Sectiunea Motorsport

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https://www.carscoops.com/2018/02/hyund ... -car-2018/

Hyundai Launches Upgraded i20 R5 Rally Car For 2018

Customer racing cars are fast becoming big business for automakers around the world. But Hyundai, for one, isn’t satisfied developing and releasing a competition vehicle and leaving it to its client teams to make the best of it.

The Korean automaker has announced a series of revision to its i20 R5 rally car for the 2018 season ahead, promising “a more powerful, responsive car this season, thanks to the continued work of the engineers within the team’s Customer Racing department.”

The focus of the continued development is on the 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine, which now boasts variable timing, improved engine mapping, and better throttle response. But that’s not all.

Along with the engine upgrades, Hyundai’s motorsport department says it has improved the chassis for better handling, with new dampers for both tarmac and gravel surfaces. There’s a wider range of differential mapping as well, available to teams buying the updated car as well as those upgrading their existing ones.

“In our efforts with the i20 R5 and our customers we are always aiming to make sure they can compete at the very front of whatever championship they choose,” says Hyundai Motorsport customer racing department manager Andrea Adamo. “The rapid pace of development within the R5 category means that we constantly have to be working in order to guarantee this.”

The i20 R5 faces stiff competition from similarly prepared versions of the Ford Fiesta, Citroën C3, Peugeot 208, Volkswagen Polo GTI, and Skoda Fabia. R5 rally cars are eligible for a wide array of rally championships, including the WRC2 class and numerous national and regional series.

“These latest improvement are the most important we have made since the car’s debut, and will allow our customers to again challenge for rally wins and championship titles around the world,” continues Adamo. “This season our customers are competing in a wider range of championships, so we have to make sure we continue our work in order for them to be on the pace in all conditions.”

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Alonso To Compete In Full WEC Season After Japan Race Is Moved To Suit Him

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/02/alons ... oved-suit/

Ever wondered why Fernando Alonso attracts so much attention from the media and public alike? It’s because he’s a huge motorsport star, so much so that WEC organizers have moved the date of the Japanese race to allow Alonso to participate.

The Spaniard, alongside the McLaren Formula One team, recently announced that the two-time F1 champion will compete in the 2018 WEC season with Toyota. However, he was initially ruled out of the Japanese event because it clashed with the US Grand Prix in Texas.

Keen to ensure Alonso can compete in all WEC races this year, organizers at Fuji Speedway have brought forward the event from October 21 to October 14. Fuji being officially owned by Toyota surely helped…

BBC Sport suggests this is the first time an FIA world championship event has been moved purely to ensure one driver can compete. This is how much Alonso means to the World Endurance Championship.

Responding to the news, Toyota said: “Fantastic for our Japanese fans that Alonso can also race in Fuji due to WEC date changes.”

Despite having 21 Formula One grands prix and six WEC races to participate in this year, McLaren executive director Zak Brown isn’t concerned about the driver’s workload.

“Fernando is very well prepared, knows what it takes to be successful and he wouldn’t have taken on the additional commitment if he didn’t think he could do both at the highest level.”

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Perrinn 424 LMP1 Is An EV Le Mans Racer With 1,000HP – But It’s Far From Ready

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/02/perri ... far-ready/

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No One Was Interested In Another Endurance Race At Monza

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/02/no-on ... ace-monza/

The Autodromo Nazionale Monza is not only an Italian landmark, but is widely regarded as one of the finest motor racing venues in the world. That apparently wasn’t enough, however, to gather a starting grid big enough to move forward with a planned endurance race at the circuit.

The proposed Targa 6H Monza was proposed for early next month as a stand-alone sports car race. The idea was to bring together GT3 and GT4-class sports cars, together with TCR touring cars and Group CN prototypes (like Radicals and Caterhams SP/300.Rs) for a six-hour race around the track. However Autosport now reports that the event has been canceled due to lack of sufficient entries.

“Although we have registered an encouraging level of interest from teams and drivers,” read a statement from the organizers, “the number of entries confirmed two weeks before the event is not high enough to ensure the race’s level of quality is in line with the minimum standards of our organisation and the Autodromo di Monza.”

