Opel will enter rallying's Rally4 category in 2021 with a brand new Opel Corsa, which has already had successful test sessions in France.
The Corsa Rally4 is the successor to the popular Opel ADAM R2.
Opel's official press release states:
With the new Corsa Rally4, Opel is opening a new chapter in its successful motorsport history. The Corsa Rally4 is intended for national and international customer sport and follows the ADAM R2, with which Opel won four rally junior European championship titles in a row between 2015 and 2018.
In addition, since its homologation for the 2014 season, there have been more than 220 class wins and over 530 podium places as well as 32 titles in national championships.
The Corsa Rally4 was developed according to the regulations of the Rally4 category, which replaces the old R2 class.
Instead of the high-revving four-cylinder naturally aspirated engine from the ADAM R2, the Corsa Rally4 now has an extremely efficient 1.2-litre, three-cylinder engine based on the production engine with turbocharging, which has impressive performance data with 208bhp and 290 Newton meters of torque.
The frictional connection between the engine, which is controlled by central electronics from Magneti Marelli, and the front axle is achieved via a sequential five-speed gearbox from Sadev. The differential can be individually adjusted with the help of three different ramps. The rally chassis with Eibach springs and Öhlins shock absorbers is fully adjustable.
After several months of testing together with PSA Motorsport, further test drives with the Opel Corsa Rally4 were due last week. The teams from Opel and PSA Motorsport completed more than a thousand test kilometers over five days around the southern French towns of Mazamet and Brassac. The drifts and spurts on gravel and asphalt slopes convinced the prominent test pilots Yoann Bonato and Marijan Griebel in all respects.
Opel rally representative and test driver Marijan Griebel, who drove alongside co-driver Tobias Braun, drew an all-round positive conclusion:
“The Corsa Rally4 is very easy to drive, reacts logically to changes in the set-up and does the right thing when driving Whim. I immediately had confidence in the car. Thanks to the longer wheelbase, the Corsa is more stable in fast corners than the ADAM R2 and yet very agile.
"The engine is great, has a lot of thrust, which you can feel not least uphill. Thanks to the higher torque and the much wider usable speed range of the turbo engine, the driver has to shift less than with a comparable vacuum cleaner. The traction is also very good.
"The Corsa Rally4 is an all-round successful, fast rally car. The test drives were very productive and I had a lot of fun. "
The homologation of the Opel Corsa Rally4 is scheduled for December 1, 2020. The construction of the customer vehicles begins immediately afterwards. Then orders from customer teams will also be possible.
“Our customers can look forward to a fast, reliable rally car, just as they know it from the ADAM R2,” says Opel Motorsport Director Jörg Schrott.
“The Corsa Rally4 was also systematically developed with the lowest possible operating costs in mind. That saves customers' budgets and ensures a favorable price-performance ratio. ”The purchase price of the Opel Corsa Rally4 will be announced in the near future.
In the next step, the Corsa Rally4 will also represent the second stage of the joint promotion of talent by Opel and ADAC. The funding pyramid begins according to the tried and tested model with the ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup and will lead the best talents to the ADAC Opel Rally Junior Team and the cockpit of an Opel Corsa Rally4.
A demanding international mission program awaits the promotional pilots there, with which they can take the next steps in their driving development.
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