X-Raid presents Mini John Cooper Works Rally
The German X-Raid Team presents the new MINI John Cooper Works Rally, the race car which would have its racing debut at 2017 Dakar Rally in January 2017. The Trebur-based team, which had a glorious moments in its 14-year history, scoring four wins at Dakar Rally, starts the new chapter of its life with a new car.
Mini John Cooper Works Rally
The Mini JCW Rally is an evolution of the Dakar-winning Mini All4Racing, so the technical specification are similar. The Mini JCW Rally would continue to use BMW’s TwinPower Turbo 6-cylinder Diesel engine. The engine is connected to the six-speed sequential gearbox. The power output is about 340 bhp, with a torque of 800 Nm. The top speed is 184 km/h. The dimensions of a car are 4350 x 1999 x 2000 mm (length/width/height), with a wheel base of 2900 mm. The weight of a car is 1952.5 and it carries 385-litre fuel tank.
The all new cross-country racer is based on the MINI Countryman, same as an old All4 Racing, but it’s visible at first sight that JCW Rally’s exterior looks more aggressive than its predecessor. The new car also features a lot of enhancements under its skin. The tubular steel frame is a new design and allows for stowing a third spare wheel in the lower section of the car. With this move, the designers of the vehicle created the necessary room in the rear for placing the cooling system at a lower point. Both changes resulted in an even lower centre of gravity.
At the same time, the new MINI John Cooper Works Rally also represented a step forward when it came to the aerodynamics. To achieve this goal, the desert racer spent numerous hours in the BMW Group’s wind tunnel.
Mini John Cooper Works Rally
“The new MINI John Cooper Works Rally is just great. It’s a vehicle that also is based on a thorough wind-tunnel design. This made for better aerodynamics and in combination with further new functions we succeeded in clearly increasing the car’s performance. One of the advantages achieved in the wind tunnel is a higher top speed combined with a better acceleration at beyond 140kph – important areas for improvements. The vehicle’s centre of gravity was lowered significantly. We placed some 50kg in the centre of the car about 50 centimetres lower, thus improving the vehicle’s handling and its drivability on any kind of terrain as well as improving its agility on a winding rally track”, says Sven Quandt, X-raid CEO.
X-Raid Team announced eight pairing for the 2017 Dakar Rally. The top drivers would be Mikko Hirvonen, Yazeed Al-Rajhi, Orlando Terranova and Bryce Menzies. Four more driver in the all-new Mini JCW Rally cars would be Boris Garafulic, Jakub Przygonski, Stephan Schott and Mohamed Abu Issa.
Photos: x-raid.de
