It's been well over a year since Hyundai revealed its initial prototype for the i20 WRC at the 2012 Paris Auto Show. Now it's revealed the final version (pictured above, complete with Shell Helix livery) and it's also announced the full team that will field it next year in the Noah Joseph
It was 1998 when Subaru made some crucial changes to its World Rally Championship Impreza, such as increasing the displacement of the turbocharged flat-four-cylinder engine from 2.0 to 2.2 liters and fitting wide fender flares. Subaru won the WRC manufacturer championship with the car that year, and it also was the year of the automaker's 40th anniversary. To celebrate the milestone, the company
Professional rally driving is one of the toughest gigs going in motorsports. High speeds, uneven surfaces, varied weather conditions and the occasional flub from driver or co-driver can (and do) conspire to wreak all manner of havoc. Just a fraction too much steering lock, selecting the wrong gear at the wrong time or suffering from a microsecond lapse of attention can cause a racer to end up in the weeds with a quickness.
Robert Kubica seems to have more bad luck than most top-tier race car drivers, but maybe that's because his high-profile crashes since 2011 have garnered more media attention than his achievements. When we left off with him last month, he was within spitting distance of winning WRC2, and he indeed won the championship in late October. Now here's the bad news: he
Robert Kubica may never race in Formula One again. But that's alright, because he's apparently finding a new way for himself in the World Rally Championship.
Rally ace Sébastien Loeb had a rare off in the final World Rally Championship race of his career, as the wet tarmac at the Rally of France saw the French star deposit his Citroen DS3 WRC into the forest. Loeb, who won the WRC's Driver's Championship every year from 2004 to 2012, and co-driver Daniel Elena emerged from their car
For the tenth year in a row, a Frenchmen named Sébastien has been named the champion of the World Rally Championship – only it's probably not Sébastien you were expecting. Dethroning Sébastien Loeb from his WRC reign is 29-year-old Sébastien Ogier (shown above, at right) and his Volkswagen Polo R WRC.
It's always a good day when we get to post a video about rally racing. It's even better when that video is of a new WRC competitor undergoing testing. This spy video shows Hyundai's i20 WRC, a car that debuted nearly one year ago at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. It's set to usher in Hyundai's
Tragedy stuck this weekend at the site of the ADAC Rallye Deutschland when a driver and co-driver team from the Netherlands were killed in a crash on Saturday. The incident occurred not in the headline World Rally Championship event, but in a classic support rally.
Volkswagen has petitioned the FIA to hold on to the current specifications for cars in the World Rally Championship, according to Autosport.com. The move is evidently an effort to keep as many competitors in the sport as possible, despite the fact that using
Citroen has taken a unique stab at commemorating Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena's nine World Rally Championship wins. Rather than work up yet another tired video of the champions expounding on the virtues, trials and and tribulations that come with being the very best for nearly a decade straight, the company whipped
It appears that the World Rally Championship has lost another key player. After word that Mini is leaving WRC comes news that Ford is pulling out as well. While Mini's departure was rooted in its tenuous relationship with Prodrive, Ford's exit from the sport is tied to the poor economic climate in Europe.
There was a fair bit of hullabaloo two years ago when Mini announced a return to the World Rally Championship for this season, but the road to making that happen has been as rocky as a gravel stage. It spent 2011 developing its JCW Countryman WRC challenger, changing its mind about how it Jonathon Ramsey
Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, for a shocking announcement: Sébastien Loeb has won the 2012 World Rally Championship title, and his Red-Bull-sponsored Citroën team took home the manufacturer's trophy.
If one absolutely must crash out of professional rally event, one might as well do it with style. At least that seems to be the philosophy of Petter Solberg. The Norwegian World Rally Championship driver bowed out of the Rally of France Alsace on Saturday when he left the course, drove through a vineyard, rejoined the course briefly, drove through a second vineyard and struck a power pole. A
Last week, we were able to bring you all of the details regarding Peugeot's new 208 Type R5 rally car, but there was only a shadowy teaser image with which to illustrate the pre-production rally titan.
At virtually the same moment that it was revealed Hyundai was exiting all motorsports activities here in the States, the Korean automaker was on stage at the Paris Motor Show making a major commitment to one of the most exciting – and costliest – racing series the globe has to
Following word from Rhys Millen Racing that its main sponsor, Hyundai, is withdrawing support from its Formula Drift and Global RallyCross Championship campaigns, the Korean automaker has confirmed to Autoblog that it is ceasing all motorsports support programs in North America.
It has been the trend for drivers departing F1 to enter some other road-racing series, with endurance racing, DTM, IndyCar and NASCAR the popular destinations. Kimi Räikkönen went the other direction, leaving Ferrari for a stint with the development class of the Citroën rally team
