With just two M1 factory teams in the WRC, rally car rental’s and privateer teams are on a high. A strange thing though is that the Peugeot 307WRC is not much used. Last year, Daniel Carlsson was set to use the car in the Swedish Championship part of the Uddeholm Swedish Rally. Unluckily, the rally was cancelled – but Carlsson still drove a test of the car and a media event, and I was there both of the times.
I’m not a rally driver, an engineer or a car technician, but what I saw was pretty impressive – at least to me. The car looked very steady and strong, and Carlsson told me exactly the same. He saw potential on getting top stage times with the car even though it’s quite old (the 307WRC was launched in Monte 2004). Bozian has made a strong job on keeping the car up-to-date and they seem to deliver good value for drivers that wants to fight on top level, or almost there.
So, why is the car not more used? People are renting Fabia WRC’s like never before, they are using all kinds of old Focuses, etc etc. The 307 is used a bit in the french championship, but could be used much more. I know that Henning Solberg had long discussions with Bozian before going to Ford for 2009, and I think that even Petter have been in contact with them, but so far there seem to be no result of that.
So, why? Is it too expensive? Or are people scared of the bad performance from the 307WRC when it was used in the WRC? I think much the second, and that’s too bad, since much has happened to the car since then. However, if I were a rally driver I would have called the Bozian guys today. I have a feeling it’s good value-for-money.
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Tags: 307wrc, bozian, daniel carlsson, henning solberg, petter solberg, peugeot 307 wrc, swedish championship
