Posts Tagged ‘super 2000’
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
With two new stars coming into the championship, I thought it would be a fun thing to compare their driving styles – so I found one onboard video of each driver. Ken Block on the Concord Pond stage in the New England Forest Rally 2008 in America driving a Subaru Impreza and Kimi Räikkönen driving the Abarth Grande Punto in WRC Rally Finland 2009 on the Leustu stage.
Compare the driving styles yourself!
Ken Block, Subaru Impreza, New England Forest Rally 2008, Concord Pond stage, onboard:
Kimi Räikkönen, Abarth Grande Punto, WRC Rally Finland 2009, Leustu stage, onboard:
Tags: abarth grande punto, concord pond, driving style, ken block, kimi räikkönen, new england forest rally, onboard, rally finland, s2000, subaru impreza, super 2000, Video, WRC, youtube
Posted in National Rallying, Video, WRC | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
According to today’s Värmlands Folkblad, PG Andersson is looking to join Petter Solberg World Rally Team for the 2010 season. Discussions have been held during a long time between Petter and PG but has now intensified. Believed to be left is “just” the sealing a budget of around €200000 – 300000. If the plans become reality, however, PG will not drive a WRC car alongside Petter, but a Super2000 (most likely a Skoda or Peugeot) in the Production WRC – which would anyway form a good preparation for the upcoming WRC probably dominated by S2000 cars.
My opinion is that getting PG into a good team in the WRC and with a mentor such as Petter would be really great and that is of course big news. However, one should remember that the amount of money still missing is huge, and from what I know it forms around half of the budget of a Super2000 season. This means that the news is still just half a seat and there is a long way to go.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that PG and Petter get everything well together!
Tags: 2010, petter solberg, petter solberg world rally team, peugeot 207 super2000, pg andersson, pswrt, skoda fabia super2000, super 2000
Posted in Silly season, Swedish Rallying, WRC | 4 Comments »
Saturday, March 21st, 2009
Reading WRC.com’s post Cyprus interview with Petter Solberg, I get a few small positive surprises. Questioned on the excitement of Super2000 cars, Petter’s goes straight on to the important things. He says:
- The excitement will be the competition; how far can we push the car, how far can we push ourselves, where is the limit? THAT will be the excitement. It will be a different type of driving, for sure. We’ve already seem that you have to go absolutely crazy to keep the speed up with less power!
Many people, mostly including drivers and rally fans, continue to discuss wether 10 km’s more or less in speed will make the sport uninteresting. Come on! You can barely see the difference between 100 or 110 km/h – and to compensate for being slower those cars will have less advanced electronics – making up for wider slides and more rough driving. Petter is completely right here – just push the limits and WRC will offer exactly what it has been offering before; excitement, high speeds, crashes and fights on tenths of a second.
It will just be a little bit cheaper and fights will be a little bit closer, because of more drivers and teams.
Tags: cyprus, excitement, petter solberg, super 2000
Posted in WRC | No Comments »
Friday, February 27th, 2009
As I speculated before Max Mosley’s famous meeting in Paris a week ago, FIA have now changed their mind about the 2010 regulations. From the plans on a Super2000+ formula where the plus represented an additional kit including a turbocharger, they’ve now backed off and decided (the formal decision is to be made in the next World Council meeting) that the main class of the WRC from 2010 will be Super2000 – without turbo, but with an extra air package. The extra package is just a kit allowing for a little bit larger parts on the car creating another aerodynamic profile, if I get things right. Anyway, it’s perfectly clear there wont be a turbo.
What more became clear on the meeting is the likeliness of a new winter-based calendar starting in August, making the season break appear on the summer months. I don’t know if it’s good – but for sure rallying competes with a lot of different things, including a lot of other motorsports, in the summer – so why not try? I mean… We wont lose the summer-like conditions, they can be found on many places even in a calendar spanning from August to April or May!?!
All this things will probably be finally decided on the next World Council meeting on the 19th of March.
Tags: calendar, fia, max mosley, super 2000, turbo, winter, world council, WRC
Posted in WRC | No Comments »
Sunday, February 8th, 2009
Patrik Sandell tested the Skoda Fabia Super2000 on snow in preparation of Rally Norway today. He describes the first feeling of the car as very good and is happy with the first day. The team started the day with a setup close to the Skoda’s gravel setup and has then made modifications based on Patrik’s input. Tomorrow, Sunday, the test will continue.
For a picture of the car, follow this link.
Here is a video, posted by Patrik himself, of today’s test:
Tags: patrik sandell, rally norway, s2000, skoda fabia super 2000, snow, super 2000, Video
Posted in Rally testing, Video, WRC | No Comments »
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
Kimi Räikkönen made his rally-debut earlier this weekend doing the Arctic Lapland Rally in Finland. A 13th place is not at all bad considering he’s not a rally driver – but a racer. The rally seems to have been a huge success regarding PR and spectators – but I’m afraid we wont see Räikkönen back in a rally car. Of course he needs to focus on his racing career – and being a F1 champion he has nothing to win but everything to lose by being a regular in rally. However, as a one time PR thing he obviously thought it was OK.
