Issue 25, February 2015

Sweden

Latvia

interview:kevin abbring

Plus: Tech Talk, World Rally Museum & ForMyFriends

swedish fight

ott tanak wasn’t as blitzing as last year, but still entertained the crowds at colin’s crest

Image: Bas Romeny

new kid on the block, kevin abbring joins hyundai in swedenImage: Bas Romeny

henning solberg in his natural habitat

Image: Bas Romeny

Sweden was utterly disappointing for latvala who’s not off to a good start of his 2015 campaign.

Image: Bas Romeny

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Rally-eMag February 2015 / Contents

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Who made it?

Publisher: Rally-eMag

Words: Steven van Veenendaal, Harry van Veenendaal.

Photography: Bas Romeny, Timo Anis, Andy Crayford

Who helped?

Logo design: Minse Blom

Backcover artwork: Dam Charles

Distribution: Issuu.com

Who we thank!

PR Photography from: Peugeot Sport, Hyundai Mo-torsport, Citroen Racing, FIA ERC, Volkswagen Motorsport, M-Sport.

How to reach us?

Email: info@rally-emag.comWeb: www.rally-emag.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/emagrallyTwitter: @emagrallyIssuu: www.issuu.com/rally-emag

ERCLiepaja RallySnowdown

Page 36

InterviewKevin abbringLiving out of a suit case

Page 22

WRCRally SwedenExciting Sweden Page 11

Tech talkRally engines

Page 31

This month

FeatureWorld rally museumPage 26

Rally-eMag February 2015 / News

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This month’s wrap up Skoda R5 highly anticipated

Rallying finally returned to the home of Bel-gian motorsport, Spa. The Boucles de Spa has long been an illustrious event due to the tricky stages in the Ardennes and the change-able weather conditions that torment the re-gion on the winter-spring border. The event disappeared from the calendar a few years ago and was only held as a historic rally. Untill this year. The Spa Rally is the successor to the ‘Bou-cles’ and proved every bit as exciting as its name predicted. Dirty tarmac and mixed stag-es, dry and wet roads, day and night stages, pre-event controversy, mid-rally controversy, the rally really had it all. Former WRC star Freddy Loix was the fastest and most consist-ent throughout the event as many of his rivals succumbed to the treacherous stages of had to deal technical woes.

The organizers played their part by slapping the likes of Patrick Snijers, Chris van Woen-sel and others with hefty time penalties for presumed illegal recceing. Later on Vincent Verschueren and Timothy van Parijs were excluded from the event for missing a check-point. None of the rally’s challenges seemed to faze Loix too much though as he kept a solid pace on way to victory. Kris Princen fin-ished third after gearbox trouble in his Peuge-ot and leads the Belgian Championship after two rounds. Loix is down in fourth after failing to score any points in the season-opening Haspengouw Rally.

Image: PR/BRC

Loix wins Spa Rally The development of the highly anticipat-ed new Skoda Fabia R5 is in full flight and there are already waiting lines of custom-ers anxious to get their hands on the new machine. Not surprisingly so, its prede-cessor, the S2000, was the most succes-ful car of its class.

No less than 60 S2000’s were sold to privateers and the car logged count-less rally wins and claimed nearly 50 titles. Although still competitve (see Freddy Loix’ victory in Spa), the car is beginning to show its age and the rally world is ready for the next Fabia to shine.

Test driver Raimund Baumschlager is

very enthusiastic about its potential, “I’ve tested it on snow, tarmac and gravel and it just feels really good everywhere.” It will be difficult to rival its predecessor, but Skoda has shown to be a committed and succesful rally car manufacturer. Image: Skoda Motorosport

Rally Sweden / Overview

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Based in: Hagfors

Date: 12-15/02/15

Number of stages: 21

Shortest stage: Hagfors Sprint, 1.87 km

Longest stage: Vargasen, 24.63 km

Total stage distance: 308 km

Surface: Snow/Ice

Rally Sweden

Image: Bas Romeny

Rally Sweden / Revieww

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Exciting Sweden

The second round of the WRC traditionally is in Sweden. It’s also the only true winter event on the calendar, and this year the weather gods brought quite a bit of snow. The way we like it. So the 2015 edition had everything in it to be a unique event, an event where other people than Ogier also have a chance of winning. So will the Nordic people, who are more used to these conditions, take their chances?

Words: Harry van Veenendaal

Images: Bas Romeny

Rally Sweden / Revieww

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After Monte Carlo every one was looking forward to the next challenge, especially be-cause there was a really win-try weather forecast. Lots of snow was on the menu. So the chances for a real winter event were growing. In Spain howev-er there was no snow, still Dani Sordo unfortunately fell with his mountain bike, while training. He broke some ribs and was not fit to participate. Bad for-tune for Sordo meant good for-tune for Kevin Abbring. Having just joined the Hyundai team he was asked to take over Sor-do’s duties. “I did not say no,” the young Dutchman confided to us. So both him and co-driv-er Seb Marshall will make their WRC debut in Sweden

How the action unfoldedThe opening stage was the Super Special in Karlstad, a mere two kilometres long but a popular venue for the inhabit-ants of the official hometown of the event. A win by Swed-ish hero Pontus Tideman was more than the spectators could have hoped for. So a Swede was leading when the next day the competitors went to Nor-way for two loops of four prop-

er stages. These stages did not bring much drama. Most drivers got through relatively unscaved. That of course did not mean they escaped the usual hazards of Rally Swe-den, like clipping snow banks and spinning on the tricky con-ditions. Sébastien Ogier still is not happy with the fact he has to run first on the road, as he fears this will slow him down. However, as many people pre-dicted, he still leads the pack. With temperatures just hover-ing above zero degrees that disadvantage is absent. On the contrary, with the ice slow-ly melting, being first actually helps a bit. Jari-Matti Latvala is in second but he is not entirely confident and consequently he is somewhat struggling with his driving. Behind the two VW powerhouses, Andreas Mik-kelsen and Mads Østberg are fighting for Norwegian suprem-acy, with Mikkelsen on top so far. British drivers Kris Meeke and Elfyn Evans are somewhat off the pace. Meeke had a ma-jor spin in SS4 and Evans is having difficulties in finding the proper rhythm and judging the grip levels in the snowy condi-tions. Kevin Abbring made his debut for the Hyundai Shell World Rally Team in Sweden.

