World Rally Championship

It’s still early days in the 2016 motorsport season but Volkswagen is already previewing its contender for the 2017 World Rally Championship. There’s a lot at stake as the next season will see Toyota make its return to the sport. VW has been the dominant force in WRC since it returned...

Volkswagen has been the dominant force in the World Rally Championship over the past few years but Hyundai, which returned to the sport two seasons ago, isn’t giving up just yet. The Korean automaker this month unveiled its contender for the 2016 season, which once again is based on its i20...

Volkswagen may not have much to cheer about right now but there’s at least one reason for the German auto giant to celebrate: a third-straight title in the World Rally Championship. Star duo Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia won the Drivers’ Championship following their...

Finnish rally legend Tommi Mäkinen, a winner of four World Rally Championship titles during the 1990s, will serve as team principal for the Toyota WRC team, which is set to start throwing gravel come 2017. The team will be competing under the newly established Toyota Gazoo Racing banner, and...

Hyundai was hoping to introduce a new i20 World Rally Championship racer this season based around a yet-to-be-revealed three-door version of the Korean automaker’s i20 subcompact. However, delays in getting the road car ready meant Hyundai’s motorsport division needed to stick with the...

Volkswagen will be out to claim its third consecutive title in the grueling competition known as the World Rally Championship, with a new version of its Pole R WRC. The new rally car was unveiled overnight at an event at VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, and will see its first...

They’ve done it again. In a repeat of last year, Volkswagen’s Sébastien Ogier together with co-driver Julien Ingrassia have secured the 2014 World Rally Championship Drivers’ title. There’s still one more round to go this season, but after taking out this past...

Hyundai made its World Rally Championship comeback this year using a new rally car based on its i20 subcompact sold overseas. The company hasn’t fared all that well, having taken home just one win versus the 10 Volkswagen has notched up, but Hyundai is in for the long term and plans to launch...

Earlier this year it was revealed that Toyota and its motorsport partner TMG had started testing a new Yaris rally car designed to tackle the World Rally Championship, but Toyota has been here before. The Japanese automaker competed in various top-level rally competitions between 1973 and 1999...

When an automaker is trying to figure out which driver it should invite to test out one of its new cars, certain pro wheelers rank higher than others. If the car is the 2015 Subaru WRX STI, it makes sense to find someone familiar with that style of car. That's why Subaru of Canada invited Tommi...

It’s been a year since Hyundai first announced its intention to return to the world of WRC, and since then we’ve seen the Korean automaker slowly build up its team, establish a new motorsport center in Germany and start development of a brand new WRC car. Today, the covers have come off...

The World Rally Championship doesn’t get much attention here in the U.S., and even globally its popularity has been on the wane in recent years. But that may change in coming years as more of the major automakers join the fray. Just this year, in fact, Volkswagen entered WRC and won the title...

Jost Capito has spent nearly 30 years making cars go faster. His impressive career began at BMW in 1984, where he worked as an engineer on the brand’s high-performance engines. Next came a stint with Porsche, which ultimately led Capito to head all of Porsche’s branded racing efforts...

Hyundai has confirmed its intention to return to the World Rally Championship with the unveiling today of a new rally concept based on its i20 hatchback sold overseas. Following its withdrawal from the sport in the last decade, Hyundai has remained committed to establishing an in-house WRC team in...

Are you a rally fan? Do you wish we had more of it going on here? Then dig into your pocket and help the first all-American team to compete in the WRC Rally Finland in 40 years reach their goal. Chris Duplessis and co-driver Alex Kihurani are trying to become the first all-American team in four...

Following last week’s report that MINI had missed the deadline for filing paperwork necessary to compete in the 2012 World Rally Championship, news coming out today claims the factory-backed team has dropped its star driver, Irishman Kris Meeke, due to budgetary constraints. Despite Meeke...

Whilst most have been enjoying the festive period these past several days, the hard working Lotus Motorsport crew are busy celebrating the fruits of their labor over the past 12 months following the first successful engine fire-up in the Lotus IndyCar chassis, as well as the first proper Exige R-GT...

Newly crowned WRC champion Sebastian Loeb learned the hard way that sometimes getting to an event can be just as dangerous as driving in it.

World Rally Championship racing is heating up even as other categories appear to be struggling: MINI recently revealed its new entry for the 2013 season, and Fiat’s Abarth motorsport division is expected to announce its own entry soon. Volkswagen, too, has confirmed its interest, having...

MINI’s new World Rally Championship racer, based on the Countryman crossover and developed by British motorsports and engineering firm Prodrive, recently made its official world debut and has since been throwing up dirt at a number WRC events in Europe. Next year the rally car, officially...