Here are a few videos from the Rally Sweden servicepark yesterday.
The Ford team’s service area:
Ford’s Super2000 service area:
Ford under the bonnet:
Ford’s Stobart service:
Thanks to mijn400 for the videos.
Posts Tagged ‘ford’
Video: Ford Rally Sweden service
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Stobart likely to get a flying start of the season
Thursday, January 21st, 2010Henning Solberg and Marcus Grönholm are Stobart’s nominated points scorers for Rally Sweden… No wonder, since both are snow experts and both probably even deserve to be called Sweden expert. Marcus has won the rally five times and Henning has had numerous top scorings during the years. Without any technical problems on their Ford Focus WRCs I think both will be able to score top six placings and at least one of them probably better – maybe including podiums…
Video: M-Sport enters the IRC as a manufacturer
Friday, January 8th, 2010The Cumbrian based firm M-Sport, managing Ford’s rally operations in WRC, now enters the Intercontinental Rally Challenge following the launch of their new Ford Fiesta Super2000. The rules of the IRC allows any competitor running with a certain manufacturer’s car to score manufacturers points, which now means that any Ford Fiesta driver (both 4WD and 2WD) in the championship will score points. Malcolm Wilson, managing director of M-Sport, says to ircseries.com:
- Joining the IRC allows us to offer our customers the chance to make the most out of their participation on the series, as well as the opportunity to showcase our products in new markets. Initial testing with the Ford Fiesta S2000 has gone extremely well, and we’re very much looking forward to seeing our car make its competition debut with Mikko Hirvonen in Monte Carlo later this month.
This is Mikko Hirvonen testing the Ford Fiesta Super2000 in December last year:
Video: Ken Block’s Gymkhana TWO
Thursday, January 7th, 2010Since many people seem to have missed the fame of Ken Block and his Gymkhana stunt videos, I decided to post the Gymkhana II here. It’s not really rallying – and of course he has done a lot of tries, but at least it’s a rally car and it’s still quite impressive. Also, it’s a sign of how to do successful marketing with rallying – this video was ranked number four in the Viral Video Chart 2009 by well-known Advertising Age. Here we go:
Confirmed: Ken Block competes in WRC 2010
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010It’s been rumoured a long time, but finally it’s confirmed. Ken Block will compete the 2010 World Rally Championship with Monster World Rally Team backed by M-Sport. Besides that Ken, who is a big star over in the US, will race the Rally America series with the new Ford Fiesta S2000 as well as compete in the X-Games for his fifth consecutive year.
The charge by Block, who is the first American ever to do a larger assault for the championship, seems to be on a long term, since he says that he’ll not promise any podiums the first year:
- Racing in the WRC has always been a dream of mine, but, I’m not going to promise podiums in my first year. I’ll be going up against the best drivers in the world. My main objective for 2010 is to develop into a competitive driver for 2011, and beyond, says Block.
Sad enough, Block – who is co-founder of DC Shoes and a former snowboarding, skateboarding and motocross star – is set to skip Rally Sweden and start of his WRC challenge with Rally Mexico in March. No matter what, the WRC will really be boosted this year with two superstars in Raikkonen and Block joining the championship.
I’ll get back later on with more info and some reflections on Ken Block and his chances in the championship.
Monster World Rally Team launch video:
More info at: http://monsterworldrallyteam.com/
Citroen’s big dilemma: A satisfied Petter Solberg is too good
Sunday, May 24th, 2009Citroen has been facing the same dilemma all the season, but now they’re really face to face with it:
If Petter doesn’t get fresh parts of the Xsara the car isn’t good enough for him to be happy, and if he does get fresh parts the car+driver mix is way too good for Citroen’s taste.
As soon as Petter got his new gear in Sardinia, Loeb was forced behind Solberg in fourth place. For sure Loeb had some bad luck, but without Petter he would get six points instead of five… I’m sure the Citroen bosses are worried that Petter will steal more points from Loeb and more important from the manufacturer team later this year.
As I see it, there are two main scenarios that are really simple:
- Scenario one, Citroën accepts Petter’s speed and the fact that he may take a few points away of Loeb, Sordo and the junior team (the effect on the junior team is small, as they normally aren’t good enough to pass Petter even with his old gear) during the rest of the year. They let him have the 2006 parts, a good engine mapping and the passive differentials – that all allow him to be fast. (The parts are already given to him, and it will be hard to take them away – but Citroen are still able to give him a weaker engine mapping to make him go slower…)
- Scenario two, Citroen think they cannot afford Petter to be fast with his Xsara, and they reduce his chances of a win by not giving him any further upgrades and by making changes to his engine mapping. However, I’m sure Petter wouldn’t accept that (PSWRT and cheif engineer Fx Demaison are probably staring like eagles on the performance of the engine after the turns with Citroen), and I’m quite sure they he want to see continous progress on the car – otherwise they’ll leave Citroen for Ford or possibly even the Peugeot 307 (read more here and here).