Debut

Kevin Abbring made his Hyundai debut and for the first time had to drive a fully-fledged World Rally Car in competitive con-ditions. Making your debut is never easy but the snow and ice of the Scandinavian WRC round is even more difficult as it asks some specialised skills you can only learn from actually compet-ing there. He was introduced to

the Rally Sweden particulars on the very first proper stage. Near the end of stage two he cut a corner a bit too much, not notic-ing the deceptive snow bank, he then got sucked in. It took him about a minute and a half to get back on the road. It was the main moment of the morning, but despite that, the Dutchman has been all smiles all day on his debut.

Rally Sweden / Revieww

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After a quiet morning in Sweden the crews pre-pared for the return trip to Hagfors hoping for more of the same in the afternoon. How different it would be. Rally leader Sebastien Ogier was the first to hit trouble as his windscreen wipers failed on SS6. This meant that rain and snow clogged up his vision. After attempting some roadside fixes Ogier failed to properly put the pins back in the front bonnet. Insult was added to injury as the bonnet blew open and smashed his windscreen, making visibility on the following stages even more precarious! For Yuri Protasov things went more smoothly and he claimed his maiden WRC stage win on SS6.

Snow troubleMeanwhile Kris Meeke went off the road and into a snow bank, losing three minutes in the process. He was not the only one and next up to suffer was

Robert Kubica, struggling through the stages after a diff or propshaft failure meant he had to continue with two-wheel drive only. The next snow victim was Elfyn Evans. When the car wouldn’t turn into a junction enough he tried to flick it against the snow bank using his handbrake. The flick was successful but the snowbank proved to be softer than expected, beaching Evans on top instead of bouncing him. Evans was stuck for about two min-utes.

VW in troubleBut the real drama was saved for the last proper stage. Ogier completed the stage with steam com-ing out of the engine bay of his Polo. He too had smashed into a snow bank, getting stuck for about a minute and blocking the radiator with snow. The Polo was obviously getting hot with a long road section ahead. This incident handed the lead to

Jari Matti Latvala, but the poor Finn never knew. Under the new rules it is prohibited to share split times with the crews. So Latvala wasn’t aware of Ogier’s demise. He consequently charged on, and charged off. Just 700 meters from the end of the final stage he slid wide in a fast corner and got stuck in a ditch. Despite the help from throbs of spectators it took nearly eight minutes to get back onto road.

Mikkelsen to the rescueThankfully for Volkswagen, they still have a third car around as Andreas Mikkelsen benefitted from his teammates’ misfortune to take the lead. Mads Østberg had been fighting with Mikkelsen all day long, but he wouldn’t end the day in second as Thierry Neuville blitzed passed on the final stage to overhaul Ostberg and take second. An outcome that is surprising and promising for things to come.

Worse was to follow for Latvala, who inherited the lead, but lost it again on the very same stage when he too went off and remained stranded for eight minutes.

Ogier suffered various difficulties due to his non-functioning windscreen wipers and ac-tually going off the road quite badly on the day’s final stage.

Rally Sweden / Revieww

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The return of OgierThe next day Rally Sweden returned to classic territory with stages like Fre-driksberg, Rammen and Vargassen. It was here that Sébastien Ogier start-ed his assault to retake control of the event.But in this area too the ‘snow casual-ties’ kept on coming. This time it was Mads Østberg who slid into a snow bank on SS12 and lost nearly a minute, effectively ending his hopes of taking third from Neuville. On the same stage, Andreas Mikkelsen had a ‘moment’ as well. The Norwegian leader slid into a ditch but was lucky to escape with a time loss of just 8 seconds. Stage 14 Vargassen was televised live on WRC+ and provided plenty of drama. The stage is famous for ‘Colin’s Crest’, a spectacular crest sandwiched between fast corners on which the cars tend to fly sideways. While the crest provided a good show, the real fireworks came from other parts of the stage. Lorenzo Bertelli was the first driver in trouble as he parked his car in a ditch right before the end of the stage. Ogier, who had passed him, explained that he would need a lot of spectators to recover from there. It turned he wouldn’t. Being first behind Rally 2 re-starters on the road got Ogier complaining again, but he would set a marker that would be hard to beat.Latvala was pushing hard in his quest to move back into the point scoring top ten positions, but pushed a bit too hard on this one. He was dragged in by a snowbank, spun and gathered a lot of

snow in his front bumper, blocking the radiator and costing him an additional 40 seconds. Another one to lose time was rally leader Andreas Mikkelsen. The Norwegian spun in the first sec-tion of the stage and as the road was very narrow in that particular section he struggled to get going again. He eventually lost 19 seconds reducing his lead over Ogier to a mere 1,7 sec-onds. Game on then for this afternoon

Road to an exciting finaleAll eyes were on the Volkswagen boys, but at the end of the day Thierry Neu-ville emerged as the leader of Rally Sweden. Sébastien Ogier has been struggling all day, cleaning the road for those behind him. Testament to this was the time loss of ten seconds on stage 15. Apart from the regular teams, the cars of the historic rally also made their way through the stages. They cre-ated lines and ruts that didn’t match Ogier’s driving. On the very next stage Andreas Mikkelsen was faster than Ogier again, but falters near the end. “I never get this part of the stage right. I had trouble with the junctions.” He los-es five seconds as a result.

Top to bottom:Latvala started to fight back, only to lose more time with another off.

