The controversial new MINI Countryman could be the vehicle to return the brand to the world of rallying. Although the Countryman was only officially revealed last week, there is mounting speculation that work on a World Rally Championship version of the car has been underway for months.
Sources at MINI confirmed at the recent Detroit Motor Show that the British brand will make a decision this May on whether to follow Citroen and Ford into next year's Super 2000-based World Rally Championship.
The BMW-owned marque has a grand tradition in rallying, with the original Cooper S winning consecutive Monte Carlo rallies in the late 1960s, and a push inside MINI feels the time is right to work the brand back into motorsport.
"The cost and the time could be right for us. We just have some hurdles to clear here and we will get started on it," our sources confirmed.
Unlike current WRC cars or Group N rally cars, the Super 2000 formula doesn't demand that car companies build their rally cars around road-car technology or suspension pick-up points.
Instead, they are based around high-revving four-cylinder, non-turbo engines with far less power and torque than WRC cars. Essentially a silhouette formula, the idea is to make rally cars cheaper to build, repair and maintain and to make the sight and sound of the cars more spectacular.
But the new-for-2011 WRC regulations will allow teams to use S2000-specification cars fitted with 1.6-litre turbocharged engines and larger wings.
Insiders also confirmed that MINI has been negotiating with Dave Richards' Prodrive outfit to design and build the rally cars and to run the team as well.
But sources have suggested that, while the technical specifications of the WRC MINI have been finalised, the commercial side of the deal was still being nutted out. Funding arrangements have not been finalised and it is understood the MINI team would need to find a major sponsor, as BMW is not keen to fully fund the team out of MINI's own cash reserves.
The Dave Richards-owned Prodrive already runs the FPR V8 Supercar team in Australia and Aston Martin's Le Mans sports cars. Subaru's World Rally Championship efforts were overseen by Prodrive for nearly 20 years. Mysteriously, it went from being the FIA's preferred new Formula One entrant in 2008 to not being considered amongst the top four in this year's influx of new blood.
With former World Rally Champion Petter Solberg and the quick Australian, Chris Atkinson, as its last drivers before Subaru's pullout at the end of 2008, Prodrive could even bring MINI a full complement of WRC-qualified drivers as well, though MINI insiders insist a decision on driving personnel has not been made.
-- with staff
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