RallySport Magazine September 2016

FEATURE: THE CARS YOU WON’T BE SEEING
Li Fusheng S2
Lotus L3
THE RALLY CARS
S6 SouEast Ling
Shi Turbo V6
S6 FAW
Volkswagen
S6 BAIC Senova
Saab D50
72 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - SEPTEMBER 2016
The cancellation of the 2016 WRC China Rally means
that a major chance to see first hand some completely
different rally cars has been lost to the international
rally world.
The national Chinese Rally Championship has for many
years been an impressively supported series in terms of
variety and exclusivity of cars, but now the only chance for
foreign rally people to see these cars first hand has been
when the FIA’s Asia-Pacific championship goes to China.
This year this meant going faraway to the edge of the Gobi
desert, close to Mongolia. This helps to explains why many of
these cars remain little known outside China.
Brian Young of Asia Pacific Sports Media, however, was
present at the APRC round at Zhangye and secured this
collection of images of seldom seen cars while he was there.
Chinese national rallying runs to its own rules and classes.
The premier class is S6, which is a surprisingly free formula
based on production cars. Their main protagonists are the
national FAW VW team that run special 2-litre turbocharged
Golfs built by Prodrive in Britain.
These cars are fitted with old Skoda Fabia WRC
engines supplied by Lehmann, and use a lot of Mini WRC
components. These cars finished first, fourth and fifth.
Their main rival team is the Subaru Rally Team using
a latest version Impreza prepared in America by Subaru
Rally Team USA, using two cars, one a 2014 version of the
American championship Impreza WRX STI 2014, and the
other a new modified XV.
The biggest team is Beiqi Saab Rally Team who run Beijing
Automotive Saab D50 cars. These are BAIC Senovas that
are based on old Saab 9-5 cars, but fitted with Mitsubishi R4
drivetrain, Holinger six speed sequential transmission from
Australia, and Evo X transmission parts.
Another local, but older, model still used in CRC rallying is
the SouEast V6 Ling Shi Turbo, which despite its name, was
based on a locally made four cylinder Mitsubishi Lancer Evo
X.
A team that had been active till the end of 2015 ran a
turbocharged version Skoda Fabia S2000, but they have now
stopped competition, though two of the delightfully called
Shanghai Volkswagen Skoda New Crystal Sharp (new Fabia
shape) were entered by the Linky Racing team.
The wide range of cars continues in the supporting classes.
The top non-S6 cars in Zhangye were various Subaru and
Mitsubishis in familiar Group N or Group R4 specification,
while Manfred Stohl runs a team of Citroen DS3 R5 cars,
which at Zhangye were run in the FIA APRC category, which
Stohl won outright.
The top S4 cars at the event were two-wheel drive
Dongfeng Honda Civics which took the top three places in
their category, while another familiar shape won S3, the
Volkswagen Jetta, heading three locally built Volkswagen
Golfs.
YO