The slowest cars on the WRC stages are also the most important.
Nine months a year away from home, much of it locked up in a darkened container and then, when let out, punished and loved in equal measure is a hard life indeed – the recce cars used by the World Rally Championship’s stars to map out each stage are truly unsung heroes.
Take M-Sport’s fleet of 25 Volvo 25T AWDs (all-wheel-drives) that it prepares back at base in the UK. Nine of those cars only see home three months a year as they head off on a fascinating journey by land and sea for use on the WRC’s ‘long-haul’ events in Mexico, Argentina and Australia.
Right now, along with rival teams VW and Citroen’s recce cars, they are somewhere in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean – freight ship unknown – heading to the tip of South Africa. They’ll then pass Madagascar and cross the Indian Ocean to Malaysia before being hoisted aboard another boat for final transportation to Brisbane in time for Rally Australia in September.
In all that’s a voyage of 65 days and more than 12,000 miles. And that’s excluding the initial boat trip in winter from the UK to Mexico and the return leg home again by sea, from Australia to Britain and back to M-Sport’s workshop.
In Argentina, team mechanics added to their already hectic service area schedules by stripping, cleaning and rebuilding recce cars to showroom standard for the journey to Oz.
“Australia’s quarantine laws are very strict – we have to make sure no insects, vegetation or so on has found its way into the cars,” explains M-Sport’s client liaison manager Richard Millener. “The Australian officials are here ensuring everything is in order prior to departure for the port. The last thing anyone needs is for a banana to get left in a glove compartment.”
On reaching their destination, the cars are then stored in readiness for collection before being put into action on the crucial recce sessions. Recce speeds are limited to around 70kph but that doesn’t mean the cars are shown any mercy.
“Quite often during recce the drivers like to see how close to the edges of the road they can get," says Millener. "They take risks on the recce so they don’t have to with the WRC cars. The recce cars get a hard life.
“They need to feel like a rally car so the drivers and co-drivers can make accurate notes. They have upgraded Reiger suspension, a standard gearbox but we beef up the four-wheel-drive system. We also raise the ride height, fit different brakes and rally-strength wheels, install a roll cage, spare wheels and other rally related tools in the boot. Most important are the trip meters so the co-drivers can get their pace notes bang on.
“Bear in mind these cars also do the whole route twice, plus are used for transportation generally by teams on an event. The teams’ weather crews also use the cars after recce for tarmac events where they have dual use.”
The phrase ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ springs to mind, particularly with the Volvo – often thought of more as a car for granddad or towing a caravan!
“If you drove one on the road you’d not notice any difference in power but the handling yes, due to the extra stiffness from the suspension and roll cage,” adds Millener. “They aren’t perhaps the car you’d expect us to use, but they do their job very well and are meticulously maintained after each rally. From about £30,000 new as new road car they are worth nearer £45k with all the rally kit on.”
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