See some nice clips of Räikkönen (made by Kimismely) in his Punto here:
Tags: abarth grande punto, arctic rally, kimi räikkönen, punto, super 2000
Posted in National Rallying, Rally promotion and media coverage | No Comments »
Monday, January 19th, 2009
The IRC started as a small baby when the FIA decided to wait before switching to Super 2000 regulations a few years ago. With smart decisions and a strong media partner the championship has now grown into a teenager or a young adult, and soon it may be a full-grown beast seriously challenging the WRC in many ways. This year the season opens with the Rallye Monte Carlo – a mythic event full of history and legends.
Rally Monte Carlo has for years been the season opener of the World Rally Championship, but with the WRC stepping down to 12 events per year Monte is now in the IRC calendar for 2009 – and it will for sure be great. In 2009, IRC will have seven manufacturers commited to go for the championship – compared to WRC’s two. Abarth is the old guys in the game running their Punto Super 2000, while Skoda is the latest addition running two Fabia Super 2000 with Juho Hänninen and Jan Kopecky at the wheels. Besides them, also Honda, Citroen, Mitsubishi, Peugeot and Volkswagen are going for the IRC title.
With a number of new drivers, the 77th Monte Carlo Rally should be an open affair. Reigning IRC champion Nicolas Vouilloz is of course one of the favourites – but he will for sure be challenged by Abarth’s Basso, Skoda’s Kopecky, Peugeot’s Freddy Loix, Didier Auriol and Stephane Sarrazin as well as Kris Meeke in the brand new Kronos/Peugeot UK-run Peugeot 207. But maybe the biggest danger to Vouilloz in Monte is his own countryman, upcoming youngster Sebastien Ogier. Ogier has been awarded the Monte Carlo start in a Peugeot 207 Super 2000 in the BFGoodrich Drivers Team but is set to compete in the Citroen Junior Team in the WRC the rest of the season.
No matter what happens, the event will be a huge show to the public. It’s run in three legs during Wednesday to Friday and four stages will also be run in night conditions – like in the good, old times. Everyone having access to Eurosport should be happy, since the event is covered probably better than any previous rally, counting both the WRC, IRC and others. Rally Monte Carlo will get no less than 6h 15min of live television and added to that 2×15 minutes of short highlights from day one and two. More about that (including TV times) in my post regarding Eurosport TV coverage.
More info about the 77th Rally of Monte Carlo (external links)
Entry list
Itinerary
Stage maps
IRC Official website
Tags: dider auriol, eurosport, fia, freddy loix, giandomenico basso, jan kopecky, juho hänninen, kris meeke, night stages, rally monte carlo, rallye monte carlo, sebastien ogier, stephane sarrazin, super 2000
Posted in IRC, Rally promotion and media coverage | No Comments »
Monday, January 19th, 2009
With IRC season opener Rallye Monte Carlo coming up this week, Kris Meeke has recently tested his Kronos Racing/Peugeot England Peugeot 207 Super 2000 on snowy roads in Saint Auban, France – 60 km’s north of Nice. In the test also Sebastien Ogier took part, partly driving the car of Kris. Check out this video:
Kris and Sebastien are just two good drivers among others starting the Rally Monte Carlo this week (Ogier has been chosen to start in a single outing for the BFGoodrich Drivers Team). The IRC entry list is really impressive compared to the starting field previous seasons, and IRC is really becoming a championship to respect. I’ll get back to this later this week with a more detailed preview before the rally begins.
Tags: bfgoodrich drivers team, france, IRC, kris meeke, kronos racing, nice, peugeot, peugeot 207, rally monte carlo, saint auban, sebastien ogier, snow, super 2000, test, testing, Video
Posted in IRC, Rally testing, Video | No Comments »
Friday, January 16th, 2009
According to an article in Autosport, Petter is in talks with Proton regarding a possible 2010 deal. Proton has developed a Super 2000 car and their director tells Autosport that the marque is aiming to compete in the WRC.
Tags: petter solberg, proton, super 2000
Posted in Silly season, WRC | No Comments »
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
For a long time, there have been rumours about Volkswagen entering the World Rally Championship with their Scirocco car. The team is speculated to be run by English company Prodrive, that ran the Subaru works team until their retirement in the end of 2008. Now the VW Motorsport Director Kris Nissen, known from the brands big Dakar engagement, reveals that the marque is seriously considering getting into the sport and the world championship.
Volkswagen is one of the worlds biggest car manufacturers, and according to Kris Nissen they want to be involved in motorsport on an international basis – like the Dakar or the WRC. The plans for the brands future motorsport involvement will be finalized right after the Dakar, so a decision is to be expected quite soon.
For the notes, Volkswagen does already have Super 2000 car based on the Polo and, develope by the regional actor Volkswagen Racing South Africa.
Tags: dakar, kris nissen, polo, scirocco, super 2000, volkswagen
Posted in WRC | No Comments »