I think the decision for scenario one or two will be done partly by Petter’s feeling in Sardinia, if he’s happy enough or not – but also by Loeb’s and Sordo’s pace in the next few rallies. If the Citroen management see Ford getting closer in the race for the manufacturers title, I’m quite sure they won’t allow Petter to continue taking points away from them. However, if Loeb remains unthreatened for the drivers title and if Citroen can keep their distance in the manufacturers championship, maybe it’s OK. Citroen have probably already got used to the fact that their juniors aren’t able to beat Petter more than on random occasions…
The future will tell…
UPDATE:
Read more (in Norweigan) about Petter’s performance in Sardinia on the following (external) links:
http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/05/24/sport/motorsport/rally/rally-vm/petter_solberg/6374198/
http://www.vg.no/sport/motor/artikkel.php?artid=547805
Rally d’Italia-Sardinia: Latvala proves his pace
Sunday, May 24th, 2009Rally d’Italia-Sardinia became the rally where Jari-Matti Latvala once again would prove his speed. After leading the car-breaking rally from the very first stage until the end, maybe he can throw some water on the fires of all people yelling after Rally of Portugal. Then, everyone seemed to want him replaced in the Ford team… Anyway, I stick to my opinon about the time it takes to create a new star in the WRC, and as I said already in April Latvala’s team-mate Mikko Hirvonen is one of the best evidences ever that a crash-king can soon become a regular and stable podium contender. Now, I guess we can just hope this win comes as a confidence boost for Latvala making him step off just a little but still being fast in the next rallies and allowing for Ford to take back some of Citroen’s big advantage in the manufacturers championship. That would make the WRC a little bit more exciting…
Something that seems to be exciting all the time this year is the production car WRC. In Sardinia, the rally ended with Nasser al-Attiyah leading the field, taking the lead from Patrik Sandell with just 1.5 seconds on the very last stage. Annoying for Sandell, who took over the lead from his countryman Patrik Flodin on Saturday, when Flodin was hit by trouble. This means Al-Attiyah leads the championship with 31pts ahead of Araujo on 29pts and Sandell on 28pts. PWRC will be a tough battle until the end, it seems!
Other interesting things in this rally:
- Loeb is under investigation for a wheel change made on Saturday. Probably the subject of investigation is if the car was moving at any time when Loeb or Elena wasn’t seated. If so – this would be against the rules and should be punished, as with Duval in Japan a few years ago. This means, Loeb may lose his position…
- Petter Solberg caught the third place, ahead of Sordo (who retired after turbo problems) and Loeb who took the fourth place. Loeb was really happy with his new car spec after shakedown, and seemed to settle well with it during the weekend after some overheating problems on stage one. Now, the big question is what Citroen will do… I’ll make a separate post about that since it’s really an interesting question.
- Despite having ran Cyprus a few months ago, Sardinia seems to be the most car-breaking even of the season so far… (Henning, Rautenbach, Sordo, Ogier, Loeb’s puncture, Petter’s [and all the others'] overheating)
Finally a car switch coming up for Petter Solberg?
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009Rumours on the Internet says that Petter Solberg may switch his car for the Rally Italia Sardinia later this month. Interesting! I’ve been saying quite a few times that a car switch is the only way for Petter to be able to continue his strong performances and stand strong in the championship. What may be up for him now? I think a C4 is most likely, but a Ford switch is fully possible.
Adapta fears sabotage – I fear imagination
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009A few days ago I posted a video about Henning being furious on his mechanics, because of a mistake. For a short while, it seems like Henning thought that the fault was caused by sabotage, but he has now changed his mind after talking to the parc fermé guards in person. However, the Adapta team scored a very faded result on the event and they immediately woke up when talking about sabotage. Team manager Mårten Östberg tells Norweigan media that they monitored the car all time except for the nightly parc fermé. Despite the fact that the parc fermé is guarded by guards appointed by the FIA, Östberg thinks that the car was sabotaged there:
- We have no suspect, but as we see it there is no doubt that the car has been sabotaged, he says to moss-avis.no.
I have of course no clue if Östberg’s car has been sabotaged – but it sounds quite strange. I think the team should be very, very careful before doing so serious accusations. Even though Mads Östberg says to moss-avis.no that the sabotage itself didn’t cause their bad results – it mostly sounds like losers talk now…
Smart decision: Petter sticks with Xsara in Cyprus
Monday, February 16th, 2009
Petter Solberg's car during service in Vikingskipet. Photo: pettersolberg.com
Petter Solberg ended up sixth in Rally Norway. Many people think it’s bad, and compared to what Petter was expected to do by most people I must agree. But was those expectations realistic? No.
I predicted Petter to be in the top ten and maybe score some points, which is exactly what he did – sixth place gives him two drivers points. He couldn’t do much more, that is – and was – obvious. He has got an old car, I’m sure his engine mapping is a little bit downgraded by Citroen to not allow him to be able to beat their works drivers, etc. etc. I told it all a while ago in a post here on the blog (see this link). I also told it was the best strategy, because then he could do the showoff, blame the car, and then go on with more important stuff – like the future.
That’s exactly what happens now. After Rally Norway, Petter told that the car wasn’t fresh – rather half-tired – and publically admitted that a Ford switch were possible. However, he had a meeting with Citroen on Sunday evening. The result of the meeting was, according to Petter himself, that he will continue with the Citroen in Cyprus. Citroen has promised to basically go through the whole car and also get to grips with the engine troubles haunting Petter in Norway.
So, how smart is that? Quite smart, if you ask me. I still don’t believe that you can get top material from Citroen as a privateer if it doesn’t benefit the current needs of Citroen (like Duval in Germany 2007). But, that doesn’t matter that much in Cyprus. The Cyprus Rally is a very, very demanding event with really slow average speeds – where consistency and reliability is everything. If you keep on the road with a car in one part – you’ve came a long way. And that’s where the Xsara is best. It has always been consistent and reliable, giving the drivers a very high percentage of finishes – as long as they stay on the road.
This means, Petter could well take his time to see what Citroen gives him for Cyprus, try it out – and then make a decision. He wont lose on doing it – rather win. But then – after Cyprus – I think his best choice (if he wants to get good results) is Ford.
