SWRT - interesting facts.

[Outback bloke]

The following is some interesting facts listed on the Subaru World Rally team website.

The WRC2008 laid bare

We take a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making Subaru’s latest World Rally Car tick.

Engine
The engine is the only one in the World Rally Championship to use a flat-four cylinder layout. Each engine takes 75 hours to hand build with over 900 individual components.

Drivetrain
The gearbox for the WRC2008 is a brand new item built by Prodrive. It is the first new entirely gearbox for the team in 10 years. It uses aircraft and even spacecraft-grade materials and technology.

Each gearbox takes 85 hours to build, and is the only gearbox in the WRC to retain the standard road car’s H pattern layout. It is semi-automatic and able to make each of the 3500 gearshifts it will go through on every rally weekend in less than one eighth of one second.

Body
Each WRC body shell takes 650 man-hours to build before painting. To assemble the complete car takes a total of 1400 hours.

If all of the aircraft-grade lightweight steel tubing that forms the roll cage for each Impreza was laid out it would stretch for 75 metres.

Once complete, the body shell of the Impreza WRC2008 is so strong that it will support the weight of ten identical cars. Similarly, each carbon fibre racing seat can support the weight of ten men.

Suspension
Each corner of the Impreza WRC2008 (the complete shock absorber and brake assembly) costs more than the price of a new Impreza WRX STi road car.

Electrical
The electrical system for each car, including the ECU, uses more than six kilometres of wiring.

Wheels and tyres
Made of forged aluminium, the 18-inch wheels designed for asphalt use weigh just 7.9kg.

The maximum number of tyres used on each Impreza on one rally weekend is 54, in Jordan and Germany. In road terms, the same number of tyres would last approximately 160,000 miles.

Brakes
Water jets are used to cool the front brakes on asphalt rallies, where disc and pad temperatures can reach a blistering 860 degrees Celsius, four times hotter than your home oven.

The team
The team’s base in the service park at each rally would fill the floor area of more than one quarter of a football pitch.

During a rally weekend, the team will consume over 1000 meals, and more than twice the body weight of Petter Solberg in pasta.

[discopotato03]

Yes , that is why WRC budgets can be up there with Formula 1 .

Cheers A .