Publicat in: March 5, 2008, Vizualizari: 138
We are facing the imminent opening of the 2008 National Rally Championship. A season which looks very interesting and in which the main technical novelty is the presence of new Group N car.
The Subaru Impreza N14, the latest hatchback version, scored its first win when Nasser Al Attiyah won the NBK Qatar International Rally, the Middle East Championship Rally which was the first FIA regional rally this year. The event started just hours after Rally Monte Carlo, where Olivier Burri was leading Group N for a long way before engine troubles intervened. Qatari driver Al Attiyah however led this event from start to finish and won as he pleased, his traditional rival Khalid Al Qassimi being absent as he was competing instead at Monte Carlo.
In Rusia the new GroupN Impreza – the first in world non-Prodrive Impreza N14 to make its rally debut was driven by the owner of the team and multiple Russian champion Sergey Uspensky. Unluckily after a bad landing the water radiator broke and retirement could not be avoided. The winner was 17 years old Evgeniy Novikov who made his PWRC debut last year in Wales Rally GB. The Russian Champinship is open for the first time to foreign entries this year.
In Sweden, for the first round of the PWRC, at the start were no fewer than seven new Impreza N14 cars with its double wishbone rear suspension, fly-by-wire throttle and state of the art electronic coordination of transmission and engine systems. But winning from the first start is not easy and the highest placed N14 among the 17 PCWRC drivers to finish the course was sixth, in the hands of Toshi Arai, who stated he had poor confidence in the handling. PCWRC drivers Nasser Al Attiyah and Oscar Svedlund gave up the struggle and voluntarily withdrew, privateer Bernard Munster said the car had no power. Evgeniy Vertunov and Hasse Gustafsson both crashed and the girl Ramona Karlsson drove carefully to finish 30th and last in Group N. STI's Group N consultant George Donaldson said the company was not too despondent, however. "The most important thing for us was that this car proved to be reliable. The next big test will be Argentina at the end of March, by which time many of the issues, especially the development of the ECUs, should be resolved". Highest placed Group N Subaru on the Swedish was the old N12 car of Motoring Club driver Jari Ketomaa, who was initially disappointed that his new car was not ready. Later he was relieved that he will continue to be driving the old car till the championship comes to Greece for the Acropolis Rally.
3mmm
We are facing the imminent opening of the 2008 National Rally Championship. A season which looks very interesting and in which the main technical novelty is the presence of new Group N car.
The Subaru Impreza N14, the latest hatchback version, scored its first win when Nasser Al Attiyah won the NBK Qatar International Rally, the Middle East Championship Rally which was the first FIA regional rally this year. The event started just hours after Rally Monte Carlo, where Olivier Burri was leading Group N for a long way before engine troubles intervened. Qatari driver Al Attiyah however led this event from start to finish and won as he pleased, his traditional rival Khalid Al Qassimi being absent as he was competing instead at Monte Carlo.
In Rusia the new GroupN Impreza – the first in world non-Prodrive Impreza N14 to make its rally debut was driven by the owner of the team and multiple Russian champion Sergey Uspensky. Unluckily after a bad landing the water radiator broke and retirement could not be avoided. The winner was 17 years old Evgeniy Novikov who made his PWRC debut last year in Wales Rally GB. The Russian Champinship is open for the first time to foreign entries this year.
In Sweden, for the first round of the PWRC, at the start were no fewer than seven new Impreza N14 cars with its double wishbone rear suspension, fly-by-wire throttle and state of the art electronic coordination of transmission and engine systems. But winning from the first start is not easy and the highest placed N14 among the 17 PCWRC drivers to finish the course was sixth, in the hands of Toshi Arai, who stated he had poor confidence in the handling. PCWRC drivers Nasser Al Attiyah and Oscar Svedlund gave up the struggle and voluntarily withdrew, privateer Bernard Munster said the car had no power. Evgeniy Vertunov and Hasse Gustafsson both crashed and the girl Ramona Karlsson drove carefully to finish 30th and last in Group N. STI's Group N consultant George Donaldson said the company was not too despondent, however. "The most important thing for us was that this car proved to be reliable. The next big test will be Argentina at the end of March, by which time many of the issues, especially the development of the ECUs, should be resolved". Highest placed Group N Subaru on the Swedish was the old N12 car of Motoring Club driver Jari Ketomaa, who was initially disappointed that his new car was not ready. Later he was relieved that he will continue to be driving the old car till the championship comes to Greece for the Acropolis Rally.
3mmm
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