world • monde • welt • värld THIS ISSUE: THE CAR IS THE STAR – 40 Rallycross YEARS OF RALLYCROSS #38 – February 2007 CARS STUDIED IN DEPTH Saloons GT cars Group B How did we get here? Roadcars to Supercars, the evolution of Rallycross cars world • monde • welt • värld 3 Rallycross Where next for Rallycross cars? Pulling power Rallycross cars have always excited me. An Against the Escorts of the 1970s, today’s cars annual event in my motor sport year as a kid are like the space shuttle. They bristle with was the family outing to Valence Hillclimb in every permitted technological device and those Kent, where one of the star performers was who create them spend around half of each 4 locally-based Rallycross superstar Rod Chapman year trying to steal a march on their opponents. who always attacked the short tarmac hill with The cars are still exciting, but now it’s in The evolution of Rallycross cars verve. a different way. You’re unlikely to see any of On the outside of a right-handed turn in the today’s leading four-wheel drive cars pitched course there was a huge rhodedenron bush and sideways into a corner as the likes of Chapman it was a rare year if Chapman’s Escort did not so routinely did. The buzz now comes from the attack it at some point in the day. If we were sheer speed at which these cars can cover the lucky he’d go in one side and pop out of the ground and the staggering grip they possess. other! [email protected] subscriptions • abonnement Click it! subskription • abonnera Copyright Advertisements in Rallycross Rallycross World is a Myriorama World are interactive – click on production published by Tim them to jump straight to the Now Whittington. advertiser’s website. This publication may not And make sure you check be redistributed, copied or the whole advert as some free at reproduced in whole or in have multiple links – and part in any form without you wouldn’t want to miss the written consent of the anything, would you. ERC24 copyright holder. Unless There are also links from otherwise stated, all text and Rallycross World is now free some editorial items and we photographs are © copyright to registered members of will always try to offer a live Tim Whittington 2007. ERC24.com 16 18 link wherever we quote a Contributors: Eddi Laumanns, To register click here and website address in editorial Jacques Privat, Jan Kåre Rafoss, then follow the instructions Daniel Welch set for Rallycross debut The Rallycross World content. Robert Chambers. on the site. Rallycross World is also This issue published Feb 6 If you prefer to subscribe poster – Matti Alamäki featured at the recently Next issue published Mar 6 without joining ERC24, visit 17 launched website [email protected] www.RallycrossWorld.com and Stig Blomqvist, 1989 www.myriorama.com www.myriorama.com BRC opener to mark 40 years at Lydden Briefing For our next trick… The best racecars ever Where do Rallycross cars go from here? are a motor sport bargain Over the years many race and rally drivers have been offered the chance to try Rallycross cars and I’ve never come across a single one of them who did not enjoy the experience, specially when they were allowed to play with top class four-wheel drive machinery. Supercars, Division One, call them what you will, are among the most exciting racecars ever devised. Faster, lighter and more powerful than World Rally Cars, even their current restricted form they will out accelerate a F1 car: the benchmark for the standard 0-100km/h (0-60mph) measure is claimed by Swede Andreas Eriksson who recorded times in the 1.7s bracket last year. And yet these highly specialised machines are not, in motor sport terms, expensive. Commission a new car from one of the best and you need to think in terms of parting with something in the region of £200,000. A lot of money, but compare it with the £400,000+ price tag on Ford or Subaru WRC and compare the relatively long competitive life that a Rallycross car has, as well as the dramatically lower running costs – Irish Tarmac Rally Championship budgets are around £60,000 per event for a WRC – and Rallycross cars look like a motor sport bargain. It’s not only those who get to drive these cars who are captivated by them, all manner of motor sport fans will fall in love with the best cars – if only they can be persuaded to take a look in the first place. Died-in-the-wool rally fans may need to dragged kicking and screaming to their first Rallycross and The 2007 season will see second generation Citroën C4s from Most ‘mid-range’ saloons have grown over the last few