AS the electrification of the motor industry continues at pace so too does the Rally Championship exclusively for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and the Vauxhall Opel Corsa-e multi award winning car has now established itself as a champion.
Entered for the first time in international competition, the Corsa-e has secured its first title, the 2020 FIA E-Rally Regularity Cup (ERRC).
Conceived by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) to promote alternative energies in motorsport, the ERRC grows in importance every year. Reserved strictly for production cars, the competition combines a regularity rally timed to the tenth of a second with an efficiency classification. Launched with a calendar of eight events, the ERRC was quickly adapted to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Started during the summer, the shortened season turned out to be the toughest in history with the entry of five international rally champions, as well as many national champions from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal and from a dozen manufacturers including VW, Renault, BMW, Mercedes and Tesla.
The Corsa-e crewed by Artur Prusak and co-driver Thierry Benchetrit took the lead in the first round with a dominant victory in Iceland and clinched the title with two more podiums on the remaining events in Portugal and Spain.
Competing over hundreds of kilometres, the Corsa-e set a record breaking average energy consumption during the championship. Over the season as a whole, no other model from the dozen or so brands involved was as efficient.
“The FIA ERRC demands driving as smoothly as possible in order to maintain the average speeds specified by the regulations, without wasting energy,” explains Artur Prusak, the champion driver in 2015, 2016 and 2020. “It is this balance that makes the championship so interesting and the reason why more and more competitors are entering it. We quickly gained the advantage thanks to the Corsa-e and the lead grew after each rally.”
“Thanks to its agility and technology, the Corsa-e proved the most competitive car whatever the terrain,” says Thierry Benchetrit, who is the first co-driver to be crowned four times in the ERRC. “In the mountains, on the plains and in the city, we were always at the forefront in terms of efficiency and regularity.”
During the championship, Prusak and Benchetrit received logistical support from a factory team in each of the countries that hosted the rallies.
The Corsa-e is a superb electric car, offering state-of-the-art electric mobility. With a 100kW (136hp) motor and a range of up to 209 miles, the five-seat Corsa-e is suitable for every-day use. The 50 kWh battery can be fast-charged up to 80 per cent in just 30 minutes.
Vauxhall Opel is also the first automobile manufacturer in the world to offer a battery-electric vehicle for customer rally sport. Based on the production model it was specially developed for competition by engineers from Vauxhall Opel Motorsport. In 2021, Opel will launch the first one-make rally cup for electric cars in the world.
Pretender to the throne...
THE new Land Rover Defender has been bestowed with two globally-recognised awards: overall Car of the Year while also securing the Unstoppable Force award in this year’s coveted TopGear.com Awards.
Judges praised the new Defender for being one of the toughest vehicles on the road today and a brilliant successor to the original iconic Land Rover as a car for the 21st century.
Jack Rix, Editor, Top Gear Magazine ,said: “Car of the Year is an accolade won by only the very best of the best. We recognise that replacing an icon is an unenviable task, and one Land Rover rightly took its time to get right. “We've driven one across the Namibian desert and in properly harsh environments, like the M25 with every engine variant and it just performs brilliantly everywhere. There's an argument that because it costs a bit more it won't be used properly by the farming and rural community, but that doesn't mean it couldn't be... It's the toughest, most capable off-roader we've ever tested, but one that's a refined, well-equipped family car around town.
Nick Rogers from Jaguar Land Rover said: "It's an absolute honour for us to receive Car of the Year award for our New Defender. Right from the start of creating this vehicle with a blank sheet of paper, we were obsessed about respecting its heritage and keeping its true authenticity, as well as ensuring it is completely fitting for today’s ever-evolving world. We have worked tirelessly to deliver a vehicle that has incredible off-road capability, as well as on-road poise and driveability.” To celebrate the achievement, Land Rover teamed up with Top Gear magazine to prove the new Defender worthy of the 'Unstoppable Force' title. The ultimate strength test was designed to prove-out the structural toughness of the Defender by suspending three un-modified defenders from a crane solely through their towing eyes. Top Gear's Tom Ford said: “We wanted to prove that Land Rover's new Defender really does live up to the hype and had to test it in typical Top Gear fashion. What better way to let me loose with a 150-tonne crane, three Defenders and a rope?"
The New Defender has been through more than 62,000 tests for engineering sign-off, while the chassis and body architecture have been engineered to withstand Land Rover’s Extreme Event Test procedure it has also been designed with the everyday road user in mind.
The Defender family of vehicles are now on sale at starting at £43,625 on the road. The Toyota Land Cruiser has for many years been described by many car enthusiasts as the best go anywhere car in the world. Is the king’s crown slipping? Is the best go anywhere car now the Land Rover Defender?
