, the bespoke shell is mounted to a tubular steel space frame chassis. The car also sports a six-speed paddle-shift sequential gearbox.

Stopping is taken care of by carbon brake discs and one-piece alloy callipers, while cornering is left to a spectacular aerodynamic package, which hosts a two metre wide rear spoiler and specially designed underbody, (which generates half of the car's total downforce), and massive slick tyres.

The total car weighs in at 875kgs, bringing the Power-to-Weight ratio up to the near mythical 1:1, with one BHP taking care of one kilograme of weight. Allied to this are the relatively small dimensions, being only 4.5 metres long and 2 metres wide.

The vast majority of the parts in the car are of similar spec to the hugely successful Peugeot 908 Le Mans car. But, whereas the 908 could hit speeds near 200mph, the 208 T16 will only go to 150 mph. However, it'll get there in seven seconds!

Testing gets under way this week near Pau, South-West France. Endurance racer Greg Guilvert will take the wheel of the car for this test. Pikes Peak runs on 30th June.

Photo Credit: Red Bull

Saturday, April 20, 2013

VW, champions in their first year?


Even though they spent nearly a year just testing this brand new car, the VW World Rally team surely can't even be a little bit surprised by the first four rallies in the 2013 WRC season.

Even though they have never run a top-level WRC team, or a top level WRC-spec car, the VW team and star driver Sebastien Ogier have racked up three WRC wins from four starts. As well as that, Ogier took second place behind the retiring nine-times World Champion Sebastian Loeb in Monte Carlo, the only rally he has so far failed to win.

Ogier's smallest winning margin has been a massive 41.8 secs over Loeb in Sweden. On the next round in Mexico he obliterated the opposition to win by 3 mins 28.9 secs, VW's decision to carry out a test in Mexico paying huge dividends. His third win in Portugal was coincidently his third win in the Polo R WRC as well. This time he won by 58.2 secs.

“Maybe it looks easy for me, but Mads [Ostberg] and Dani [Sordo] were very, very fast before the mistakes. It will be a big fight to keep this kind of result all the year. Now we have the good advantage. Now we don’t need to win the rallies, but this is not my plan: I am a competitor and I like the taste of victory. But I know I have to be clever for the rest of season.” he said.

His team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala has been less successful in the Polo R WRC, however. 2013 marked the first year since 2006 that Latvala had driven anything other than an M-Sport prepared car in the WRC, and he struggled to get used to the handling of the new car. Two crashes in testing didn't his fragile self confidence neither, but neither were his fault. A member of the public drove their car onto the closed test road in Mexico, and collided with Latvala's VW, and in Portugal a 'mechanical failure' sent him into a ditch.

A patch of ice sent him out of Monte Carlo, but he came back with fourth in Sweden, only to exit in Mexico very early after a rock shattered his front suspension. He did manage to score his first VW podium in Portugal. He put this result down to a stronger mental attitude he took on heading into Portugal, pushing himself on.

“I was pushing myself, forcing myself to drive fast and it started to help. I have been letting myself think I can take the experience and the speed will just come, but it doesn’t work that way – you have to work for it.”

“My confidence is coming in the car. In Argentina I will have a different set-up which will suit me better, but still I am really, really happy with this result.” he added.

Team leader Jost Capito even revealed that their pre-season plan of learning and gaining experience might even be reviewed, such is their recent domination. Ogier's three straight maximum scores have him heading the Driver's table by 54 points, while VW lead the Manufacturer's standings by 14 points over the formerly all-conquering Citroen team.

“In terms of pace, we are among the front-runners and appear to be able to force our rivals to make mistakes, without making any ourselves. With that in mind, we might just have to change our goals for the season,”

Could we be in for another few years of domination by a single driver in a single car? Who knows, not many could have predicted Loeb's meteoric rise to superstar status, but with Hyundai and possibly even Toyota looming in the horizon, Ogier might just have his work cut out!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Hyundai filling more top level positions


Hyundai has announced several important positions within their new WRC programme have been filled, by people who have vast experience in the top level of the sport.

“We’ve been evolving rapidly since the beginning of the year and made great progress in filling all the main roles to establish our core team. We’re facing a big and exciting challenge in building a team from scratch and we have now only nine months to prepare for next year. I’m now surrounded by the best people in the business and I’m confident we’ll be ready to meet our ambitious goal to be ready at the start of the 2014 FIA World Rally Championship.” said Team Principal, Michal Nandan.

Since Hyundai announced their return to the top level of the WRC back in September 2012, they have wasted to time in getting a team set up, a car on the road and then in development. The team have been testing an 'interim' version of the i20 WRC since late December.

Michal Nandan was announced as Team Principal in January, around the time the i20 WRC was first shown to a small group of the media. Now, however, more names of the new team members have been announced.

Bertrand Vallat: Involved in the design of the massively successful Peugeot 207 S2000 and the new 208 R5, Vallat has actually been working with the i20 WRC programme since last December. He will take up the role of Chief Designer.

Stephane Girand: Hyundai's new engine manager. Formerly an employee of the Subaru World Rally Team, Peugeot Sport and Citroen Sport, he brings massive experience to the fledgling team. The engine's powering the DS3 WRCs are known for their 'pull' out of tight corners, so Girand's help could give the new car an edge here.

Alain Penasse: The Belgian will take up the position of Team Manager later this month, and is linked with TTE, Peugeot Sport and tyre supplier Michelin. He has also has helped in organising the infamous Ypres Rally.

Hyundai are still yet to announce a driver line-up, and they are presented with a driver market that is bursting at the seams with new talent. GRN will be compiling a list of drivers who we think deserve a Hyundai seat soon, so stay tuned!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Donagh Kelly wins Circuit of Kerry


Before he made the jump to the top level of Irish rallying, Donagh Kelly was already a very successful driver in the showroom Group N classes. However, since the purchase of an ex-Chris Atkinson and PJ McDermott Subaru Impreza S11 WRC, he has been nearly on the pace of the established top men.

However, today he proved that he is now on the pace of the regulars by winning the Circuit of Kerry Rally by 1 min 28.5 secs over the legendary Kenny McKinstry, his first closed-road rally in his latest purchase, an Impreza S14. Kevin Barrett took another of the Impreza's from the McKinstry stable home in third place.

At the start, Declan Boyle lead the rally in his Subaru Impreza S12 WRC after some stunning driving over the first stage, only 2.8 secs ahead of Kelly but an amazing 30.8 secs ahead of McKinstry, who was struggling to get used to the left-hand drive car. Boyle set an even more impressive time over the next stage to increase his lead to 11.5 secs.

On the very next stage, it was all over for the Glenties driver. He was caught out by a square right and the S12 slid off the road into the ditch, rolling once before coming to a rest on its wheels. Both he and co-driver Brian Boyle were ok, and luckily the car only suffered mostly panel damage. However they were out of the rally, and Kelly took over the lead, which he held to the end.

Alan Ring won Group N and took fourth overall in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, just ahead of Frank Kelly. Kelly, with Stephan Quinn on the notes, was fastest 2WD and winner of Class 14 in his Ford Escort Mk2 in fifth place overall. Eugene Meehan and Jonathan Treanor took rounded out the Top 6.

John McQuaid pushed Frank Kelly hard in the 2WD stakes, but the alternator belt slipped and he wisely decided to back off, but still managed to take seventh place. James Laverty, Frank Sweeney and Cal McCarthy rounded out the Top 10.