Prodrive Mini WRC

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Originally Posted by bluuford

The car will be faster than we can expect and they are going to surprise us all (almost all)! One podium during the season for sure!

When it becomes true, then I will be at the end of the last SS in first World Championship round that takes place in Estonia and offer a free beer to every (http://www.motorsportforums.com) forum member that has shown negative attitude in this topic (until now).

Yes, when the positive scenario happens then I am going to dig out my post from the history books :-)
When it does not happen then I am sure that someone does it for me :-P

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So, please keep in your mind. I tend to keep my promises. You can remind it to me even if I am 90 years old by that time. I am never too old for this sh*t called rallying :-)

Greetings from Russia, St Petersburg;-)

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Originally Posted by bluuford

So, please keep in your mind. I tend to keep my promises. You can remind it to me even if I am 90 years old by that time. I am never too old for this sh*t called rallying :-)

Greetings from Russia, St Petersburg;-)

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You are clearly a man after my own heart! Now we just have to wait for WRC Rally Estonia, unfortunately I don't qualify for a beer as I have been sure the Mini was going to be good since the first announcement. What I saw in Sardinia confirmed my feeling. I think that Sordo will push harder in Catalunya and it is also a Meeke -type rally. Think that there will be an Estonian World Champion before WRC Rally Estonia, though ;-)

I kept the faith. I knew this project would be amazing as soon as I heard it would have contributions from BMW and Dave Richards was on board. I cannot wait till rally NZ to see this car for real. I have to say I actually like the road going Countryman now it has a rally version.

By the way, does anyone have the brochure that potential customers of prodrive get to look at to choose whether they want an s2000 or wrc mini wrc car?

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Originally Posted by OldF

There’s also been some discussion earlier about the suspension travel of the Mini being shorter compared to Ford or Citroen. How do you evaluate this, has it something to do with the better performance of Mini on tarmac compared to gravel? Imo bigger suspension travel is more important on at least Finnish type gravel roads where the car is not necessary jumping but lifting off a bit.

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The discussion regarding the travel applies for gravel/snow rallies as you say yourself.
I don`t think you`ve seen anyone with long travel on tarmac have you? In fact in circuit racing it`s customs to even limit the rebound travel in order to get the rear inner wheel to lift which normaly tends to give better turning!
just look at the wtcc cars in cornering for instance.

Didn't Ostberg used Ohlin on his Impreza and kicked a** out of the works cars in Sweden or Norway? I think that was when Prodrive started to look into Ohlin. I'm sure it wasn't on tarmac....

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Originally Posted by koko0703

Didn't Ostberg used Ohlin on his Impreza and kicked a** out of the works cars in Sweden or Norway? I think that was when Prodrive started to look into Ohlin. I'm sure it wasn't on tarmac....

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All of his cars have Reigers on them

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Originally Posted by koko0703

Didn't Ostberg used Ohlin on his Impreza and kicked a** out of the works cars in Sweden or Norway? I think that was when Prodrive started to look into Ohlin. I'm sure it wasn't on tarmac....

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As logic said it was Reiger, also at that time Prodrive tried to buy Reiger(the company itself) but due to several reasons they refused selling! One was their close ties to M-sport.
Also I doubt the dampers was the single reason for the Subarus bad performance at that time regardless of what they say.
I also think Prodrive would have been better of by choosing another damper supplier like Exe.Tc or even Bos instead of Öhlins for the Mini because their quit historic in my mind. But time will tell.

Does anyone have access to the Autosport Plus article "How Mini is tackling the WRC with style"? It looks a good read.


Also, I think regarless of the Shocks, the Mini is doing far better than the recent efforts by Prodrive with an Impreza. I'm sure it can only get better from here on out on all surfaces. Snow will be particularly interesting.

their gravel performance must be improved since they are too far from ford at the moment, on tarmac we need to see them in an event with both fords healthy, to have a complete picture of the performance.