Bringing Guns to... Gun fights? (Rally America inside)

So, Antoine L'Estage just announced he is bringing over a MML 2005 WRC Evo to compete in the rest of the RA championship this year. How cool is that?

http://www.antoinelestage.com/AnotherFirstforaCanadianDriver

This is (from what I understand) due to the EvoX not being developed highly enough to compete. SRTUSA has a huge budget, and while not quite a WRC car (which is an interesting side thought, nothing stopping SRTUSA from bringing over a WRC Subaru as they were still used up to 2010 I believe), it`s a very nice piece of kit vermont sportscar has developed.

Couple that with Ken Block in his all-in Fiesta, and it's going to be an interesting year. And best of all, only a month until Oregon Trail Rally which I'll be traveling to to spectate.

And video of one of the WRC 05 Evos (in 2007 developmental trim I believe):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoMNnyj55q4&feature=player_detailpage#t=25s

I assume that he's either going to lose the WRC transmission, or R-A lifted the ban on sequential transmissions for AWD cars.

Must be more than that as a WRC car is behind an RA car in terms of power and torque too.

Well I'm excited!

There was a video of Antoine testing that car making the rounds a few months ago.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Must be more than that as a WRC car is behind an RA car in terms of power and torque too.

I'd assume so. However, as the recent discussion about the M cars versus the standard road going BMW's, the sum is a greater whole than the parts individually.

The WRC Evo is a vehicle designed from the ground up as a racecar. No matter how much work is put into the EvoX, it (Antoine's) still started (and largely is based on) a factory road going car with not nearly the developmental funding dumped into it.

And still, the whole "behind in power" thing is kind of iffy. Who says/knows what power a RA car makes? Not many, you don't see them hooking the motors up to engine dynos at vsc for instance.

I don't know how difficult it would be, but the motor is described as a 4g63 by MLL. Could a monster 4g63 motor be built relatively inexpensively for RA rules? I'd think so.

We've both been reading Special Stage

Talking with some of KB's guys comparing todays RA cars with the current 1.6L WRC cars the RA car is way way faster per stage mile than the WRC. Also talking a few years ago with the guy who ran Autosport Engineering (forgotten his name now) He said the RA cars had more power than the then current WRC cars, but the passive diffs offset the difference.

While I agree that this car will be faster than L'Estage's prior Evo X I have to wonder about its ultimate pace compared to KB's Fiesta. I don't know who is the better driver. The top half dozen guys are all super quick though. Also while KB has scaled back his WRC outings, this year’s Rally Mexico was his best ever WRC finish.

No bad guys, just a great series.

While on one hand I love the arms race, I am concerned about the overall decline in RA entries this year despite the constantly improving economy.

I think the big difference between WRC and RA cars is toughness

I was at Rallye Défi last year. I think it was the last time KB and AL raced against each other. It was a super tough rally. If I remember correctly, there was only 10 finish out of 32 starters.

And out of those 10 finishers, KB's car was the only undamaged car. And he was clearing the road for the entire rally. I didn't see his team work on the car once! Gas and go.

AL's car on the other hand was falling apart by the end of the rally. He could easily keep pace with KB in the early stages, but as the race progressed, his car was being slowed down by all the damage it was getting. And AL is not tough on his cars.

I'm pretty sure that race is what pushed his decision to move to the WRC cars.

HiTempguy wrote: And still, the whole "behind in power" thing is kind of iffy. Who says/knows what power a RA car makes?

Larger restrictor, 2.3l instead of 2.0l (let alone 1.6l)... a North American open-class rally engine should be more powerful than WRC.

Plus, we don't care about homologation in this country.

Knurled wrote: Larger restrictor, 2.3l instead of 2.0l (let alone 1.6l)... a North American open-class rally engine should be more powerful than WRC. Plus, we don't care about homologation in this country.

Well exactly. I went and looked at the MML specs, they quoted only 400tq on their webpage for the 05WRC spec Evo. I know for a fact that the top tier open class cars here make QUITE a bit more than that. Of course, HP wise they are all about the same due to the restrictor size.

Since Antoine is renting the car though, I doubt there will be serious modifications done in the engine bay.

And beyond that, I think fanfoy hit the nail on the head. The reason the car was much less damaged is twofold, but a large part of that comes down to the suspension/chassis dynamics. If you watch Pat or Antoine's cars, they all do funny (read: bad) things while bouncing all over the place on rough gravel roads. Limited wheel travel, poor geometry, etc all conspire to kill the cars, whereas if you watch any cars since the WRCar rules came into play, it's ALL about chassis dynamics and suspension. This is what you buy when you step up to a WRCar chassis. I'd love to see the MML Evo with said monster 4G63 (which could be built in such a mind bogglingly inexpensive manner it makes my head asplode)

What do you mean, WRC have big suspension travel?

That's like four inches, right?