MINI All Set For World Rally Championship Re-entry

The upcoming World Rally Championship will see MINI testing its mettle against players such as Citroen, Subaru and Ford. The decision assumes significance for the fact that this will be MINI’s re-entry into the racing challenge which would get underway next year. The car maker will be entering the MINI Countryman WRC, being developed by Prodrive. The tests will be for events that would run through 2011, and is expected to continue during the entire 2012 season.

The car maker is expected to bring on to the race track its four-wheel-drive rally car that will have incorporated in it a BMW Motorsport four-cylinder 1.6-liter turbocharged engine. It is expected that the car would be a regular entrant in more racing series too. Reports suggest that BMW is likely to make the car available to customer teams.