The race was being put together by Driving Force Events, the same organization that promotes the Gulf 12 Hours at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit.

Monza’s schedule will still hold plenty of racing action this year, though. Another endurance race – billed as the 4 Hours of Monza – will once again form part of the European Le Mans Series in the middle of May. The Blancpain GT Series will also hold a three-hour endurance race there in April. And Italy’s own GT Open International Series will compete there late in September, following Formula One’s Italian Grand Prix earlier that same month. And those are just the top-level automobile races, with several more motorcycle, vintage, and other events held throughout the year.

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New Widebody Honda Civic Type R For 2018 BTCC Is A True Boy Racer

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/02/new-w ... boy-racer/

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Hyundai i20 Supercar Heading To The FIA World Rallycross Championship

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/03/hyund ... mpionship/


Audi Is Out To Defend Its Titles With Updated RS5 DTM

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/03/audi- ... d-rs5-dtm/



Peugeot Rolls Out New 208 WRX Rallycross Racer

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/03/peuge ... oss-racer/

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FIA Intends To Bring The Safari Rally Back To The WRC

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/03/fia-i ... -back-wrc/

Events come and go from motorsport calendars with every passing year. But some have been more intrinsically linked to certain series than others.

For the World Rally Championship, one of its most iconic races was the Safari Rally until its demise in 2002. But now the FIA wants to bring it back.

The event was first held as the East African Coronation Safari in 1953 to celebrate the ascension of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne of what was then still the British Empire. In 1960, it was renamed the East African Safari Rally, and from 1974 it was known simply as the Safari Rally.

Famous drivers like Ari Vatanen, Juha Kankkunen, Carlos Sainz, Tommi Mäkkinen, Colin McRae and Richard Burns were among its winners. But that all came to an end in 2002, when the event was dropped from the WRC calendar and was relegated to the local FIA African Rally Championship.

If FIA president Jean Todt gets his way, though, it could mark its return to the world stage in the near future. While touring Kenya and Uganda in support of local road safety, the former Ferrari chief and rally co-driver announced his commitment to the Safari’s rebirth.

“The modern World Rally Championship needs to extend its horizons and become more global and I would like to see us return to Kenya for a tough and demanding event,” said Todt. “As the world’s second largest continent, Africa is very important to the FIA and the Safari Rally represents everything that is in the DNA of our sport.”

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Romanul care viseaza sa-i calce pe urme lui Sebastian Loeb! Teste inainte de Mondialul de Raliuri

https://www.sport.ro/super-speed/romanu ... liuri.html

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Volkswagen Shuts Down Formula 3 Program To Focus On Customer Racing

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/03/volks ... er-racing/

Check out the starting grid in most Formula 3 series around the world, and you’re bound to see a number of cars powered by Volkswagen engines. More likely than not, you’ll see a few in the winner’s circle at the end of the race, too. But that’s all coming to a close.

The German automaker has announced that its long-term commitment to Formula 3 racing will come to an end after this season.

That will leave Mercedes as the only engine supplier in the top FIA Formula 3 European Championship, for example. (unless another supplier can be found). And with VW engines having won the star-studded Macau Grand Prix the past two years running, next year we’ll see another on the podium. The same goes for the other dozen or so local and regional championships and standalone events.

“In Formula 3, Volkswagen can look back on a remarkable record,” said Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets. “For more than three decades, Volkswagen teams and drivers have enjoyed great success against teams from other manufacturers – we are sincerely grateful to them for this.”

It’s only the latest in a string of withdrawals from motorsports that Volkswagen and its subsidiary brands have made in recent years. VW recently pulled out of the World Rally Championship, just as it did the Dakar Rally before. Audi and Porsche have both shut down their Le Mans prototype programs as well, channeling their efforts into Formula E instead.

That will leave Volkswagen Motorsport to focus instead on its customer racing programs, currently centered around the Golf GTI TCR touring car and the Polo GTI R5 rally car. Audi, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Seat, and Skoda also offer customer competition machinery.

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Red Bull Pulls Out Of DTM For The First Time Since 2001

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/03/red-b ... ince-2001/

French Constructor Mygale Returns To Formula 3 With New Chassis Design

https://www.carscoops.com/2018/03/frenc ... is-design/