
Famously described like being thrown out of the back of a plane in mid-flight, launching a full race specification World Rallycross Supercar from a standing start is not for the faint hearted. If you’ve ever wondered how it’s done, then read on.
But first the science bit. Kinda. In current season trim, the formerly modest family hatchbacks - which provide the base for all of the World RX cars on the 2018 grid – are specially built to accelerate from 0-60mph in less than 1.9 seconds. That’s quicker than a Formula One car, and pretty much any other competition machinery you can think of. Save perhaps a top fuel dragster; whose nitro-methane fed engine needs to be pulled apart after each 5-second quarter-mile sprint.
And this is the main conundrum with World Rallycross Supercar machinery; it needs to accelerate unbelievably fast, maintain blistering top speeds, but also endure a full weekend’s worth of mechanical abuse - including practice, qualifying, and final races – on a mixture of unrelentingly harsh surfaces; crucially all without needing a total nut-and-bolt overhaul after each time the engine is shut down.
PART TANK PART RACECAR
An uneasy mix between a rally, sprint, circuit, and stock hatch; a modern World RX car is a unique piece of machinery. The competing teams that field them are locked in a never-ending turbocharged arms race to be the fastest off the line, the best through the dirt sections, the most controlled off the jumps, and most precise on the asphalt sections.