Prodrive Golf SCRC wins on debut

Prodrive’s new VW Golf SCRC rally car has won the Longyou Rally in China on its competition debut this weekend. Chris Atkinson and Stephane Prevot driving for the FAW-VW Rally Team, finished the event more than five minutes ahead of their nearest rivals, which included works teams in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship.

The Longyou Rally is a mixed surface event run on both concrete and gravel, and despite have only having had one short test session in the car, Atkinson was able to win the first stage and then control the rally from start to finish.

“Considering the timescales we have had to design and build this car and the limited testing, it is a great achievement to have been able to go out and run almost faultlessly over the three days and win the rally so convincingly against some strong factory competition,” said John Gaw, Prodrive Motorsport managing director.

Prodrive started designing the car in June and it was shipped to China in early October. The Golf was specifically designed for the Chinese rally regulations with a two litre turbocharged engine, but otherwise it is very similar in specification to a World Rally Car with many of the same systems and components.

The FAW-VW Rally Team will now run two Golf SCRCs at the next round of the Chinese Rally Championship at the WuYi Rally at the end of November, which is run on tarmac.

As well as the Chinese Rally Championship, with some minor modifications, the Golf SCRC could also be run in a number of open class series across the world.

source: Prodrive