Fingers crossed, but if Opel in Germany is all set to return
to the rally stage and race circuit, could Vauxhall be tempted back into the
fray over here?
Details have just been announced in Germany, but at present Opel is considering only a domestic
rally and race series for the new Adam small car, and certainly not thinking of
a WRC or even IRC campaign, but it’s a start.
The factory has already built a 'rallye cup' version of their new Opel ADAM, which is pretty close to FIA
R2 specifications. This car will be used to attract youngsters and newcomers to
rallying to the national rally championship series in the ‘ADAC Junior Rallye
Cup’ class for under 27 year olds, which is currently highly populated with DS3s
and Fiestas. So it’s obvious where the Opel marketing boys are coming from!
Within this
category, Opel is planning to run its own ‘ADAC Opel Rally Cup’ competition
within the ‘ADAC Rallye Masters’ national series and are promising cash prizes
for the winners.
Looking
further ahead Opel is planning a “modular development programme” where talented
drivers can graduate from the domestic ‘ADAC Opel Rally Cup’ to international
level. In the first two stages of this progression, drivers will use the Adam,
before moving up to an Opel Corsa for stages 3 and 4.
So it looks as though
Opel has put some serious thought into the idea - and considerable backing. It looks the bizz though.
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