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MINI WRC

Dave Richards talking MINI and the WRC

Dave Richards

Dave Richards, Prodrive chairman, has been talking recently about the return of MINI to the world rally stage. You can see a brief television piece after the break. A more in-depth interview is also available on the WRC website. Here’s a snippet:

“The traditional way of producing a rally car is that a manufacturer comes along and asks you to make a car out of this product. Instead, we took the new regulations and said, right, what would the ultimate car look like? We used reverse engineering. Three months in, we looked at what we’d got and analysed this against the cars of all the manufacturers in the world. By March 2009 we had come up with 11 target cars. Then we went to talk to the manufacturers.

“Ironically the MINI wasn’t on that list because the car as we knew it was too small. It just didn’t fit the rules. But during discussions we found out that a new, larger car was in development – the four-door Countryman – and it went straight to the top of our list. Firstly, as being just about perfect in dimensions and layout, and secondly being one of the most iconic names and rally brands ever.”

Follow the source link below for the full interview.

[Source: WRC | Thanks to Chris for the YouTube tip]




2 replies on “Dave Richards talking MINI and the WRC”

I must admit that when I heard that there was going to be a Mini int he WRC, I thought that it was going to be a 1600 FWD job. I was VERY happy to hear that they were going full S2000. They should be ready for the WRC round here in AUS next year by the sounds of it! Should be AWESOME!

M@

Now all we need them to do is return to Bathurst and repeat their 1966 result of 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 outright!

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