Australia and New Zealand working on common regulations

[Mk2 RS2000]

Media Release from MotorSport New Zealand
Wednesday 23 April 2015

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND AGREE ON COMMON REGULATIONS FOR NEXT
GENERATION 4WD RALLY CAR

Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) President Andrew Papadopoulos and MotorSport
New Zealand President (MSNZ) Shayne Harris announced today that the two organisations had
agreed on a shared set of technical regulations for a new 4WD rally car category.
“Both Australia and New Zealand identified a need to update our aging fleet of 4WD competition
cars. Many of these had been built to comply with the FIA Group N formula. In both countries our
local regulations had progressively incorporated changes in the 4WD category to keep this type of car
competing while new categories were emerging in Europe and elsewhere” Mr Papadopoulos said.
“In 2014 Australia and New Zealand agreed to work toward a common set of regulations for a new
generation 4WD category rally cars that acknowledged the uptake of the FIA R5 and S2000 categories
in Europe but that also recognised such cars are unaffordable for most competitors in this region” Mr
Papadopoulos said.
“These new regulations will permit a competitor to buy or construct a car that incorporates all the
latest safety developments found in the FIA-specification cars that compete at the top level, but at a
significantly lower cost”.
Motor Sport New Zealand President Mr Harris acknowledged the historic nature of the agreement
stating that “New Zealand and Australia have a great deal in common in our approach to the sport of
rallying. We share some competitors, and both host rounds of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.
Having a common set of technical rules around our rally car categories at the top end of the sport
makes sense for both countries. With one set of rules for an affordable car with good performance
and which takes advantage of locally sourced parts and expertise will create the critical mass of
competitors needed to help reduce costs” Mr Harris said.
“The regulations that MSNZ and CAMS have developed retains the safety elements and matches the
performance of the equivalent FIA categories but at a considerably cheaper cost. These will permit
conversion of a 2WD production car to 4WD using a template formula for key elements, sharing a
number of common parts and designs. MSNZ and CAMS will work to ensure cars built to this
specification will be included in competition at FIA international events in both countries” Mr Harris
said.
The category will be known as AP4 (Asia-Pacific 4wd) and be powered by 1600 turbo engines in
either north/south or east/west orientations. Drive trains will be based on production parts or costeffective
alternatives. The vehicle body shell will incorporate FIA standard rollover protection and
will be dimensionally controlled to ensure equivalent performance and handling. Drive shafts,
uprights and cross members will be common in all vehicles.
Contact: MSNZ Shayne Harris +64 27 4438455
ENDS

[Zeakiwi]

It is a shame this could not have started earlier with the number of Dytko cars in Australia and New Zealand or could these be converted to the AP4 spec?
http://tinyurl.com/mr6kobw (Hawkeswood's transverse engine car build and sadev)

[sollitt]

In fairness Zeakiwi, it does take some time to research, consult and to formulate a set of specs such as these. The intention was signaled long before anybody looked at importing a Dytko car so those who have them would have been aware of the potential direction the sport was heading.
That said, open category cars, including the Dytko cars and the MC2, are assured of a good number of years eligibility for full NZRC honours.
The Australians who have Dytko cars were suggesting last year that they were confident of obtaining FIA Regional Homologation. I'm not sure where they got to with that.