Autoblog

click above for more high-res action shots

Rally-racing superstar Sebastien Loeb drove into the history books this past Sunday in Monaco when he and co-driver Daniel Elena (a native of Monaco) took the checkered flag at the Monte Carlo Rally for a record fifth time. The Monaco stages kicked off the 2008 World Rally Championship, and Loeb is hoping that the victory at the season opener will be the first of many as he and Elena campaign for their fifth consecutive WRC title.

Although Dani Sordo, Loeb's team-mate at Citroen, put up an early fight, Sordo retired from second place with engine problems, leaving Loeb with an eventual two-and-a-half second lead over Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen. Acknowledging Loeb's repeated domination in Monte Carlo, Hirvonen was satisfied with his second-place finish.

This was the last time the Monte Carlo Rally counts towards the World Rally Championship, as next year the event joins the 2009 Intercontinental Rally Challenge. The WRC picks up again in Sweden on February 8.

We've selected some of the finer action shots from the Monaco Rally and assembled them into a high-res gallery below.

[Source: Autosport]

Click the image above for high-res shots of Suzuki's WRC contender.

Suzuki's newest entrant into the WRC may never grace the gravel if changes in car regulations take place earlier than anticipated. Originally, the new vehicle regulations changes were to take effect in 2012 under the World Rallies Commission's "Vision for 2012" plan. That's up in the air, however, as a competing plan targeted at 2009 would make WRC incorporate modified Super 2000 regs that retain turbocharging and 4WD, while still embracing simplified technology. (The standard S2K regs prohibit electronic driving aids in cars.) Using a revised flavor of Super 2000 might be very attractive to the WRC teams, as the simpler tech could potentially lower operating costs.

Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima, head of Suzuki Sport, recently sat down with the automaker's senior execs to mull over the possibility of nixing the SX4's planned entry in October's Corsica rally. According to Autoweek, Tajima even questioned the development of a new car at all "when it will be quite useless in two years time."

[Source: Autoweek]

Click image for photo gallery

Last month, the Suzuki SX4 WRC underwent tarmac testing in Europe, and the consensus is that things are progressing well, but there's room for improvement,. And to be competitive, more improvement is needed. The car's current configuration is said to be very close to what the team will use in the WRC test entries it's scheduled for -- the Rallye de France in October and Rally GB in November.

Suzuki Sport's president, Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima (yes, him), said that while the results the group has seen are encouraging, he knows that the European WRC teams are evolving and improving just as quickly, and he and the rest of the team at Suzuki Sport are working very hard to ensure that the SX4 WRC will be a competitive entry when takes part in this season's upcoming test rallies, and more importantly, next year's World Rally Championship season. We hope this WRC effort will ultimately spawn a snazzy, turbocharged SX4 street car to do battle with the WRX in the marketplace. Because, you know, we're selfish like that.

Press release after the jump.

[Source: Suzuki]

For two decades, participants in the World Rally Championship haven't been bothered with flat tires due to the expanding foam that quickly inflates when air pressure is lost. Since the system was instituted, it wasn't uncommon for drivers to win races – sometimes setting record times – on foam-infused tires. However, new FIA regulations have mandated that the gooey compound are to be nixed for the 2008 season in an effort to keep costs in check.

As such, teams are looking to employ new tire-monitoring systems that can give drivers real-time data on inflation and temperature, to let them know when a tire should be changed. BERU F1 Systems is just such a supplier, having proven its wares in everything from LeMans to F1 racing.

It strikes us as odd that the FIA's decision to eliminate foam was hailed as a cost-saving measure, considering that this new tire-monitoring system will likely increase the cost of campaigning a WRC vehicle. We'll have to wait until next year to see how the new regs will be implemented and how it will affect the outcome of some of the more grueling races.

[Source: Gizmag]

If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times -- bicycling is dangerous. Possibly even more dangerous than piloting a turbo-charged, all-wheel-drive hatch through the tree-lined corridors of a World Rally Championship stage. We meant to leave this little nugget of information on Sebastian Loeb's answering machine, but alas, we were too late. The Citroen hot shoe broke his arm during a cycling accident and is unable to drive his Xsara in the World Rally of Turkey this October 12-15. A pity really, as Loeb is currently in first place for the driver's championship, towering over his nearest competitor with a 35-point lead.

Citroen however has called out the big guns, in the form of ex-racer extraordinaire Colin McRae and long-time co-pilot Nicky Grist. The three-time World Rally champion will pilot the Xsara during the race in Turkey, although his participation in future races has not been ruled out.

We know McRae is still on top of his game, with his last run in the WRC back in 2005 for Skoda and his recent antics competing in the X-Games, it's evident that he is in top form. Rumors are also beginning to circulate that he may make a full-time return to the WRC in 2007.

[Source: Channel 4 and WRC.com]

The Paris Motor Show will be the venue for the formal unveiling of the final version of Citroën's C4 WRC rally car, the successor to the company's dominant Xsara, the car which propelled Sebastien Loeb to World Rally Championship stardom, and Citroën to three manufacturers championships (with Loeb's results in 2006 likely to make it four in a row).

The C4 WRC will replace the Xsara when Citroën re-enters the WRC with its factory team in 2007, led once again by Loeb. Like the Xsara, the C4 WRC features four-wheel drive, a 315 hp 2-liter turbocharged engine and a six-speed transverse-mounted semi-automatic gearbox. Front and rear differentials are mechanical, while the center diff is electronically controlled. The C4 WRC is larger than the Xsara, providing a larger, safer compartment for the driver and navigator. Unlike the last factory-run Xsara, the new C4 is more limited by the new WRC rules in the area of electronic driver aids, and major subsystems (engine, gearbox, differentials, shocks) must last longer before replacement.

More pics after the jump.

[Source: Citroën Sport]

Sebastien Loeb scored a narrow win in the World Rally Championship's Rally Japan this past weekend, the 27th WRC victory of his career, making him the winningest driver in the history of the FIA's rally championship.

Loeb's achievement is all the more remarkable because he only made his WRC debut in 2004, breaking Carlos Sainz' previous record in only four seasons. Loeb has put in a dominating performance this year in his Kronos Racing Citroen, winning seven events in only eleven starts to lead the driver's championship by 33 points over BP/Ford's Marcus Gronholm.

Loeb could well be even stronger next year, when he returns to the Citroen factory team piloting the all-new Citroen C4. Meanwhile, he's on track for his third World Rally Championship heading into the next event in Cyprus.

[Source: Rally Japan]

The WRC's Acropolis Rally of Greece wrapped up Sunday with a Super Special Stage in the Olympic Stadium in Athens (above). The rally report follows the jump...