WRC
Mads Østberg Goes Mad: Sets New World Snow Jump Record
Norwegian WRC racing driver Mads Østberg has enjoyed a bit of success in his World Rally Championship career but as it is with all athletes, practice makes perfect so a little snowy stunt driving is practically training. Record-breaking is just a bonus. Setting a new bar for himself, and the world, Østberg completed a world…
Ken Block Spoof Interview is Great Comedy – Video
Race cars, check. Beautiful women, check. Ken Block video, check. Gymkhana racing with Ken Block in video, negative. Wait, what? Ken Block is releasing a video that has no real action in it and it’s still worth watching? The Ford Fiesta driver spoofs himself with the aid of actor and comedian Nick Swardson in this…
MINI Misses Deadline for 2012 WRC Season
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….
Valentino Rossi Would Consider A Future In Rally Racing [VIDEO]
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…
Volkswagen Polo R WRC Sounds Like a Pack of Firecrackers [Video]
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….
Prodrive Prepares Hot Mini Countryman
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…
Ford Fiesta ST Concept : Frankfurt Auto Show 2011
Ford presented a concept model showing what a future Fiesta ST might look like when it joins the Focus ST in the company’s high-performance small car offerings. The Ford Fiesta ST hot hatch has a silhouette inspired by Ford’s rally racing Fiesta RS WRC. The lowered stance with 17-inch alloy wheels and full ST body…
Volkswagen Polo R WRC is One Mean Little Hatchback [2011 Frankfurt Auto Show]
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,…
Subaru May Separate WRX From Impreza Range To Focus On Performance
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…
Fiat Punto Abarth May Join World Rally Championship By 2014
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…
Volkswagen Polo R WRC Revealed
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…
Mini Returns To The World Rally Championship With The JCW Countryman
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…
Kimi Raikkonen To Compete In NASCAR
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…
Ken Block Released from Hospital After Spectacular WRC Crash [Video]
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…
Volkswagen Planning WRC Entry With Polo
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…
MINI Countryman WRC Officially Revealed in Monte Carlo
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….
MINI Countryman May Get WRC Inspired Street Car
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…
Ford Focus WRC Remembered in Tribute Video
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…
VIDEO: Ken Block Can’t Drive, Crashes A WRC Car
We all know Ken Block is a cool guy and a self-made millionaire, but what nobody seems willing to admit is that the guy can’t drive. Well, maybe he has some talent, but not nearly as much as Ford and Monster Energy Drink’s PR machine would have us believe. Although he has some of the…
Paris Auto Show Special: Race Cars [Paris 2010]
As part of our coverage of the Paris Auto Show, we decided to throw in some bonus galleries of cars we thought were cool but didn’t quite fit with the rest of our coverage. Paris was the site for a lot of important competition cars from French manufacturers, like the Peugeot HDi LeMans car, the…
Ford Fiesta RS WRC Revealed For Competition Duties [Paris 2010]
Ford’s new challenger for the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship, the all-new Fiesta RS World Rally Car, made its first global public appearance at the Paris Motor Show today. The Fiesta RS WRC will make its competition debut in Rally Sweden, the opening round of the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship, on 10 – 13…
Citroen Readies Next Generation DS3 Rally Car, Teases With Really Strange Video
With the huge success of their C4 rally car, Citroen has a lot to prove with their DS3 successor. Having already claimed three driver’s championships and two manufacturer’s championships in four quick years, the DS3 will have a ton to live up to. Obviously the playing field is a tad different with the new 2011…
MINI Countryman WRC to Debut at Paris Auto Show
MINI will officially debut the new Countryman WRC rally car at the Paris Auto Show later this week. A selection of spy photos and videos of the car have already surfaced online, but MINI has been quick to clarify that the car was not wearing its official WRC bodywork. Joining the WRC car will be…
Rhys Millen To Demo Hyundai WRC Car At New Jersey Motorsports Park
Rhys Millen, pilot of the Hyundai Genesis Coupe Formula D car, will drive a Hyundai Accent WRC car at the U.S. Rallycross Championship in New Jersey on October 2-3 and November 6-7. “We’ve really benefited from our Genesis Coupe Formula Drift partnership with Rhys, and so we’ve decided to expand on that with this move…
