WRC 2017: Rally Spec Hyundai i20 And Other Cars of The Series

The World Rally Championship is set to be held in January and the roaring fun will stretch out in the coming months of 2017. The dates for Monte-Carlo, Sweden, Mexico, Argentina, Portugal and Italy have been confirmed.

The championship will comprise of 13 rounds, and the rally is set to kick off with Rallye Monte-Carlo on January 19.

Hyundai i20

The sweet family car Hyundai i20 that we see prowling the streets is going to be one of the beasts to take on the World Rally Championship set to be held in January, 2017.

The rally spec i20 will be based on the three-door i20 road car, but with a racing heart. The Korean manufacturer started testing the rally spec i20 in April, and said there will be some more tweaks to the chassis and the engine before the final version is revealed in December.

Toyota Yaris WRC

Toyota is running the race with a collaboration of technology giant Microsoft and the Toyota Gazoo Racing team, which is tuning its Yaris World Rally Car for the Japanese manufacturer’s return to WRC after a prolonged absence of 16 years.

The Yaris WRC Test Car was unveiled with Microsoft livery, and the Gazoo Racing team principal Tommi Mäkinen believes the collaboration would maximise the competitiveness of the Yaris.

Citroën C3 WRC

Citroën has confirmed that its contender for WRC 2017 would be the C3 WRC. The French automaker has said the C3 WRC is nearing completion and will make its debut at Rallye Monte-Carlo in January.

As per the new regulations laid out to make WRC more dynamic, the rally cars will get more powerful and have more aerodynamic design, which will lead to longer and wider vehicles.

More power

The 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo engine is still the same, however the turbo restrictor has been widened from 33mm to 36mm, which translates to more power - from 310bhp to 380bhp.

The turbo boost has been limited to 2.5-bar that keeps maximum torque in line the previous figure of around 430 Nm. The engine is paired to a six-speed sequential gearbox operated by a hydraulic paddle shift, which has been upgraded to cope with the extra power.