Round Two of the 2011 World Rally Championship will be held in Guanajuato, Mexico. What makes this site particularly interesting is that one stage will be held in the city’s famous underground tunnels.
Entering the small dirt oval at the Calhoun County Fairgrounds, I was the subject of some attention. Situated among a host of Japanese runabouts and numerous other cars that could fit in the trunk of the Beast, I had no hope of being inconspicuous. In retrospect, signing this car up for a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Rallycross event likely wasn’t the best use of the Buick’s ability, but from the moment I spied this car sitting on gigantic truck tires, I knew it was destined for an off-road adventure. That adventure materialized on Saturday December 4, as the Beast and I made a 200 mile round trip to compete in Round 10 of the Detroit Region SCCA Rallycross—the season ender—in Marshall, Michigan. If you’ve already spied the destroyed orange cone in the photo gallery, you’ve likely deduced that things didn’t go so well. In that assessment, you would be correct.
If this car doesn’t make you just a little bit excited about rally racing, you should really check your pulse. The Ford Fiesta RS WRC is set to compete in the 2011 FIA World Rally Championship, and will make its first competition appearance at Rally Sweden, starting on February 10. It’s already covered almost 1900 miles in testing, and will begin final gravel shakedowns this week in Spain.
While Mini has a storied history in rallying, winning the Monte Carlo Rally three times back in the 1960’s, the Anglo-German brand has been less active in the racing scene since its relaunch in 2001. Mini is looking to change that, announcing that it will pair with David Richards’ Prodrive team for a return to rallying in 2011.
The upcoming Ford Fiesta has been a long time coming. In fact, aside from perhaps the PT Cruiser craze back in 2000, we can’t think of another compact in recent memory that’s received more pre-launch glitz, but then again, we can’t think of another compact in recent memory that’s been so closely associated with a superstar rally driver—at least for the last couple months anyway.