RallySport Magazine April 2017

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Turner's new AP4 Audi.
AP4 AUDI QUATTRO
BOOSTS NZRC FIELD
The New Zealand Rally Championship has received a
further boost, with news that Dylan Turner will debut
a new Audi Quattro S1 at the International Rally of
Whangarei.
Dylan Turner's new Audi Quattro S1 AP4 looks the goods.
Built to AP4 regulations by Choice Performance in Pukekohe,
the Audi joins AP4 cars from Holden, Toyota, Mazda,
Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Skoda in this year’s NZRC.
"I've always admired the Audi -- the Quattro was kind of
a cult car when it comes to rally. Audi is obviously a name
synonymous with rallying," Turner told the New Zealand
Herald.
"I had been watching the AP4 cars and noticed how quick
they were and how easy they appeared to be to drive.
"So it was just a case of coming up with a brand and for
me it was a no brainer -- the Audi brand is something I have
always been passionate about. I have owned Audis for the
past 10-15 years so that was how I decided to go down the
Audi track.
"We looked at the successful R5 cars that are built by the
sister company Skoda and looked at what they were doing
and copied a lot of it, but using Audi parts. We got a 1600cc
Audi motor built up based on the R5 specifications."
Turner has previously driven Lancer Evos and finished
seventh at last weekend’s Otago Rally. He hopes to have
the car ready in time to contest the pre-event shakedown at
Whangarei in three weeks time, and then the rally proper.
While others have had some reliability problems with their
new AP4 cars, Turner hopes that won’t be the case with the
Audi.
"I don't think we'll have as many issues because we have
gone down the route of replicating what the R5 are doing,” he
said.
"We have gone for a tried and proven 1600 motor with the
Audi block and Audi head that has been used by the Skoda
team for years. There are always things we might not have
thought of, but hopefully not too much."
Hayden Paddon's 58 year old co-driver, John Kennard,
has announced he is to retire after Rally Finland in July.
At the age of 57, Kennard became the oldest competitor
to win a WRC event (Argentina 2016).
He will be replaced by 28-year old British co-driver
Sebastian Marshall.
MINI TO MISS WA
Eli Evans has been forced Jesse Robison said.
to abandon plans to debut “We want to make sure
his brand new Mini Cooper that it’s 100% right before
AP4 at the Forest Rally, entering the forests.”
round two of the ARC.
The decision means that
The Evans Motorsport Evans will drive the Race
team had spent many hours Torque Peugeot 208 Maxi
with the Mini on the dyno, for the second ARC round in
but problems with the fuel succession.
delivery system hampered Like in Victoria, the car
their progress.
was to have been driven by
"The Mini Cooper is
Arron Windus, but the late
looking very promising, problems for Evans means
but is not running at its full that Windus misses out on
capability,” Team Manager driving the car once again.
The AP4 Mini will miss WA.
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4 | RALLYSPORT MAGAZINE - APRIL 2017