New R4 Car - Think Tank

[Mirek]

Ah sorry, I thought the question was about R4. My bad. My answer is not about N5.

[Rally Power]

Maxi Rally, N5 and R4 share the same PSA block, with very similar preparation. N5 regs also allows the use of the Mitsubishi Evo engine, reduced to 1.6L, but no tuner has gone that way.

It’ll be interesting to follow Fuster times; expectably he’ll be slower than top R5 guys between 1 and 1.5s/km, but faster than rival N5 Suzuki’s. Overall Garcia and the i20 guys are the favourites. Live timing: http://www.atodomotor.com/online/2017/ferrol/

[Mirek]

Maxi Rally, N5 and R4 share the same PSA block, with very similar preparation. N5 regs also allows the use of the Mitsubishi Evo engine, reduced to 1.6L, but no tuner has gone that way.

I guess that the reason is in the allowed modifications by the rules because otherwise I would expect everybody picking the proven Mitsubishi 4B11 base engine over the PSA EP6 which is well known for many issues both in stock and performance variants.

[br21]

R4 prototype is currently build in Oreca, first gravel test planned in August.

[Rally Power]

Photo:diariomotor.com

Not the brightest debut for the N5 Clio built by RMC at Ferrol (7th overall). Fuster was a bit off the pace (8 months without competing) and the car got rear diff issues during the afternoon. They were always slower than N5 rivals, the Suzuki’s Swift from ARV that managed to get their best CERA result so far (Vinyes 4th and Antxustegui 5th, still over 1,5s/km slower than R5’s). Ares (i20) won the rally and he’s now leading the series ahead of Garcia (Fiesta).

[Andre Oliveira]

Sarrazin, Suninen and Astier as test drivers: http://www.oreca.fr/blog/2017/08/07/...le-kit-fia-r4/

[AnttiL]

Can you take any car and drop the R4 kit in? I mean could you do it to an Escort Mk2? Honda Civic Type-R? Lancer Evo VI? Or does it have to be a new model?

[OldF]

I don’t think so. In the kit presentation and the specific regulations is said the car must be “produced in a quantity of at least 2500 units within 12 consecutive months.” Imo that means that the car must have a valid basic group A homologation.

But there’s no mention that the model must belong to a family of a car that is produced in a quantity of at least 25 000 units within 12 consecutive months. Maybe it’s possible to implement the R4 kit to a more exotic car.

http://cdn.oreca-group.com/wp-conten...ette_R4_EN.PDF

A CATEGORY FOR ALL PRODUCTION MODELS
Thanks to the R4, each importer, group of concessions or private team can enter a
model of their choice (produced in more than 2500 units over a period of 12 months)
in competitive racing at a reagional and national FIA championship level.

http://www.fia.com/file/58633/downlo...token=mPk3dYbt

"The R4 kits may be fitted only on Series Production Cars with 2-wheel drive or 4-wheel drive produced in a quantity of at least 2500 units within 12 consecutive months."

[electroliquid]

https://twitter.com/Oreca/status/902108980268367872 <---Oreca's test R4 car

[racerx1979]

I think most will agree, 108k euro before transport and misc fees is a little high for a car to bridge the gap between R2 and R5. A decent used R5 with spares can now be had for $160-180k. A new R4 with spares will be just as much.

I really like the idea of a 4wd class based on an actual production chassis such as an STI. Just like the old Group N days, but more like the older R4 class with freedom to modify suspension arms, subframes etc. The drivetribe article posted earlier in this thread pretty much nailed it in my opinion.