Mini Countryman WRC – Auto Sportive
Press the paddle four times to lift up, move your hand 5 centimeters to the right, and then pull the handbrake with all your might. But this is not enough, the curve approaches at full speed and, as if by magic, at some point you enter it sideways, really almost to sit down. If it's not fun ...
Before making a full turn, open the throttle again so hard that the four wheels begin to slip as the vehicle continues to move sideways. Like an airplane carpet, a carpet equipped with bucket seats. Sparco... When cornering, steering is minimal, and before exiting a corner, you climb up and start accelerating to hit the next one.
Race cars are usually excluded from Driven, but not every day you can drive a new star WRC. And then, since "only" 525.000 euro (Excluding VAT) buy, this one Mini WRC it rightfully belongs to the category of production vehicles and therefore also among these pages. Do you agree?
La Mini Compatriot WRC prepares for Rally Deutschland when the team Prodrive it gives me the opportunity to try it (I am the second journalist in the world and the first Englishman to drive it. Now I want to get hi). And I'm not that bad either, because over the years I've been fortunate enough to test more than one rally car, and I've got an idea of how they drive.
The first thing I notice is that the Countryman is a big car. With that rather heavy bodywork and rally rules that set a maximum limit of 1.200kg (previous years it was 1.300), the Prodrive didn't have much backlash, even if the Mini's platform proved to be excellent for WRC suspension. And this is not the only advantage.
You open the door, put your feet between the side slats barbell a Cage and you sit in a Sparco chair. For a big man like me, that's always a problem, but the Mini is one of those rally cars that's easier to sit in, and just look at it to see why: it's huge inside. Of course, this is not an S-class, but it does seem to have more free space, and this detail will certainly be appreciated by drivers and navigators who spend hours in the cockpit during the rally, often even in critical conditions.
I string helmet and a headset, I'm buckled in and ready to go. Dave Wilcox, CTO at Prodrive, explains the simple start-up procedure, which consists of touching a switch and pressing a small oblong button between the seats (which was clearly marked with the word Start, so as not to be mistaken). The sound at idle is smoother and softer than I expected, but that is not enough to calm me down: if I think about what is in store for me, I get a little nervous. To begin with, starting without shutting down the engine is not as easy as it seems. The accelerator squeals at the slightest touch: it seems that it has increased the speed too much, but instead everything is exactly the opposite. Then friction is nervous and sudden, it has the aggressiveness and impatience of the mother at the end of the day, when the sweet child does not want to sleep.
Large single blades from old WRC cars have been replaced with sequential gearbox a six gears even so, the Mini's ergonomics were inconvenient for the technicians. The slim U-shaped gear lever (a kind of cane that protrudes from the dash and points upward) is more comfortable than the sequential gear shifting on the Peugeot and Skoda S2000 I've tried.
Only 310 CV, change on Marsa Court and maximum speed di 195 km / h The Mini Countryman WRC, like most rally cars, is not very fast on traditional tracks. But if you place it in the middle of earth and mud where shorter accelerations are needed, I 420 Nm torque four-cylinder turbo 1.6 they turn him into a real splinter. Fortunately, Kenilworth Prodrive has a short and difficult stretch of tarmac winding through hedges and trees.
I slip into third to dash into the first chicane right-left and then open the throttle fully, watching the blue gear indicator, ready to obey it as soon as it comes on. Fourth, fifth, I hold my breath and slip into the next chicane from left to right. I take the bump, but even if the Mini lifts off the ground from the passenger compartment, it is barely felt. IN Öhlins pendant The Specials have a reputation for being very difficult, even by WRC standards, and you can feel it: Paradoxically, they are tough but soft at the same time, so the car manages to maintain traction and absorb the worst bumps. I hardly feel all these ups and downs on the track, so I can drive as if nothing had happened, fully using all the available space. After a couple of laps, Wilcox activatesALS (Anti Lag System) the reactions of the accelerator change radically. Anti Lag forces you to re-calibrate the sensitivity of your right foot, as it does with your left when you learn to do a heel-to-toe. But when you get used to it, you will be able to slide around the bend and choose your trajectory with much more precision. The Mini is much more difficult to drive than the old WRC car with active differential, where you just have to turn on the throttle and the electronics do the rest. But elongated step The Countryman (150mm more than the Fiesta WRC and DS3) seems to make it more stable and less ready than the smaller and well-positioned Fabia S2000 and 207, especially after pushing the limit. This tendency is clearly visible when driving quickly with the right hand through the trees, where on "old" tires the Mini completely goes to the railing. It feels like driving on ice on studded tires.
The Countryman WRC is fantastic. And not because I say so: a week after my trip to Kenilworth, Dani Sordo took the first podium in the first stage of the WRC on asphalt. Ford and Citroen better watch out ...
