Corolla 4 Wheel drive Turbo??
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Toyota Corolla 4 Wheel drive!
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A 4WD turbo-charged new shape Toyota Corolla competed in the last round of the Australian Rally Championship in Melbourne a week or so ago. The car was lying 9th in a very competitive field on Saturday before retiring after and off-road excursion down a bank on Sunday.
Long-time Toyota driver Neal Bates piloted the Corolla in Melbourne and was very satisfied with his new prototype Corolla Group N rally car. He was just two minutes and 24 seconds behind winner Simon Evans (Impreza) after 118km of competitive driving.
This outing must have made some manufacturers eye shape change a little bit, as the first outing of the Toyota was impressive enough to surely encourage other manufactures to take up the category.
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Check that power! Wheel-spinning a 4 wheel drive takes plenty horses.
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Bates and his crew built the Corolla in their Canberra workshop using the running gear from a four-wheel-drive Toyota Celica GT-Four, which was last homologated for rallying in 1993! The car is due to compete full-time in the 2003 ARC.
Some specs:
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The rear end of the Corolla features a wider stance, slightly flared rear guards housing the track of the Celica GT-Four running gear. The original plan was to incorporate a Corolla WRCar style rear wing to assist with down-force but it was deemed unnecessary in the initial development of the prototype.
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The bonnet of the 'prototype' Corolla receives a World Rally Car style air vent to assist with engine bay cooling.
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Cleared of any unnecessary components the interior is very much rally car. The dash and centre console are as per the standard Corolla except sporting light weight carbon fibre mouldings and housing the standard rally vehicle switches (spot lights, intercom, radio etc.) as well as the emergency battery kill switch and fire bomb activation switch.
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The driving force behind the Group N (P) Corolla, the ST205 Celica GT-Four power plant. Put into production in 1994, the third generation GT-Four engine produces approximately 255 bhp @ 6,000 rpm and 304 Nm torque @ 4,000 rpm.
A development such as this will be in the very distant future, if one looks at the present regulations applicable on the South Africa Rally Championship.
The ultimate joy for a rally fan is to be able to get behind a similar spec road car to that which they see in the stages on the weekend. Mitsubishi and Subaru have this market wrapped up with their Lancer Evo's and Impreza WRX's, Ford are currently entering it with their Focus RS' and Skoda has a low-profile Octavia RS, but with the present restrictions put on these cars, only the manufacturers and super rich can afford to become involved.
It is sad that Group N4 are so restricted that you need to spend about R200 000 to get it back to where it was before the turbo intake was restricted from 50mm to 32mm in the case of Subaru.
This does not make any sense. All this rule does is to ensure that a car run on a limited budget, such as the Subaru Pretoria/RallyStar Impreza Sti, can not really be competitive and has to be driven extra hard, which needless to say increases the costs.
Then of course, as it was my personal year of return to National Rallies, the point system was devised to give Group A8, and the manufacturers further “protection”. Class wins in N4 meant virtually nil, as they have to compete for points against multi million Rand teams. A decent driver worth the money he is paid, should not even feel the presence on a N4 car while driving in class A8. Never mind the so-called advantage of four-wheel-drive. You still need the cajounies to drive the car at the set speeds, and I can tell you without doubt, that, with a slight exception of wet conditions, you will or should not be able to catch a Class A8 car in a N4.
Damseaux, Habig and Kuun will and should not easily be caught in anything. They took “blind” rally driving into a new dimension with the pace they are setting these days and without a restrictor a Group N4 car may win a rally or two, but there is no way that it will be able to keep up with the much lighter Class A8 cars.
It is heartening to see that at least the points-matter has been addressed by the rally committee and the previously disadvantaged – N4 drivers of 2002 will at least now be able to score full points in 2003, restrictions and all!
It will be interesting to see what would happen should they allow us to take the restrictors off, and allow only suspension and brake changes.
It is easy: Group N4 cars shall not be allowed to change any part from its standard specifications, except to fit an approved roll cage, sump- and other protection guards under the drive train and tanks. Brakes are free. Suspension parts may be strengthened as per existing rules.
Any driver or service crew caught fiddling with the bloody car, will be suspended for life and then shot.
Remember to tell what happened in our “hey, what happened column”
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