Lapworth: new cars will be just as spectacular

Prodrive technical director David Lapworth says rally fans around the world should have nothing to fear from the next generation of World Rally Cars - they’ll be just as spectacular as ever.

The cars competing from Rally Sweden onwards next year will run with 1.6-litre instead of two-litre turbocharged engines and they’ll have less technology in the transmission than the likes of the Citroen C4 WRC and Ford Focus RS WRC we’ll see in Spain this week. But, to you and me, they’re going to be just as quick, according to Lapworth.

“There’s not going to be a dramatic difference between this year’s car and next year’s,” said Lapworth. “I’m comparing what we’ve got with the Mini and the generic World Rally Car from today and I’d say, from the outside, you won’t be able to tell any difference - the cars will be just as spectacular.

“There will be a little bit less torque lower down because we’re running less turbo boost off a smaller engine, but at the same time the cars will be lighter.”

Mini is expected to resume testing its all-new Countryman-based World Rally Car this week and both Citroen and Ford are running their 2011 machinery at the moment. Ford’s Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala both got their first taste of the Fiesta RS WRC on the loose in Spain last week.

With the absence of an active centre differential - a part of the car which offers better grip when turning into a corner - on next year’s WRCs, there had been talk that there could be a return to the super-sideways approach to the stages. Lapworth has ruled that out.

“Driving styles have moved on a great deal,” he said. “The drivers have learned now that the fastest way is the straightest way. That won’t change, no matter what happens to the cars.”