WRC Testing

[EightGear]

In about an hour, I'll be home soon. I read it yesterday.

[EstWRC]

any mate who has suscribe care to copy paste?
http://plus.autosport.com/premium/fe...nd%20awareness

Could Hyundai's new WRC car beat Volkswagen?

Hyundai has already won in the World Rally Championship since returning last year, but DAVID EVANS thinks it can regularly challenge Volkswagen when a new car arrives for 2016

By David Evans

Michel Nandan raised an eyebrow. He had said that. He remembered saying that. But turning the question around a little bit has given it a slightly harder edge.

A slightly different prospect.

Hyundai's new i20 WRC wouldn't be coming until it was capable of winning rallies. Fair enough. Makes sense.

"So, confident of beating the Polos in Monte Carlo?"

Yikes.

But... yes.

Nandan's been around long enough, he's not about to get drawn into a specific fight. Instead: "I hope it will be ready to win. Monte Carlo is not so long away, it's tomorrow... anyway this is what we want to do. We are putting a lot of effort on the new car and the reason is to win."

Catching an earful of the conversation, Thierry Neuville jumps in.

"I'm pretty convinced it can be a Polo-beater," says the Belgian. "We have a couple of months left and we have to work hard for sure, but the feelings are very positive, this is the main thing. Even if there are many things to be changed on the car, all of this is going in the right direction."

Great. But the reality is, the new-generation i20 WRC will get to Gap in six months and face a mountain in more ways than one. Physically, there will be the dash through the Alps to the French Riviera to conquer. Metaphorically, there's the Eiger's north face (known as the Murder Wall) to take on. Base camp for this one? Hannover. Flag flying on the summit has two letters on it: W and V, not necessarily in that order.

Pilt
Nandan is team principal of Hyundai's WRC assault © McKlein

Can this new Hyundai really beat Volkswagen on a regular basis?

Yes.

No.

Maybe.

Let's face it, I'm hardly likely to say no - what would be the point of a) me writing the rest of this column and b) you reading it?

There is a chance. A good chance. And, on the evidence of last month's test in Finland, an ever-improving chance.

Nandan's the first to admit the current car is compromised as a World Rally Car. There's not enough suspension travel at the front, the car's too high, it's too heavy and the heaviness is all in the wrong place: at the front, where it has a healthy appetite for Michelins.

The current i20, unlike its rivals, doesn't need ballast to hit the minimum weight.

And that's before we even get to the engine, which started life as a two-litre motor before being trimmed down. And compromised further.

Looking at a picture of the base i20 a few years ago, you simply wouldn't have put it down as a World Rally Car. It looked like what it was: a supermini from the Far East. And no amount of splitters, spoilers, bells and whistles were going to change that.

The new-generation i20 WRC is another story. In road-going form, it looks lovely, lower and a lot, lot more purposeful. Bolt on the extra bits and you've got an entirely different proposition.

At the current stage of the new car's development, this one too is compromised. But not for much longer.

Initially, Hyundai wanted the new car to be based on the three-door coupe version. That was binned when somebody did the maths and figured that the production run wouldn't satisfy the homologation requirement. Time for a five-door rethink. Right now, it's a bitsa.

"The front of the car is from the three-door," says Nandan, "but the rear is a bit put together in order to match the five-door. The look might change..."

Since then, she's been back in the windtunnel, smoothed over and refined.

While this car is slightly bigger in terms of dimensions, it's leaner.

The new i20 will be less of a compromise than its predecessor

This one will need ballast.

And this one comes with an engine born at the right size: 1600cc. There are high hopes for the new powerplant, the main one being that it overcomes the current car's lack of torque and shove out of slower corners.

Not that there are many slower corners around here. This is Finland, don't forget. Here it's all about power and balance.

Neuville's smiles. Boxes have been ticked.

"We don't struggle with balance in the new car," he says. "And the power is nice now - the engine's a good step."

Transmission and suspension are looking good, too. In terms of transferring engine power to four corners, the car comes with a tailored Sadev system rather than an Xtrac unit off the shelf.

And that wheel-travel issue at the front? All gone, with 20mm more on offer in the new car.

See... no compromise.

This was the car Nandan wanted from the start of Hyundai's competitive return to the world championship. It was the sight of these drawings when he first talked to the Koreans that really got him excited. Nandan, don't forget, never really wanted to run the current car. He was all about the new generation.

As this column has pointed out previously, if Skoda's Fabia S2000 was Volkswagen's tool to learn, the i20 WRC was Hyundai's. It would be easy to see the team's past 18 months and question the sense in its presence in the championship. Wouldn't it have been better to test privately before stepping up to the plate, weapons sharp, armed and ready?

Actually, no. Hyundai has learned plenty - and, don't forget, won a WRC round for the first time in its history. Nandan knew what he was getting when he signed up with the current car, and it's only those who failed to heed his conservative predictions at the top of the programme who will be disappointed. He's a realist and has been since he joined the firm.

But now comes the new beginning. Now it's time for optimism. Genuine optimism.

Pilt
Hyundai scored its first WRC win in Germany last year with Thierry Neuville © XPB

When Monte Carlo 2016 rolls around, there will be no room for excuses. Granted, the team has been flat-chat making factories, building HR departments and basically doing everything from the ground up, but all of that will be forgotten when the lights go green just outside Gap on a cold Friday morning in the middle of January.

That's the time to tell if Hyundai's time and money has been well spent.

And the subject of money leads us back to a conclusion to that original question. Can this car beat the Polo R WRC?

Yes.

Can Hyundai beat Volkswagen to next year's manufacturers' title?

No.

Current technical regulations ensure that no one team's able to take a sizeable advantage over another - the rules are way too prescriptive for that (there will be rather more leeway in 2017), so a team's success comes down to the peripheral stuff rather than the hardware.

Among that peripheral stuff comes the drivers, co-drivers and budget.

Hyundai actually has more drivers and co-drivers than Volkswagen, but, no matter which way you chop it, the strike force in blue and orange simply can't hope to match the strike rate currently managed by those in blue and white.

A good (very good) and very well-managed budget ensures that Volkswagen's bases are covered for another season. Neuville and Hayden Paddon will be hustling and hassling the Polos every inch of the way through 2016, with Dani Sordo doing the same on asphalt, while Kevin Abbring levels his learning curve with the odd fastest time here and there.

The new generation will bring more wins, but the champions aren't about to be toppled just yet.

[dimviii]

thanks EstWRC!

[dimviii]

Neuville error at test
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMSN...ature=youtu.be

[EstWRC]

lol, basically same mistake as in poland.

[N.O.T]

This whole year is a small mistake for neuville... time is running out.

[jbmarcus21]

Today Kris Meeke debuts Wrc Deutschland Test Days in Germany..
video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trnCk4XRJP0

[jbmarcus21]

Meeke Test Days Deutschland . photo+video
http://planetemarcus.com/kris-meeke-...d-rallye-2015/

[rallysupportnl]

Test Kris Meeke WRC Rally Germany 2015!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T64Plxts0Q

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Meeke in Germany again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfjneRUrB1k&sns=em


DS3 looks really stable, no excuses for him here...