Thought someone might be interested.
Prodrive, the motorsport team that runs Aston Martin Racing and made Colin McRae and blue Subaru Imprezas famous, is entering the 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Known as World RX to its fans, the series is expanding rapidly and attracting increasing manufacturer participation: Ford and M-Sport race the Focus RS with Ken Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division, Peugeot has a factory team too, while both Audi and VW have recently given official backing to rallycross teams. And Prodrive's entry will only serve to further strengthen the series.
Using the current Renault Megane as a basis for the new Supercar WRX-spec race car, the 600bhp four-wheel drive machine will be built at Prodrive’s HQ in Banbury, England. Prodrive will design everthing from the ground up too, including a bespoke, turbocharged 2.0-litre engine that’s not based on any production powertrain you’ll find in the road-going Megane.
Prodrive has previous in rallycross, having developed the MINI WRX in 2013 to compete in the Global Rallycross Championship (GRC), where it won on its debut at X Games Munich. And there’s other muddy experience too, from the glory days with McRae and Subaru, to the more recent Mini Countryman WRC car, which came to a sad end in 2012 after BMW's budget cuts.
Don't expect any such issues this year, as Monster Energy is the main sponsor of the World RX series, and the new car is a tie-up with Monster Energy athlete Guerlain Chicherit. The Frenchman is a former Free Skiing world champion, and having tried his hand at rallying, the Dakar, together with World RX in 2015 and 2016, he has decided to start his own GCK rallycross team for 2018 season.
'It has long been an ambition of ours to compete in the FIA World Rallycross Championship,’ said Prodrive chairman David Richards. ‘It is the fastest growing motorsport series in the world and gives us the opportunity to use all our engineering experience to create a car capable of winning the World title.'
The new Renault Megane RX will be unveiled at the French round of 2017 World Rallycross Championship, on 1 September 2017. In the meantime Chicherit will enter select rounds of the 2017 series, before beginning testing of the Megane RX in the autumn, ready for the start of the 2018 season.
Prodrive, the motorsport team that runs Aston Martin Racing and made Colin McRae and blue Subaru Imprezas famous, is entering the 2018 FIA World Rallycross Championship.
Known as World RX to its fans, the series is expanding rapidly and attracting increasing manufacturer participation: Ford and M-Sport race the Focus RS with Ken Block’s Hoonigan Racing Division, Peugeot has a factory team too, while both Audi and VW have recently given official backing to rallycross teams. And Prodrive's entry will only serve to further strengthen the series.
Using the current Renault Megane as a basis for the new Supercar WRX-spec race car, the 600bhp four-wheel drive machine will be built at Prodrive’s HQ in Banbury, England. Prodrive will design everthing from the ground up too, including a bespoke, turbocharged 2.0-litre engine that’s not based on any production powertrain you’ll find in the road-going Megane.
Prodrive has previous in rallycross, having developed the MINI WRX in 2013 to compete in the Global Rallycross Championship (GRC), where it won on its debut at X Games Munich. And there’s other muddy experience too, from the glory days with McRae and Subaru, to the more recent Mini Countryman WRC car, which came to a sad end in 2012 after BMW's budget cuts.
Don't expect any such issues this year, as Monster Energy is the main sponsor of the World RX series, and the new car is a tie-up with Monster Energy athlete Guerlain Chicherit. The Frenchman is a former Free Skiing world champion, and having tried his hand at rallying, the Dakar, together with World RX in 2015 and 2016, he has decided to start his own GCK rallycross team for 2018 season.
'It has long been an ambition of ours to compete in the FIA World Rallycross Championship,’ said Prodrive chairman David Richards. ‘It is the fastest growing motorsport series in the world and gives us the opportunity to use all our engineering experience to create a car capable of winning the World title.'
The new Renault Megane RX will be unveiled at the French round of 2017 World Rallycross Championship, on 1 September 2017. In the meantime Chicherit will enter select rounds of the 2017 series, before beginning testing of the Megane RX in the autumn, ready for the start of the 2018 season.
