Instructive excursions

I’ve enjoyed some exciting days in Spain and on the Oschersleben racetrack in the third and fourth week of July. As a visitor of the fifth round of the FIA World Cup for Cross Country Rallies, I’ve attended the Baja Spain on 20 and 21 July. In the area surrounding Zaragossa, I’ve followed the outings of our future opponents. Jean-Louis Schlesser has entered a fuel-engined buggy for himself plus a diesel version for his team-mate Jose Maria Servia. The comparison between the blue buggies and the cars from Mitsubishi and BMW was quite interesting. Mitsubishi driver Carlos Sousa who eventually finished runner-up in his pick-up behind Schlesser in Spain tested some brake and engine parts of the future Pajero for the prototype category.

As did Schlesser, Sousa used an air-jack fully integrated into the car. This clever invention helps to avoid using the traditional, time-consuming mechanical jack when one of the almost unavoidable punctures in cross country rallying occurs. Instead, the car uses a telescopic device that can be actuated by a button and lifts the car off the ground, allowing for a quick change of wheels.

BMW driver Grégoire de Mévius showed a stunning performance. The tube-frame based prototype has a well-balanced weight distribution due to an engine which is mounted at the rear end of the traditional front engine compartment. Relying on diesel power, the Belgian progressed to third position overall at the second time control. One stop later, he was even second. Only a problem with refuelling and a resulting fire dropped Grégoire back. Bearing in mind that it was the second event of the X5 of the X-Raid-Team at all after its debut in Morocco, the outing was quite impressive. On the other hand, Jean-Louis Schlesser has shown us in his buggy that he is still maintains an advantage. If you want to keep up with him, uncompromising development is required – which is possible after all thanks to the new rulebook.

On 23 and 24 July, I used to drive the Volkswagen Polo Super 1600 at Oschersleben. This was not only my first outing with the new, small rally car from VW, but I also drove a Super 1600 car for the first time at all. And there was one more premiere: I’ve never been driving a car on the Oschersleben circuit before.

My first impression is that a handy 200 hp hatch is a proper little ‚racing devil’. I had a lot of fun with this high-quality and meticulously prepared car. Volkswagen now focuses on the development of the fuel injection system, suspension parts and weight reduction to further improve the new Polo Super 1600. Primarily, the roll-out did not aim at going through a precise testing programme but to get some footage for a TV show. Cologne-based channel RTL used the laps I did on the circuit near Magdeburg to produce a newsfeed for their rally magazine that will be broadcast on 28 July at 10.15 hours in the morning. I will join presenter Felix Görner on Sunday in the studio. The programme will feature a report on the East African Safari Rally and on our outing at Oschersleben where I met a surprise visitor: Tina Thörner.