Yes, it’s been stressful and a bit of a labour of love and lots of people have come together to make it all happen, but I think we’re all just really excited to see it going this weekend and seeing our hard work come to fruition.RSM: You tested the car last Friday for the first time. How many kilometres did you do, and how is it feeling in the car? HB: We did about 50 kilometres, and the feeling was pretty good straight away. We’re starting from scratch with set-up and so on, so I was already making quite a lot of changes and trying to get the car set-up more to my liking. To be honest, we’re going to be doing a lot of it this weekend, throughout the rally, but that’s the main reason we wanted to debut it here, to get kilometres in the car. If we can get a good result this weekend, then that’ll be a bonus, but it’s all about trying to get the car right before Rally Australia in November. RSM: You recently test drove the R5 Toyota in Paraguay. What ideas have you been able to take from that car? HB: When we started the project, we knew that they had a similar car, and they were able to help us out with a few engine ideas. We’re running a different restrictor size to them, and a different gearbox. So the car is quite different, but it was still good to get an idea of the feel of the car and it gave me a good base for this car. RSM: Are you confident the car will be reliable? HB: Yes. The team have done this before, as I said. I guess reliability is probably always a question with any new car, but I’ve got good faith in the guys, and whatever will be, will be. Reliability is always a risk no matter what the car. I hope we can have a clean run and have no issues. RSM: Lastly, how much fun is it to drive? HB: Lots of fun! It’s lots of fun, and I hope everyone loves it, because I think these new cars are exciting and will probably bring more and more people to the sport." You can also view a feature of the Yaris AP4 on RallySport Magazine.
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