Another bad weekend for Citroën with Meeke crashing out early and Ostberg strug-gling with his gearbox throughout.

Despite losing the lead to Neuville, Mik-kelsen still has his first WRC win well within reach after day two.

Rally Sweden / Review

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Meanwhile there is a Belgian dispute going on in the number 7 Hyundai. Co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul is trying to slow down his driver, but there is no stopping Thierry Neuville. The Belgian is literally flying through the stages gaining time on both Volkswagens. More importantly he is using some clever tyre tactics carrying two spares in the back rather than the usual one.And boy did it pay off. Neuville went conserva-tively through the short Hagfors sprint stage be-fore absolutely flooring it on the final stage of the day, Vargassen. His immense pace earned him the new record over Colin’s Crest, flying 44 meters before touching down again. More impor-tantly, he smashes the times set by Ogier and

Mikkelsen charging through into the lead!His lead over Mikkelsen is just 1,5 seconds though with Ogier a further 8,1 seconds behind. With just under 50 kilometres and three stages to go, it will be a sprint straight to the finish, prom-ising to be one of the most exciting battles for the lead we have seen in quite a while. Ogier will finally be done with his road cleaning duties, but Neuville remained confident when asked if he could take the win: “I think, yes.” The main eventFor most competitors today was about getting to the end of the rally unscaved, but for some there was still a tough battle to be had. The main event

of course would be the three-way battle for victo-ry between Thierry Neuville, Andreas Mikkelsen and Sébastien Ogier. But behind them there was also the battle of the Britts as Kris Meeke and Elfyn Evans duked it out for fourth. Mads Østberg had a moment when he visited another snow bank but that was all of the day’s excitement. In the end it would come down to the PowerStage. Though we had some excitement during Finland’s PowerStage last year, this was really the first time since the introduction of live television coverage of the PowerStage that it ac-tually was the stage on which victory would be decided and not just between two, but even three drivers.

Applying the best tyre strategy, coupled with an inspired drive, saw Thierry Neuville move into the lead at the end of day two.

Eventually Elfyn Evans won the ‘Battle of the Britts’ and took sixth just ahead of Meeke in seventh.

Rally Sweden / Review

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Running in reverse standing order, the first bat-tle to be decided was that between Meeke and Evans. This time it went the Welshman’s way as Meeke had a spin midway through the stage and lost about 15 seconds. Of course the big fight for first was what everybody had come to watch. Neuville was first into the stage and shattered the fastest time so far set by Mads Østberg. It would set the marker for Ogier and Mikkelsen to follow. The new rule that forbids the transmission of split times to the cars meant that neither Ogier nor Mikkelsen were aware

of Neuville’s pace. Not that Ogier needed any such information. The world champion showed everyone why he was world champion, power-ing through the stage in spectacular fashion. “I was on the limit everywhere!” The result was amazing as he took five seconds of Neuville’s time, keeping the Belgian behind him. Right as Ogier had reached the stop finish, news came in that Mikkelsen had gone off. Braking just a little bit too late for a fast left hander caused him to slip wide, and we all know what happens if you slip wide in Sweden. Exactly, the snow banks

claimed another victim. In the end the time loss would be limited, but far too great to continue battling for the lead.

So in the end, as usual, it was Ogier who came out on top, taking his second win of the season out of two rallies we’ve had so far. Not a bad start for the reigning champ. It was not Volkswa-gen one- two however as Neuville claimed sec-ond ahead of Mikkelsen.

Running first on the road? Suffering from unwilling windscreen wipers in the snow? Being challenged by two of the best young stars in the WRC? No problem for Monsieur Ogier.

Mikkelsen had the local support as neighbouring Norwegians flooded Sweden, but it wasn’t enough to wether the French storm known as Ogier.

Rally Sweden / Round-up

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Round-up

For Hyundai Sweden was definitely a success. Neuville was second after an excellent drive bringing him sec-ond place in the driver’s standings. This result together with Paddon’s career’s best fifth place also brought the team a runner up position in the constructor’s standings. With a car still fully under development this may be seen as a good result. As indicated Hayden Paddon did well in Sweden. In the beginning he was suffering a bit from the set up of his car, that originally had been set up to suit Sordo’s driving style he decided to change his driving style rather than trying to change the set up during the rally. The result was a well-deserved 5th place. His best result ever in a WRC event.

About a week before the rally Kevin Abbring was called to attend a meeting after he had, together with

Hayden Paddon, completed the roll out of the Sweden cars. In the meet-ing room he found Paddon who also had been summoned, team principal Michel Nandan and teammanager Alain Penasse. “We have a serious problem,” Nandan started. “Dani (Sordo, HVV) was injured in a train-ing accident and he can’t compete in Sweden. He then addressed Abbring: “so we wanted to enter you in his place. This was the start of a frantic week for the Dutchman. He was go-ing to drive in the Hyundai N team in Paddon’s car. Paddon was to start in Sordo’s car. But since then he did not stop smiling. This was the same dur-ing the rally and he really made the most of it. He lost some time when he went into a bank after his glasses had steamed up but he had a good run resulting in an eleventh position and a firm hug of team boss Nandan. Also he gained the first point for his team, the Hyundai N team.

Sweden was very much about getting equal in the VW team. His good result in Monte Carlo gave Jari-Matti Latvala high hopes of being able to fight his team-mate. However he was not feeling at ease with his car. In the end he seemed to have found the solution: “We have a completely new car and eventually I haven’t been able to find the right set up. I tried my set up of last year but that did not work. Now I know what to do.” Finally we saw a smile again on the Finn’s face. But the damage had already been done so the Finn could not score anymore and remained empty-handed. This was the reason that crew and team decided to bring their rally to a premature end. This was done to give them more freedom in selecting certain components that would otherwise have been restricted due to the fact that according to the regulations Sweden, Mexico and Argentina had been

linked, making it impossible to change certain car components.

