Western Australian driver, Brad Markovic, has his Subaru WRX for sale and could appear in an R5 car in 2018.
With an influx of AP4 cars starting to appearing in the Australian Rally Championship, Markovic is aware of the increased speed from the new breed of cars, but doesn’t see himself heading down that path.
“I’m keen to take the next step, but I don’t really see the value in building and then developing an AP4 car,” Markovic said at Rally Australia.
“We’ve already seen the mechanical issues that the Mini and Yaris AP4 cars have had, so if we do make the step up, it’s more likely to be in an R5 spec car.”
Richie Dalton’s performance at Rally Australia was a case in point. In a hired Skoda Fabia R5, he finished eighth outright and scored WRC points – on his first drive of the car.
Brad Markovic is eyeing off an R5 car for next year's Australian Championship.
“I think the two choices are either a Fiesta or a Fabia,” Markovic added.
“Both those cars have been developed by big teams and all the hard work is already done. It’s pretty much buy the car and start competing.”
He added that once the initial purchase of a car was undertaken, running costs for an ARC round would be pretty similar, regardless of what car was being used.
Markovic believes an R5 car could be bought and shipped to Australia for around $275,000 – significantly less than what it is believed some of the new AP4 cars have cost to build and develop.
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