Ford Extends its Participation in the WRC until 2013

Ford's European division announced on Thursday that it is extending its participating in the FIA World Rally Championship into 2012 and 2013. Ford’s WRC program will continue to be operated by UK-based M-Sport.

The team will be named Ford World Rally Team and will retain support from Castrol for the next two years. Ford’s “weapon” of choice will be the Fiesta RS WRC, which made its debut this year and claimed the first three places in the first and the last races of the season.

Jari-Matti Latvala and co-driver Miikka Anttila, who won the most special stages in the 2011 championship, will be the team leaders, while 2003 world champion Peter Solberg and co-driver Chris Patterson will drive the second Fiesta RS WRC in next year's championship.

Gerard Quinn, Ford of Europe’s senior manager for motorsport, commented: “The WRC is motorsport’s toughest competition for production-based cars. We have a great team with M-Sport and its leader, Malcolm Wilson, and in Jari-Matti Latvala we have one of motorsport’s rising stars. Already regarded by many as the fastest driver in WRC, this year he showed consistency and expertise on all surfaces.”

Quinn added that the addition of Solberg, who drove for Ford in 1999, “brings one of the sport’s most experienced and flamboyant drivers back to the team where he started his top-level career."

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Mini Countryman Presents In Preparation For The 2011 Season S2000 WRC Rally

Working with Prodrive, the Mini has officially returned to the World Rally Championship, after decades of work after a break. The Countryman WRC, which made its world debut in Paris today, the Mini is ready to compete in the 2011 season to drive a car Kris Meeke.

Unfortunately, the AWD Mini Countryman-based rally car to participate in only six of the thirteen events in 2011 Prodrive founder David Richards called "preparatory year", do not worry, the entire 2012 season Retro Racer refers to the title .

Under the hood is a BMW Motorsport-tuned 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder that uses direct injection and meets all FIA S2000 regulations (which means that the WRC is just the first of its many uses). It is also connected to an Xtrac 6-speed sequential. What we know is that Mini says the car has undergone a "baptism of fire" by the Prodrive rally track and have a roll cage Prodrive developed.

BMW Ian Robertson said:

"The Paris Motor Show is the perfect stage on which to start the MINI WRC. In response to our view that the returns to the world of MINI rally next year has been very positive. FIA World Rally Championship is the manifestation of Pinnacle, which makes the ideal platform to demonstrate the competitive spirit of our brand. The development of the car is running on time and prepared for the World Championship are in full swing. MINI Countryman production model provided the ideal base to a competitor's new championship. "

By Phil Alex

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Renault to Resurrect Alpine Brand with a New Sports Car

Renault is planning to develop an all-new sports car, and one of the options examined by its management is looking to its past and, more specifically, a brand that has ceased to exist for close to two decades.

Speaking to journalists at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Renault product manager Beatrice Foucher said that the next-generation Megane and Laguna, due to be launched in 2013/14, will be based on a common C/D platform. And this platform will surely include a sports car.

“We need conventional cars as well as innovative cars”, Foucher told Autocar magazine. “It’s very early, but we will have at least one coupe in the line-up off the new platform.”

The new model will ditch the Laguna Coupe name, which has not been a success, and adopt a new one. Foucher revealed that work on the new platform begun last year and that RenaultSport is involved in its development from the beginning.

Her next revelation, however, was the most interesting: “We’re working on an Alpine. It’s a possibility and we’re looking at what an Alpine would be in a RenaultSport line-up.”

Alpine was founded in1955 by Jean Redele, who used a humble Renault 4CV to build small coupes with a glassfiber body and very stiff chassis. Its first model was the A106, a small coupe based on a 4CV. In the 1960s, Alpine started a closer cooperation with Renault taking part in motorsport events with considerable success.

Its greatest achievement was in the 1973, when an A110 driven by Jean-Claude and Michelle Petit won the Rally Monte Carlo, the first ever FIA World Rally Championship event. Alpine also won that year’s title beating rivals such as Porsche, Ford and Lancia.

Alpine continued through the 1980s following the same recipe of placing Renault powertrains in its own chassis and bodywork, but competition was getting stronger and its sales were dwindling. Production of the last Alpine, the A610, ceased at the end of 1994 and Renault, which owns the name, has let it lay dormant since.

Now it is about to make a comeback. Given its record of accomplishment and the RenaultSport division's experience in creating sport versions, expectations are quite high.

 

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