It wasn’t an easy rally for Sebastien Ogier. Especially in Sweden starting first could be a disadvantage but due to the circumstances this was not always the case. Apart from that he proved to be just human by making some uncharacteristic mistakes. But in the end it was he who stayed cool and plainly beat his oppo-nents. He was all smiles when he heard of Mikkelsen’s problems and said: “This is one of my best victories!”

Andreas Mikkelsen also had one of his best events ever, but it ended in tears when on the last stage he made a mis-take. It threw him out of contention for a win that he worked so hard for. But being so young his time will come.

Volkswagen World Rallyteam

Hyundai Shell World Rally Team

Rally Sweden / Round-up

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At Citroen it was mostly frustration that reined. The best thing you could say is that Meeke had a stage win, but his in inexperience in the event threw him out of contention. His second Swedish rally devalu-ated again to a training round. The story for Østberg unfortunately is not better. The whole rally he com-plained about an issue with his gearbox. “It was not solved until the last stage,” he confided. Some visits to snow banks, a puncture and this gearbox thing made this a rally he will not fondly remember. His tenth place will not help that feeling either.

In the M-Sport team Elfyn Ev-ans did not feel at ease and, like many others lost some time in a snow bank. But during the rally he gained confidence in the con-ditions that suited him better. He could finally get some satisfac-tion from beating Kris Meeke in a straight fight for sixth place.

Best man of the team is Ott Tänak he too found out Sweden is treacherous but drove sensibly to a well-deserved fourth place. This together with Evans’ classification positioned the team in third posi-tion, before Citroen.

M-Sport World Rallyeam

Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT

RK World Rally TeamGood performance but bad result, is the best way to characterize Kubica’s Rally Swe-den. He did ot make many mistakes but was slowed down by a differential problem and had to settle for front wheel drive. On Sun-day he was handed a five-minute penalty for a technical issue with his turbo. All in all an event to forget rapidly.

Fuckmatie World Rally TeamLorenzo Bertelli wanted to finish in Sweden but it did not go particularly smoothly. After two Rally2 restarts, caused by a technical issue and later by an off, he eventually reached the finish. It was his first attempt here in a World Rallycar.

Jipocar Czech Rally TeamMartin Prokop wanted to repeat a point scor-ing position in Sweden after his Monte Carlo result. An ‘almost roll’ dropped him behind the battle between Evans and Meeke. But he did achieve another point’s finish making it two times scoring out of two events.

The private Fords

Rally Sweden / Results

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Overall final classification

1. Ogier-Ingrassia Volkswagen Polo R WRC 2:55:30.52. Neuville-Gilsoul Hyundai i20 WRC +6.43. Mikkelsen-Floene Volkswagen Polo R WRC +39.84. Tanak-Mölder Ford Fiësta RS WRC +2:26.05. Paddon-Kennard Hyundai i20 WRC +3:31.5

6. Evans-Barritt Ford Fiësta RS WRC +3:53.07. Meeke-Nagle DS3 WRC +4:05.88. Prokop-Tomanek Ford Fiësta RS WRC +4:26.09. Protasov-Cherepin Ford Fiësta RS WRC +5:32.210. Østberg-Andersson DS3 WRC +6:50.9

2015 FIA World Rally Championship Manufacturers’ Standings

1. Volkswagen Motorsport 68 2. Hyundai Motorsport 55 3. M-Sport WRT 32 4. Citroën Total Abu Dhabi WRT 20 5. Volkswagen Motorsport II 15 6. Jipocar Czech National Team 6 7. FWRT 1

Rally Sweden / Standings

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2015 FIA World Rally Championship Drivers’ Standings1. Ogier 53 2. Neuville 30 3. Mikkelsen 30 4. Latvala 19 5. Østberg 14 6. Evans 14 7. Tänak 12 8. Paddon 10 9. Meeke 10 10. Sordo 8

Living out of a suit case

Kevin Abbring

Is: Hyundai

(test) driver.

Words: Harry van VeenendaalImages: Bas Romeny, Steven van Veenendaal

KA: It was very good that we got the chance tocompete here (in Sweden).

Rally-eMag / Interview

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Two weeks after his Sweden success we talked to Kevin Abbring during one of his rare outings in his home country. He was enjoying himself with the pupils he trained in his GP Elite Rally School by Kevin Abbring, his fans and last but not least by driving himself on the stages of the CPZ Short rally.

“It’s good to be in my home country again, if only for a short while. It is a rare opportunity to see my fans, talk to them and to look after my students. Since Sweden we had a busy sched-ule but we’ve done everything to fit this into the schedule and it worked!” Of course we asked him what he thought of his Swedish adventure. “We learned an awful lot! And we also enjoyed our-selves. It was a very good experience. It started

with the test. My first time in a WRC on a real rally stage! We did some good times and it gave us a good feeling of the car under rally conditions. In the rally it was going right. You can’t expect us to drive 7th or 8th times all the time in an event where other people have been driving for years and years. If I think I have to brake and others know they can go flat, you lose a second. And I can tell you there are quite a few bends there! But it’s good I’ve seen the stages now and that I can now work on my notes. If you are doing the recce at seventy kilometres per hour, every cor-ner is flat. If you’re approaching that bend at 170 k’s it’s a bit different. So all in all it was very good we got the chance to compete here. I now have the feeling what a car can do under these circum-stances and that’s a good start for next year. I don’t have to start making my notes from scratch; I already have a base knowledge now. And that is exactly what other drivers also do. They look at this year’s stages and compare them to last years and that saves quite some time in preparing the notes. ” And what about team management, were they happy? “Yeah I think they were even more enthusiastic than I was!”