years, race goers who don’t comprehend the idea of running the car KHM and Olivier Anne as well as a new version of the Fiesta the new Focus is bigger than the original version, the C4 bigger on dirt surfaces often need similar coercion, but if you can get ST from Andreas Eriksson’s Ford Team RS Sweden, Eklund than the Xsara, etc. The trend follows through to ‘compact’ these people to watch top class action, they are hooked, and Motorsport’s second shot at the Saab 9.3, Bergteamet’s new cars, the Fiesta and Clio both bigger now than in previous the wow! factor of the best cars is a very big part of what wins Volvo S40 and Helmia’s Renault Clio III. The latter pair are the incarnations – the Fiesta has track and wheelbase dimensions these people over. only truly new cars among the group, but as the S40 shares its only slightly different from the Escort Cosworth. 40 years ago a Porsche 911 was an unimaginably exotic platform with the current Focus, it’s a fair bet that it will work. Engine configurations could change too. Volvo drivers want and incredibly fast car. In that respect Rallycross cars have Assuming the rest have got their sums right and the second to try five-cylinder engine (perhaps in the C30, above) option – changed little. In the flesh, of course, today’s four-wheel drive, evolution of their cars work out better than the first, we are also suitable for the new Focus – and with WRC transmissions turbocharged, bespoke racecars have nothing in common with left with the Clio. Like the Fiesta, it is smaller than most of the becoming stronger, it seems certain that we will see transverse the 911, save that they, like it, are exciting to watch. established pace setters and could well point the way forward. engine installations tried again soon too. Rallycross World #38 – FEBRUARY 2007 | 3 The car is the star The evolution of Rallycross traced over 40 years Ever wondered how Rallycross cars became so specialised, or Appendix J Groups 1,2,3 and 4. This met with horror from the been so great. Just two years and four days after the first ever how they have evolved from the mixed bunch of rally, race and majority of competitors as many cars would have been rendered Rallycross the first four-wheel drive cars had appeared, and standard road cars that shared the track in the first event 40 ineligible. In the end the RAC vehicle regulations were adopted those had been just a month behind one of the first out and out years ago? and this created a set of rules – not unlike those that still exist in specials: a BMC-built Austin 1300 that featured a lightened shell Ever since that first event, Rallycross has had fairly free Britain today – which permitted wide ranging modifications. and an eight port fuel injected 1300cc motor. technical regulations and the early days saw all manner of cars Trouble arose because the freedom of rules allowed Ford had enjoyed much success with the Twin Cam Escort, used, including Autocross specials. The first attempt to define manufacturers to push development as far and as fast as they which had been introduced in February 1968. Tony Chappell the technical limits of Rallycross cars was made in the summer wished. It was the manufacturers themselves who seemed most drove one of the factory entries and won the first Rallycross of 1969 when it was proposed to limit eligible cars to those of concerned, probably because the pace of development had Championship, his campaign having started in a fuel injected Vic Elford on his way to victory in the first Rallycross event with a standard roadgoing Porsche 911 Motorsport News/LAT photos: Rallycross World #38 – FEBRUARY 2007 | 4 John Rhodes was a star of the early years and among the very fastest of the Mini drivers. Lotus Cortina. 100bhp from its 998cc by the autumn of ’68. Paul Emery was Dunlop (CR89) with hand-cut treads that were shallow in the Also at the beginning of ’69 Roger Clark had used an Escort also a busy man with Imps and his cars were driven with some middle of the tyre and deep on the outer edge. In essence fitted with an FVA engine at Croft, although he was beaten by success by Peter Watkin. the pattern of cutting Rallycross tyres has changed little since a Mini driver on an ice bound day. Later in ’69 Barry Lee had During 1968 Ford had used Goodyear racing tyres with although today's tyres are specially constructed for the demands pushed the Escort further and used an 1894cc Twin Cam in a car good effect in dry events, Peter Harper had used Dunlops in of the sport, not just a tricked up crossbred rally/race tyre.