You may own a Ford, a Citroen, a Suzuki or maybe a Subaru. You probably drive it to work, to the supermarket and maybe even take your kids down to the field for soccer on Sundays. But have you ever tried driving it at 200 kilometres per hour, over gravel or dirt or ice while driving through torrential rain, dust storms & blizzards? Well turn on your TV cause you might just see that happen.
The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a showcase of 2-litre, four cylinder cars that look exactly like what you just bought from the showroom. However, there is nothing remotely ‘standard’ about these mean machines. There won’t be any doubt that road cars would not be able to withstand the rough treatment meted out by the unforgiving terrain that the Rally-ready vehicles gobble up.
Let’s start with the Price. A WRC car will set you back by a cool Million dollars, and that’s without spares. Competition standard tyres are expensive and will only last about 100kms. Not to mention the engine rebuild and the gearbox reconstruction that is required after every two races.
The FIA rules firmly state that WRC cars need to be based on standard road car body-shells. Each street worthy car is stripped of every bit of equipment till it is down to its bare metal shell. The spot welds on the shell are replaced by seam welding on them. Unnecessary parts like brackets and mounting plates are removed to save on weight and a tubular steel Roll-cage is welded in. These changes take about 700 hours of work and make the car, lighter, stronger and stiffer. They are said to be strong enough to support the weight of 10 road cards.
The engines are the heart behind these metal monsters and the FIA specifies an incredible amount of regulations based around engines. The engine’s air-intake valve has a size restriction of 34mm. This holds the power output to around 300 bhp. The Cylinder block and head(s) must be based on those in the standard road car, but the crankshaft, con-rods, pistons, cylinder linings, valves and camshafts can be modified. The typical turbo boost of a WRC car is in the region of 4-5 bar. This is enormous when compared to the 1 bar of an average road car. Anti-lag systems ensure that maximum power of this boost is available instantly, from idling speed. The result is mindblowing – 700 Nm of massive torque that’s almost the same as the Ferrari Enzo.
All WRC cars have four wheel drives (obviously) and a six speed semi-automatic transmission. Electronic gear shifts allow drivers to emulate the gear changing ability of a Formula1 car – 1/400th of a second. These electronic systems allow for clutchless gearchanges and almost all cars use the Formula1 style - Launch Control to speed away of the starting blocks. The cars have a clutch, but the driver tends to only use it to move off from a standing start. Upholstery, or trim, is a strict ‘no-no’ for these cars. There is just bare metal, and two light-weight carbon fibre seats that are tailored to wrap around the driver’s, & co-driver’s, backs. The tubes of the roll cage ensure that there is no room at the back either. The floor of the car is extremely crowded too. Everything that is essential like fire extinguishers, toolkits and the spare wheel are bolted to the floor or under it, to ensure a low centre of gravity.
The rules, however, allow spoilers and other aerodynamic aids that can be added to the cars. These aids are usually absent in their street smart cousins. They maintain airflow around the car that serves various purposes like keeping the engine & brakes cool, keeping the car planted on the ground at incredibly high speeds or keeping the car level when it takes off from an elevated road segment.
The result of all this technology, innovation and hard work is that these cars can travel from 0-60mph in around 3 seconds on any surface and of course, in the hands of the right driver, can power slide between trees on a narrow gravel track under full control – at 200 kmph.