Rally-eMag / Interview

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Busy timesWhat have you been doing between Sweden and now?“Good question, I have to check my diary. One thing I do know I have not been at home I just live in planes. But after the de-brief in Sweden I went to Italy to attend a training that someone offered me. It was a course by Vittorio Caneva who trained the likes of Kris Meeke, Andreas Mikkelsen, Elfyn Evans, Mads Østberg, and Juho Hänninen to mention just a few. This was a once in a lifetime experience and fits very well into my new philosophy. I want to create an environment for myself where I can completely dedicate myself to the sport, also between events. I simply organize fewer trainings and events to have more to develop myself. This training gave me a lot of insight in tackling twisty mountain roads with fast combinations. Now I ‘only’ have to translate this knowledge into my notes and to get familiar with it other wise you simply fall back to your old methods.

If it’s Dani, this must be Spain…Ok after these two, three days I flew to Spain, no wait, first to Germany to do the shakedown for al the cars going to Mexico. Then to Spain, we did not know yet if Dani was fit enough to start in Mexico. He himself was quite confident but you have to rely on doctors of course. In Spain I did an afternoon of tests. Then back to Germany to do some things for the present car. And now I’m here and tomorrow I fly to Mexico for the recce. I only stay there for three days and then fly back to Germany to continue development of the paddle shift for the present car, to be able to homologate that as soon as possible. And after that? I don’t know really, I have to check my diary…

From his WRC debut in the Swedish snow (Image: Bas Romeny) to the sand of the Dutch dunes in a Porsche (Image: Steven van Veenendaal).

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world rally museum

Gérard Wolthaar

Is: Owner of the

World Rally Museum

Words: Steven van VeenendaalImages: Harry and Steven van Veenendaal

All rally drivers, from the clubmen to the super-stars, are still huge fans deep down inside.

Rally-eMag / Feature

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If you are in The Netherlands and feeling a bit cultural, there is a plethora of internationally ac-claimed museums to visit. Check out Van Gogh or Rembrandt’s work in their own museums, or take in the history at Anne Frank’s House. Feel like a giant in the miniature world of Madurodam or get up close and personal with your heroes at Madama Tussauds. Then again, if you’re a ral-lynut (and aren’t we all?), skip all of those and head straight to the World Rally Museum.

Situated in the middle of the country the muse-um is only accessible by appointment, but when you are expected, Gérard the owner, gives you a warm welcome. The museum resides in an annexe of a residential property and the ‘of-ficial’ reception is right in Gérard’s living room where he will enthusiastically tell you all about how he put together a truly unique collection of rally memorabilia, with a focus on the WRC. There are no rally items inside the house itself, the misses strictly forbids it! However when we arrive there is an opened box on the table. In-side we see a couple of postcards, flyers and posters. The sender? Mikko Hirvonen. The now ex-factory driver sent his Christmas wishes to Gérard in a personal handwritten message, and included a bunch of signed promo materi-

al. “We’ve been in touch for quite a while,” Gé-rard tells us, “he really is a nice guy and is very enthusiastic about the museum I’m running! He hasn’t visited yet, but through the years he regularly contributed to the museum by send-ing me items!” It seems amazing that some of the sport’s greats are willing to part with their personal items to help a museum they haven’t visited, but they are usually quite willing to do so. “That’s rallying,” Gérard explains, “all rally drivers, from the clubmen to the superstars, are still huge rally fans deep down inside and when I explain to them what I am building here, they all love it.” As we would later find out, he wasn’t kidding, there are some truly special items in the museum.

Rally-eMag / Feature

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Like so many great collections, it all started out as a hobby. Gé-rard was an avid model car builder some thirty years ago (and still is today) with a knack for detail. “I loved building the rally models, but I noticed that the producers sometimes made mistakes in the details of the decals, car designs or even the figurines inside. “At some point I noticed that they had put a black overall on the Michelle Mouton figurine instead of her customary white, and I decided to write the company to point to them this error and well, I guess that is where it all started. I got some positive feedback and proceeded to inform more companies of flaws they had in their models. Some of them didn’t really care too much, as long as the product sold, but others were truly interested and commit-ted to make their models as realistic as possible. They embraced my feedback and at a certain point they would even consult me during the development process to make sure they got all the details right.”

It all started with the cars, then came the books and magazines, and finally all other things, like Rally Mexico cerveza!

Rally-eMag / Feature

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“Because I wanted to know how all the cars looked in detail, I started collecting images of the cars in magazines, flyers, you name it, and from then on, well I found out there was a lot of cool rally-related stuff to collect.” The backbone of the museum is formed by a large archive of newspaper articles, magazines and books dating back to the seventies and if you’re a fan of the sport it will keep you browsing through them for hours and hours. Also, if you ever need to know some obscure fact about, say, the 1980 Rally Côte d’Ivoire chances are Gérard will be able to find the answer for you. It’s not just books and magazines though. We found out that all over the world, stamps, postcards and telephone cards are printed with WRC designs. But that’s just the stuff that is stored in cupboards, the larger items are on display.

When we enter the museum we walk straight into a front right body panel of the 1992 Delecour/Grataloup Ford Sierra. Heavily dented and clearly ripped of the car in a crash, it sets the tone for the museum by giving you the ‘wow-feeling’. One wall is dedicated entirely to the model cars (probably close to about 500 in total) which is getting close to Gérard’s goal “I want to have at least one version of every factory car that ever participated in the WRC.” It really is a history lesson when you walk past the cars and Gérard explains all about the subtle differences between different versions.

Rally-eMag / Feature

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Turn around and two other walls are decorated with rally plates from all over the world. “I try to collect all of them. It’s great because it let’s you make friends all over the world. The guys in Australia are particularly nice, they always send me something.” Maybe it’s just us, but in a way it is truly touching to be face to face with a genuine nr. 8 1986 Lombard RAC Rally plate, side by side with some of the more exotic plates like the ’88 Olympus Rally and various Côte d’Ivoire years and… well too much to mention here really. It’s a rallynut’s dream.

