Super 2000 Work Starts at M-sport

Things are really moving now at M-sport. Confirmed during the Rally of Portugal was that the new entry-level Fiesta was going to be homologated on 1st July. Even though Ford are keeping their future World Rally Car plans close to their chest at the moment, it is finally time when cars can be designed for the next set of world championship rules. Christian Loriaux, Technical Director at M-Sport, knows that the next generation of championship rallying is just around the corner, almost frighteningly soon. The current design of World Rally Cars, which have been the center of world championship sport since 1997, will be outlawed in 18 months time and normally aspirated cars based on Super 2000 will replace them. Loriaux tells us, as much as he is permitted, what is going on a M-Sport.

The technical regulations are finalised and we now need to start working a lot more. Our aim is to have the first new regulation World Rally Car running by September, in five months' time. This is important so that the cars will then be available for sale to teams so they can start running the car at the start of the 2010 season. It is company policy not to declare at this time which model car (widely assumed to be the new model Fiesta) and which FIA approved transmission supplier is the basis for the Super 2000. The Super 2000 car is a lot easier to design than a World Rally Car. No turbo, no intercooler, no fresh air injection, no design of transmission hydraulic systems. A Super 2000 is also easier to package.

What will be the telling factor for a winning Super 2000 car?
Chriatian Loriaux: It is the same as ever! Look at the Skoda Fabia S2000 which benefited from the design lessons learned from the Fabia World Rally Car. So much of the winning factors are in the small details, things you do not immediately notice but which lumped together make all the difference. The little refinements, the precise suspension geometry. The small details all add up.

The FIA has decreed that the new "World Rally Car" will be based on the Super 2000 but with certain specific add-on parts. What difference will these parts make to the performance - or are they just cosmetic?
CL: I really don't know. All we know is that the World Council says there will be small differences between the two. The only identifiable performance change will be the larger rear wing, the same size as what we now use on the World Rally Car. Obviously we approve the idea that cars in the world championship should be the pinnacle of the sport and should produce extra excitement. We cannot help thinking that for such a little extra money so much more could be done. Extra camshaft lift, four throttle bodies instead of a single one, we could have 9000 rpm instead of 8500, for only a few extra thousand Euros. All this could be done. Last year I went to the end-of season non championship Monza Rally. It was a big eye-opener in terms of a show, and watched the Super 2000 cars. Because they made more noise and were revving higher, they looked faster than our World Rally Car, even though those cars were probably delivering 100bhp or whatever, or 30% less than we have! And I still remember the excitement of the old two-wheel 2-litre Kit Cars, which revved up to 10,000rpm. We could have recreated that, but I don't think that will happen like that.

Are you looking forward to working on the new car?
CL: I am sad to see a lot of the technology go, and a lot of fantastic technology has already gone. In 2004 we designed a differential, only two of them were ever built. We had clutch drive to every wheel, torque management, we could put what torque we wanted on every wheel .We were working on active suspension and active ride height. It would have been brilliant for everything we want to do, it would have pushed technology a good step forward, a great way to show how motor sport can lead the way forward. But it never happened, never used! Anyway Super 2000 will be a lot cheaper, still the best man will win but hopefully the new formula will bring more manufacturers back. And if not more manufacturers, then more good young drivers. Super 2000 will certainly make it more difficult to predict who is going to win. It will give a lot of chance for non officials entries to be competitive at world championship level and for sure that will produce a lot of action packed drama.

Close one door and engineers open new ones?
CL: If the Super 2000 regulations are applied properly, and if they do not let too many doors open and make sure all the cars are strictly by the rules, it will be fantastic. But we will certainly have to do new things that we haven't done before. Things which the rules force you to do and which we would never normally think of doing, and that is the new challenge for us. You have to keep on your toes. You cannot assume that you are going to be able to do things exactly like you have done before. I know the new regulations have been devised for the good purpose of making things cheaper. The exciting thing is to have a challenge

3mmm
photo 1: Matthew Wilson testing the Ford Fiesta
photo 2: Christian Loriaux