WRC
-
If you're not already intimately familiar with the wondrously insane human-car activity known as rally, this video should get you hooked. If you are familiar, it's just a great two-minute break in your day. Having gone through something similar--though much slower--ourselves, we'd gladly repeat the experience, despite it being one of the most frightening, physically and mentally stressful, and utterly bonkers things we've done. The scenes and (mercifully un-soundtracked) sounds you see here are from helmet-mounted cameras strapped to Ken Block testing the Fiesta RS WRC for Rally Finland.
-
Help An All-American Rally Team Get To WRC Rally Finland
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...
Nelson Ireson -
MINI Announces Rauno Aaltonen Edition Cooper And Cooper S
If you’re not familiar with the name Rauno Aaltonen, we’re not surprised. A former European Rally Championship (the predecessor to the WRC) winner, the man known as “The Rally Professor” also won the 1967 Rallye Monte Carlo, behind the wheel of a MINI Cooper. To honor that...
Kurt Ernst -
Mads Østberg Sets New World Snow Jump Record: Video
Norwegian rally driver Mads Østberg has set a new (unofficial) world record for jumping a car on snow.
Kurt Ernst -
Ken Block Delivers Refreshingly Humble WRC Mexico Recap: Video
Ken Block is many things: shoe magnate, hoonigan honcho, and WRC driver among them. It turns out he's also rather refreshingly humble and aware of the difficulty of rally racing. Of course, he's had his fair share of exposure to adversity, both self-induced and environmental, over the course of the...
Nelson Ireson -
MINI And Prodrive Parting Company In WRC: Report
Sources close to BMW report that the German automaker will soon shift its MINI WRC program from Prodrive to X-Raid.
Kurt Ernst -
After missing a paperwork deadline for entry into the 2012 WRC, MINI is expected to announce its return to the series later this week.
-
Ford Preps For Rallye Monte Carlo: Video
Jari-Matti Latvala isn't exactly a household name in the U.S. unless that household happens to be chock full of rally nuts, but this video should bring him one step closer. The footage shows the 2012 Ford Fiesta RS WRC in testing as the team preps for the return of the Rallye Monte Carlo to the...
Nelson Ireson -
Sebastian Loeb Celebrates Eight WRC Titles
Frenchman Sebastian Loeb has managed to achieve a milestone in motorsports: by claiming eight WRC titles, he's won more championships than either Michael Schumacher or Vlentino Rossi.
Kurt Ernst -
Did MINI Miss Its Chance To Race In The 2012 WRC Season?
MINI has missed a key deadline to file entry paperwork for the 2012 WRC season; unless the FIA grants an extension, the MINI WRC Team may sit out the next year.
Kurt Ernst -
Ford Commits To WRC Through 2013, Latvala And Solberg For 2012
The World Rally Championship doesn't get much in the way of U.S. air time, but it nonetheless supports a rabid fan base. U.S. fans will be happy to know Ford has confirmed its presence in WRC through 2013 today, campaigning the Fiesta RS WRC under the revised rules. Lead driver Jari-Matti Latvala...
Nelson Ireson -
Ken Block Tests The Ford Fiesta RS WRC On Gravel: Helmet Cam Video
In preparation for the 2011 Wales Rally, Ken Block and navigator Alex Gelsomino shake down the Ford Fiesta RC WRC on gravel roads in the Welsh countryside.
Kurt Ernst -
Motorsport is expensive. If you were to write "expensive" in letters the size of the Hollywood sign, you'd only be scraping the surface of how expensive it actually is. It's bad enough competing at grassroots level but at world championship level the money involved is frankly ludicrous. And though budgets are higher for the car manufacturers competing, in the last decade or so the spending has got a little out of hand, and everything from Formula One to rallying has been cutting back. If you follow the World Rally Championship (WRC) you'll have noticed its new, leaner format this year. Gone...
-
Colin McRae's Fatal Helicopter Accident Ruled Pilot Error
It doesn't seem like it's been four years since one of the greatest rally drivers to have turned a gravel-chucking wheel died in a private helicopter accident: Colin McRae's death in 2007 still feels fresh to rally fans. And now it's been ruled his fault by British authorities. The latest word on...
Nelson Ireson -
Ken Block Unveils Hybrid Function Hoon Vehicle: Video
Ford's insane versions of the Fiesta for Ken Block's Gymkhana and WRC cars are nothing short of mind-blowing in their ability to generate power and turn it into tire smoke, especially considering the tiny displacement of the turbo hatch. The latest take on the uber-Fiesta is a "hybrid function hoon...
Nelson Ireson -
Fiat Abarth To Enter WRC In 2013?
With both MINI and Volkswagen already confirming their intentions to enter the competitive world of the World Rally Championship (WRC), an international race series once dominated by the likes of Subaru and Mitsubishi and still by Citroen, Fiat, more specifically Fiat’s Abarth performance and...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
MINI WRC Driver Sordo Sits Sixth After Day 1
MINI's return to the World Rally Championship is already underway this weekend in Sardinia, Italy, and so far--aside from a few hitches--it's going well. Dani Sordo and co-driver Carlos del Barrio are currently in sixth place after the first eight stages, with an eye toward a fifth place finish...
Nelson Ireson -
2013 VW Polo R WRC Preview Video
Earlier today we brought you the first scant official details on Volkswagen's 2013 World Rally Championship entry, the Polo R WRC, and now we have the official preview video of the car's design and unveiling. Showing little more than some cryptic sketching and small cuts of in-car video, both...
Nelson Ireson -
World Rally Championship racing is heating up even as other series appear to be struggling: MINI recently announced a new entry, and now Volkswagen is joining the party, too, as we've expected for some time, though it won't take to the countryside in anger until 2013. Its entry, the Polo R WRC, is one compact package of dirt-churning speed. Built to the new WRC spec of a direct-injection turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine, the Polo R WRC is expected to turn out "near 300-horsepower" by the time it's ready to race. The engine is still being developed from the Polo's production engine...
-
MINI WRC Team Gets Official Launch In Oxford
Since the first hintings of the return of the MINI name to the world stage of rallying last July, right up through to the testing stages and constant teasing, we have longed to know what form MINI’s efforts for the World Rally Championship (WRC) would take, and now we finally know. The new...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Hirvonen, Block Team Up For Launch Of DiRT 3 Game
The new DiRT 3 rally video game launched in London today (though it's not on sale yet), and the event brought together current WRC points leader Mikko Hirvonen and Gymkhana guru Ken Block to see it off. The Ford Fiesta RS both drive in WRC competition is one of the highlight vehicles of the game...
Nelson Ireson -
MINI Wins On Debut At Italy’s Rally dell’Adriatico
You already know MINI will be back in WRC this year, testing at a limited number of events ahead of a full push for the 2012 season. One of these events was this past weekend’s Rally dell’Adriatico in Italy where the John Cooper Works backed MINI S2000 rally car stormed to victory at...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Raikkonen To Go From Rally To NASCAR This Year?
The just-ended silly season talk was all about former F1 world champ and current WRC driver Kimi Raikkonen going back into F1, but today the tide has turned in a most surprising direction: NASCAR. Multiple reports are citing a Finnish newspaper interview with Raikkonen, who states he'll be joining...
Nelson Ireson -
Video: Ken Block Barrel Rolls WRC Fiesta RS In Testing
In any motorsport, the crashes are some of the most impressive footage--especially when the drivers (and co-drivers) walk away uninjured. Ken Block recently managed extend his record of rally-car annihilation, sending his Fiesta RS WRC car flying in testing in a wreck that rivals any...
Nelson Ireson