Gérard’s true pride are the unique items. A Derek Ringer Subaru overall, gloves of various drivers, an autographed Petter Solberg Subaru rear-bumper and… Jari Matti Lat-vala’s international rally licenses. Wait what? Yes, he actu-ally has those (and a few others as a matter of fact). “Again, in their hearts all drivers are rally fans! They really like the museum and want to help, so yes, Jari Matti sent me some of his old licenses,” he smiles. Scattered throughout are all sorts of other items, but really, you should just go check it out for yourself, it really is worth the time. If you want to visit you can contact Gérard, don’t hesitate, he is more than happy to share his passion!

E-mail: worldrallymuseum@planet.nl Web: http://www.world-rally-museum.nlPhone: +31(6)50444625Facebook: search for World Rally Museum

Rally-eMag / Tech Talk

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Rally engines have evolved consider-ably over the years – In the early days, they were little more than lightly modi-fied production units but, as technol-ogy moved on, and rallying became a more professional sport, rally engines became a much more serious proposi-tion. During the 1970s and 80s, they developed rapidly, using different con-figurations and forced induction to gain maximum performance. After the drama of the Group B era, the format was fixed to 2.0 turbocharged four cylinders and today, even with a further drop in capac-ity to 1.6 litres and tight technical regu-lations, they are still hugely advanced, utilising turbochargers and advanced electronics to ensure maximum versatil-ity and efficiency, as well as being du-rable enough to survive in the toughest conditions.

Tough design brief and eventougher regulations

For the majority of its life, a race en-gine will be running at high revs, on a relatively consistent surface, meaning that its power band can be narrow and aggressive. For rallying, there is every chance that the car could be in anything but optimum conditions. With unpredict-able terrain and weather, it is likely that

the driver may find himself caught out at low revs, or dealing with conditions that could change dramatically with every kilometre. Due to this unpredictability, if the engine does not have a smooth, linear power delivery, it may upset the balance of the car, making it difficult to control.

If it wasn’t tough enough to design an engine that must be able to withstand harsh environments and offer road-car levels of driveability with race car levels of performance, the FIA regula-tions strictly limit the team’s ability to tune and refine their engines. Under the S2000 regulations, once an en-gine has been homologated, much of its specification is then fixed for the life of the car. This includes both inlet and exhaust manifolds, and even the elec-tronic sensors that are fitted. Each team is allowed to use a “joker” to make a major change but only 10 of these are allowed over the entire life of the car, so they must be used carefully. As well as the strict homologation rules, in order to limit output and reduce cost, turbo boost pressure is capped at 2.5 bar, whilst maximum engine speed is limited to 8500rpm.

Tech Talk

Jon Scoltock

Images: Steven van Veenendaal

Is: A structures engineer in the au-tomotive and motorsport sectors as well as a freelance journalist. Jon will provide you with a monthly up-date on all things technical in the

world of rallying.

Rally-eMag / Tech Talk

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Turbocharging, then Restricting

Audi could be credited with using the turbocharger to help to transform the sport just as they did with their revolutionary four wheel drive system when it first appeared at the beginning of the 1980s. As already mentioned, a rally car does not operate in perfect conditions, and this is where the turbo-charger is key, as it provides much higher levels of torque, especially at medium engine speeds, meaning that the car is better able to pull out of corners even at low speeds.

The turbocharger works on a very simple princi-ple, with the exhaust gases passing through the turbocharger, spinning a turbine. This is connect-ed, via a shaft, to a second turbine that is located in the compressor housing. The compressor hous-ing is plumbed into the inlet of the engine, so that the inlet air is compressed, forcing more air into the cylinders. This means that more fuel can be injected, creating a more violent combustion and, therefore, more power. Whilst this has several ad-vantages, it does create some additional challeng-es. The compression process causes the inlet air to get hotter, so an air-to-air intercooler is usually incorporated, which cools the charge air before it enters the engine, maximising its density and oxy-gen content.

The introduction of turbochargers, coupled with the relaxed Group B regulations, led to a rapid increase in power outputs, with some cars reported to pro-duce in excess of 500bhp. The story surrounding this era is well documented and, after several tragic accidents, the performance of rally cars needed to be reined in. This was achieved by restricting the inlet diameter of the turbocharger so, by the mid 1990s, with a 34mm restrictor in place; power was

limited to around 300bhp. With an unrestricted tur-bo engine, it’s simply a case of forcing as much air and fuel into the cylinders as possible to create the biggest bang. However, when the amount of air that the turbo can draw in was restricted, the focus moved to improving efficiency, with teams work-ing hard to improve lubrication, and to reduce the weight of engine components. Tuning of combus-tion cham-ber shape and piston design was also stud-ied closely in order to achieve the most efficient combus-tion and eek every ounce of perfor-mance from the restricted engines. These prin-ciples have remained and are still used in modern WRC engines. Com-pression ratio – the difference in cylinder volume from when the piston is at the bottom of its stroke, to when it is at the top – is one area where things have developed considerably, as it is a big influ-encing factor on performance.

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In the early 2000s, WRC cars used a compression ratio of around 10-11:1, slightly more than you’d find in a lot of non-turbo production engines. It is now com-monplace for WRC cars to be using the maximum allowed compression ratio of 12.5:1, as it means the engine will be as responsive as possible. This puts a lot of strain on engine components, mean-ing that all rally engines use high grade steel and

aluminium for all of their in-ternal compo-nents.

Electronics

Electronics are now an intrinsic part of engine tuning, with the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) con-trolling the timing of both the spark and fuel injection. As comput-

ing power has increased, the ECU is able to deal with information much more quickly, meaning that fuel and ignition timing can be much better refined. So, whilst the mechanical components of the en-gine are limited, the mapping of the ECU can con-tinually be tuned based on data from dyno testing, as well previous events. All WRC engines use di-rect injection, where the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber, rather than into the inlet manifold as on older engines. This is a relatively re-cent development for production cars as well as in

motorsport and introduces its own challenges. The injection pressure must be much higher to cope with the high pressures of the combustion chamber, and teams are working hard to better understand this technology. ECU mapping must be considered in conjunction with the other engine parameters, such as turbo boost and ambient temperatures, as well as driver inputs, which can vary considerably. Many Scandinavian drivers use a very digital approach, switching between full and no throttle, whilst others use a much smoother style. An engine must be set-up to suit the requirements of a driver as well as the conditions.

