Jutta Kleinschmidt to drive for BMW X-raid in Dakar 2007

The 2002 Paris-Dakar Champion Jutta Kleinschmidt has inked a contract with BMW X-Raid Team last May 2006, ending the 3 year contract she had with Volkswagen Motorsports. Jutta will drive a diesel powered BMW X3CC Rally Raid car. Team X-Raid, headed by Sven Quandt, is a pioneer in engineering diesel-powered prototypes for cross-country rallying.

Panizzi back at the wheel

Having parted company with Red Bull Skoda earlier this year, Gilles Panizzi has returned to his former home, Peugeot Sport, as a test driver at this time.

Last week he drove the prototype Peugeot S2000, formally called the Peugeot 207 RCup, in the south of France on its first official asphalt test. This follows successful gravel testing at Chateau Lastours with Sebastien Lindholm and resident Peugeot driver, Bryan Bouffier.

A heavy test programme for the car is planned, with the team returning to Chateau Lastours in July before another asphalt test, with two more separate tests scheduled for August.

There will be an official presentation by Peugeot in November but the car is not destined for active competition until 2007, when it will be run by importers' or private teams.

It was with Peugeot that Panizzi, then accompanied by his brother co-driver Herve, took his seven FIA World Rally Championship victories.

-FIA WRC

Sordo replaces Pons

Recent rumours that the reigning Junior World Rally Champion Dani Sordo will drive the number two Kronos Total Citroen Xsara WRC have today (Tuesday 4 July) been confirmed. Sordo will replace Xavier Pons for the next two FIA World Rally Championship events, the OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland (11-13 August) and Neste Oil Rally Finland (18-20 August). He will therefore be the official team-mate of the World Rally Champion Sebastien Loeb for these events.

Sordo will not need special permission from the FIA to miss the next two J-WRC events he was registered to enter, since a specific rule allows him to do this if he will be a 'Priority 1', or registered manufacturer team, driver for the events concerned.

No announcement has yet been made about plans for the six remaining rounds of the world championship. By regulation, Sordo must drive a 2006-specification Xsara WRC on these two events, which means a car fitted with passive front and rear differentials. He has not competed in this specification of car until now, but has frequently driven it on pre-event testing.

This move may also help answer one of rallying's recent questions: What are the performance differences between an all-active 2005 specification and a passive 2006 version? Perhaps for the first time, a true indication of the differences, if any, will be apparent.

This is the latest in a long line of achievements for the 23 year-old Spaniard, who last year became rallying's youngest driver to carry a title of World Champion.

-FIA WRC

Mitsubishi Outlander Concept 2007 (Europe)

Mitsubishi Outlander Concept

Mitsubishi Motors will use the 2006 Paris Motor Show in September to launch its all-new European SUV, the Outlander. Due to go on-sale spring 2007, the new mid-size 4x4 has been designed to bring new levels of comfort and drivability to an important and expanding sector of the market.

Seventy years after its seminal PX33 4 wheel-drive torpedo, MMC will be able to demonstrate in Paris its expertise in this area through a coherent, up-to-the-minute and totally renewed SUV line-up, filling key sectors of the growing SUV market in Europe. After the successful launch of its L200 sport-utility-truck earlier this year and prior to another most important introduction, Mitsubishi Motors will unveil ''Outlander-Concept'' in Paris.

A derivative of the all-new Outlander launched in Japan in October 2005 and now the best selling compact SUV in Japan (20,041 sales October 2005 / May 2006), Outlander-Concept will preview the upcoming Euro-spec. Outlander.

To be launched in Europe during the first quarter of 2007, Outlander will allow Mitsubishi Motors to enter the fastest growing SUV segment (up 54% from 325,000 in 2001 to 500,000 in 2006 and with further 35% growth expected between 2006 and 2009), right in the heart of this sector.

Outlander-Concept will also preview in Europe an all-new global C-segment platform that MMC has engineered for world markets, plus advanced technology based on Mitsubishi Motors’ AWC (All Wheel Control) concept and proven through its motor sport activities.

Photos (click for high-resolution images):



- from UltimateCarPage

See the 2007 Mitsubishi Outlander for the American Market

3 factory run Lancer WRC05 to compete in Germany

Following confirmation from MMSP, the company which runs the Mitsubishi Lancer World Rally Cars, that both the FIA Asia Pacific champion Jussi Valimaki and the Swedish driver Daniel Carlsson will drive these cars on the Neste Oil Rally Finland, came confirmation that a third such car will also take part.

Confirmed in Finland is that the driver will be Juho Hanninen, the privateer who won Group N in both the Swedish and the Sardinian rallies this year. Finland has always been happy hunting ground for Mitsubishi in rallying. In 1989 the company won their first world rally in Europe on this event, from 1996 till 1999 they scored four straight victories with Tommi Makinen on this event.

Encouraged by good results with the car when being run on a private basis, MMSP's Operations Director John Easton has confirmed that the company is seeking ways in which they can progress with the development of the car.

This work came to a halt when the team withdrew from the World Championship at the end of 2005. Easton: "Development is coupled with homologation, and this is coupled with active participation of the company in the WRC."

-from FIA WRC