Rally2 (ex-R5) News

[Rally Power]

One of the purposes of the Mirage R5 is to be available for Evo's owners at a fraction of the cost of others R5 cars. If Mpart manage to do it, why should anyone criticize them? The car seems to be well sorted and for national purposes it could be a viable option for all those Mitsu supported teams or dealers, tired of rallying old Evos. Having these in mind, for sure Mitsubishi Motors shouldn't be embarrassed to allow the Swedes car international homologation.

R5 market shouldn't be an exclusive of official manufacturers, and for sure there's a space for low-cost cars designed having in mind private drivers needs and aspirations.

[Mirek]

I have never said that R5 shall be an exclusive thing for manufacturers. What I said is that there are very good reasons why Mitsubishi may not want to support the project. You can find of course positives like You named some but there are also negatives like for example those which I named. It's up to Mitsubishi to decide whether they want to be connected with the project or not. In this moment it looks like they don't want to do so.

[TheFlyingTuga]

Mitsubishi it's more about electric cars nowadays. They seem to support a Masuoka effort with a e-Baja car and some efforts on the electric class in Pikes Peak. But as my fellow countryman said, it's a shame, because some good drivers could use the better price (at least announced) to have a R5. I would like to see for example a guy like Adruzilo Lopes in one, since with his old N14 he brings the fight to the guys in S2000 and R5

[Mirek]

It doesn't work like that. If it was the rally world would be flooded with old Puntos S2000, Proton etc. Few years back You could buy a Punto S2000 cheaper than to build a new gr.N car but nobody was buying them. Nobody was even interested to rent them for price lower then good gr.N car (I know one particular case for an IRC rally). Just have a look how quickly the slow cars disappear. Can You today meet a Punto S2000 on stages? Actually they disappeared almost from day to day already several years a go. There were around 70 of them built. How about much faster Fiesta S2000? Few are still around but it's a fraction of their number. There is few Peugeots 207 already and those were the most numerous of all. Even the most developed Fabias S2000 start to disappear.

It has one simple reason. The machines must be competitive. Even a cheap S2000/R5 is expensive enough to become a big money thrown out of the window if it's not competitive. The cheap but non-competitive cars have the only chance to exist - their own class or cups. Otherwise they are bound to fail.

[Rally Power]

A nice video from Rally Askersund: two brief appearances of Johansson's good looking Mirage (2:25 and 9:05), a lot of Volvo's slides and an amazing on the limit recovery (5.19).

https://youtu.be/dL7Rr8V_GAk

[itix]

I have a summer house in eastern sweden close to East Sweden Rally together with mom. We were thinking to go there if she manage to find someone to look after her animals. She got hooked on Rally after the Skilling 500 passed her house hahaha. If I go, I'll try to take pics of the Mirage.

Healthy competition too. Four DS3 R5's and five Fiesta R5's...

[OldF]

I think one problem with the S2000 cars are the running costs that are too high for privateers.

How is it with the rebuilding and periodic maintenance on S2000 and R5 cars? Is it possible for a private team to rebuild the engine and other parts or do they have to send the parts to the manufacturer’s workshop for rebuild?

[Rally Power]

I think only engines must be sent to manus workshop at the specified kms interval. It'll be interesting to know if the Mirage engine maintenance will be less demanding.

[Hartusvuori]

Can You today meet a Punto S2000 on stages?

Occasianally yes: http://rallirinki.kuvat.fi/kuvat/Mik...4/IMG_2963.jpg Every now and then this Punto is entered in small Finnish events, but for sure it's not competetive anymore.

Interesting fact from last weekend's FRC Turku where Juha Salo was saved by the R5 regulations. It was a two-day event with two night stages run late in Friday evening. On first stage the oil dipstick on Salo's 208 R5 got loose somehow, oil was spilt on the engine bay and it started a fire. Some damages were caused to wiring and other parts of the engine. Also camshaft cover (?) was damaged. The team thought they'd had a spare at their garage back home, but apparently they didn't. They studied the regulations more and found out that this part from a normal road car could be used in the rally car. This is why the team owns one 208 road car and keeps it with them at the rallies. So, a long night ahead for the mechanics, but Salo got to start Day 2 under Rally2 rule with parts of his 208 R5 engine borrowed from a stock car. He was the fastest driver of the day, but the time penalties kept him last in class. He still got few points which could come valuable as only one event left in the championship and Salo's points lead was cut short in Turku. Salo and Vainionpää (in DS3 R5) will decide the championship in Tampere in three weeks time.

[dimviii]

Nasser rolled at Lebanon



wasnt a section for Middle East rallies?