Engine set-up can also vary considerably between different events. In Sweden, where the tempera-tures are low, the intake air is colder and denser, so fuel levels can be increased, giving more power. Conversely, in Mexico, where the cars run at high altitude and the air is thinner, the amount of fuel injected would have to be reduced, meaning power output would be lower. It is now common for a WRC ECU to have multiple engine maps that can be se-lected by the driver. These can be loaded into the ECU before the car leaves service, giving the driver the opportunity to alter the way the engine performs as he or she sees fit. Where conditions are slippery, a more progressive power delivery could be cho-sen. If conditions are dry and the roads smooth and flowing, a more aggressive option could be select-ed. A further benefit to this is that an additional map can be incorporated, specifically for use on the road sections between stages. This could be used to lim-it boost pressure and reduce fuel injection pressure to preserve the engine and save fuel, meaning that the car needs to carry less fuel, saving weight and improving performance when the car is running in stage mode.

Different era WRC cars, the engine changes were perhaps the most signif-icant difference between these cars. And while many feared going from 2- to 1.6 litre engeins would dramatically slow down the sport, it has not dimin-ished the spectacle one bit.

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The new R-GT cars are quickly becoming fan-favourites. Kevin Ab-bring sampled the Porsche at the Circuit Short Rally in Zandvoort.

It’s Not All About Turbochargers

Of course, despite the success of turbocharged engines in rallying, they are not the only option. The current World Rally Car format was spawned from Super 2000, which used 2.0, normally aspirated four cylinder engines, producing around 260bhp, whilst the R2 category also features 1.6 litre engines producing around 200bhp. The com-pression ratio limit of 12:5.1 has made it difficult to get the most from a non-turbo engine, making valve timing and ECU tuning even more crit-ical. Despite this, Toyota have managed to develop an R3 GT86 that produces 250bhp from its 2.0 flat four engine. One of the most excit-ing formats for normally aspirated engines is Rally-GT, which will run on selected round of the 2015 WRC. A great example of this is the Porsche 911, which is currently the most popular R-GT car. The category has much more flexible regula-tions, allowing teams to ho-mologate their own cars with an individual passport. How-ever, like their turbocharged counterparts, R-GT cars must use a restrictor, this time of 39mm. The Porsche uses a 3.8 litre flat six engine and, despite the restrictor, still pro-duces in excess of 350bhp. Whilst it lacks the torque of a turbocharged engine, its high revving characteristics, cou-pled with a rear wheel drive layout, means that these cars are hugely popular amongst spectators.

Conclusion

A rally car’s engine is probably one of the toughest compromises of any motorsport engine. It must be able to withstand environments tougher than any race engine, whilst giving versatile, useable performance so that it can accelerate quickly even from low revs. It must also be fuel efficient, compact and easy to work on. With all these challenges, plus the increasing pressure on all forms of motorsport to maximise effi-ciency and utilise new technologies, the development challenges for rally engineers show no sign of letting up.

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Overview

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Based in: Liepaja

Date: 06-08/01/2015

Number of stages: 11

Shortest stage: Ecorent.lv 7.91 km

Longest stage: Kuldiga – 36.91 km

Total stage distance: 237.80 km

Surface: Gravel/Snow/Ice

Rally Liepaja

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Round two of the ERC brought the crews to Latvia for the Liepaja Rally. Fast forest tracks covered in snow make up the event and pro-vide a unique challenge to all competitors.

Snowdown

Words: Steven van Veenendaal

Images FIA ERC

ERC: Rally Liepja / Review

ERC: Rally Liepja / Review

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ShakedownAt shakedown Alexey Lukyanuk immediately made his intentions clear and showed that the two top favourites for the ERC crown, Breen and Kajetanowicz have a very serious new challenger to contend with. The Russian blasted through the qualifying stage to take the fastest time, enabling him to select his start position for the opening day first. Breen followed suit just half a second behind Lukyanuk while Kajetanowicz was a further sec-ond behind. Lukyanuk was happy enough to be the first to chose, and opted to start last (of the qualifying drivers) “It is possible that being 15th on the road will be an advantage in terms of bet-ter grip, but this will also mean that the tires will wear faster, making us slower at the later stag-

es.” He was careful to play down his chances too though: “This is just the second rally for me and my co-driver, the car is also completely new to us, so there is still a lot to learn. Nevertheless, I feel very good on these roads and hope to be very fast.”

Changing conditionsBetween the recce and the actual start of the event the weather conditions changed drastical-ly. During the recce temperatures had been well below zero and with plenty of snow and ice to cover them, the roads were in excellent condition to tackle with spiked tyres. However once the ral-ly got underway, temperatures rose to around 4 degrees. As a result both the snow and ice start-

ed to melt. The lack of snow was not a very big problem, but the lack of ice meant that the spikes could not grip into it any more, making for very slippery conditions.

The action gets underwayThe first to suffer the consequences was Jona-than Hirschi who parked his car in a ditch from-which he could not emerge anymore on the very first stage. Lukyanuk meanwhile continued his impressive performance by winning the opening stage with Breen in close pursuit (0.7 seconds) and Kajetanowicz already dropping ten seconds in third.

Alexey Lukyanuk had the best start as he won the qualifying stage and the first stage of the rally.

As the snow and ice started to melt, Jonathan Hirschi was the first to hit trouble when he crashed out of the even on the first special stage.

ERC: Rally Liepja / Review

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One by one...The difficult conditions on the opening day led to a staggering rate of attrition at the top of the field. After setting the fastest time on the opening stage of the event, Lukyanuk found his Waterloo on the very next one. As he later explained, his lack of knowledge of the R5 car caused him to misjudge a corner. It was a rather severe misjudgment as it propelled his car into a barrel roll that ended down in a ditch. Just like Hirschi he was unable to escape from the slip-pery ditch, effectively ending his rally.

He was far from the only on in trouble on the opening day though. Robert Consani suffered from a bad starting position and what he him-self described as a “very bad day” to end it in eleventh. But at least he made it to the end.

That could not be said of Jaroslav Orsak and Giacomo Costearo as both S2000 drivers failed to reach the end of the fifth stage with broken wheels. Stage five would prove to be a true killer as it also claimed Kajentanowicz. The pole had been running in a solid second place, but re-markably he too broke a wheel on the stage and failed to complete the day.

Ice MasterDespite his early exit Kajetanowicz did claim the ERC Ice Master trophy. Points are awarded on a stage by stage basis and after taking a healthy lead in that series from the Jännerrallye, he did enough on the opening stages of the Liepaja rally to lay claims to the price. It was a mere consolation prize though, as the Pole has his eyes on a bigger prize, the overall ERC title and

saw a solid points finish fall from his grasp.

Breen on topDespite all the mishaps occurring during the opening day, one man managed to emerge un-scaved. For once Craig Breen had a trouble-free run and he immediately found himself atop the field with a massive lead in hand. It had mostly been a matter of keeping cool and staying out of trouble, but the others showed just how difficult that actually was in these conditions. “I’m not doing anything stupid or taking any risks,” said Breen. “On the first stage we had a bit of a push and I was quite pleased with the time. When we got the news about Alexey on the second stage on the last one about Kajto I just wanted to get through it without taking any stupid risks.”

Finally no problems, no troubles and no worries. Craig Breen had a solid run through the first day and was rewarded with the lead.

There can be only one..... Ice Master! After winning the Jännerrallye Kajetanowicz did enough on the opening day in Liepaja to win the trophy.

ERC: Rally Liepja / Review

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Get through he did and with near-ly all his rivals in comparable cars retiring from the rally or dropping down the leaderboard, the road to victory was straight ahead. His closest competitor at the end of the day was Simon Plangi in a group N Mitsubishi.

Go a bit slowerLittle surprise then that the rest of the way was basically a walk in the park for Breen. The Irishman man-aged to stay out of trouble and easi-ly consolidated his lead over Plangi. “Since the lead was so large on day two, it was possible to go a bit slow-er and not take any unnecessary risks. In these conditions, however, it was possible to make mistakes even when not driving at full speed, but everything turned out great and we reached the finish without any

issues.” Said the delighted Breen after finally claiming the top spot of the podium again, nearly a year af-ter his last win in Greece.

Rally 2Let’s be honest, no matter how un-fair it may seem that retired crews can restart on the next day with a time penalty, for the fans it’s a great rule. The showpieces of the second day of action were the two Fords of Lukyanuk and Kajetanowicz who had both retired on the opening day. They were able to re-enter the fray and did so in style. Kajetanowicz won the opening stage of the day and Lukyanuk all others from then on. It did not result in any points for them, but it did indicate that we are up for a fine season in the ERC with three top drivers with very little be-tween them.

On the second day the fireworks were delivered by Kajetanowicz (top) and Lukya-nuk (bottom). Having retired on day one, both had nothing to lose on day two and

put on quite a show, winning all stages between them.

A stellar performance by Simon Plangi, who finished 2nd in his production Mitsubishi

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Results

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1. Kajetanowicz-Baran Ford Fiesta R5 2:50:52.62. Consani-Vilmot Peugeot 207 S2000 +7.07,43. Lukyanuk-Chervanenko Ford Fiesta R5 +8.28,14. Tarabus-Trunkat Skoda Fabia S2000 +8.46,85. Fischerlehner-Unterweger Mitsubishi Lancer +22.38,6

6. Hirschi-Landais Peugeot 208 T16 +27.26,97. Tlustak-Kocera Skoda Fabia S2000 +27.29,68. Stajf-Rajnoha Subaru Imprexa WRX +28.18,69. Botka-Mihalik Mitsubishi Lancer Evo +30.38,510. Raoux-Escartefigue Ford Fiesta R5 +35,00,5

Final results

ERC: Rally Liepaja / Standings

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Championship standings

1. Kajetanowicz Ford Fiesta R5 39 pts2. Consani Peugeot 207 S2000 28 pts3. Lukyanuk Ford Fiesta R5 25 pts4. Tarabus Skoda Fabia S2000 22 pts5. Fischerlehner Mitsubishi Lancer E. IX 14 pts

6. Hirschi Peugeot 208 T16 8 pts7. Tlustak Skoda Fabia S2000 8 pts8. Stajf Subaru Impreza WRX 4 pts9. Breen Peugeot 208 T16 3 pts10. Botka Mitsubishi Lancer E. IX 2 pts

Rally-eMag / ForMyFriends

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FormyfriendsThe WRC is all action, but there is so much more to see around the rallies. Our photographer Bas Romeny shares his ‘other shots’ with his friends.

So does the show of flying machines..As we say: we would have lost it..

The rally always starts with an ‘air raid’ like fireworks at the super special, and looks scary.

Yes! And why not bring some relics!

Atmosphere at Colin’s Crest, the place to be..

Uuh?

Love bite with pommes frites, howromantic the Swedish are :P

In 195 km, bare right..Not existing in Holland.

Have to be careful downhill with this ‘snow mobile’..Does not

exist in Holland

Perhaps this is a solution then..Not likely for the guy in theprevious picture, he had no feet..

Somehow the Norwegian fans always make sure the will not be seen as Swedish. To show they are friendly

minded, they have a little Swedish flag in top..

An emotional Mikkelsen, everybody felt with him..

see you next time...