Rally de Portugal Kicks Off with Hotly Contested Early Stages

After a nearly month-long break, Volkswagen Motorsports’ three Polo R WRCs are back in action at the famous Vodafone Rally de Portugal. Although they have big hopes, they’ve started with a disadvantage.

With the activities starting last night, Volkswagen has looked quick, but not dominant. After the opening stage, Sebastien Ogier led the rally, but his time on top didn’t last long.

This morning, he was overtaken by Citroen’s Kris Meeke (who you might remember from his two appearances on Top Gear). As we go to press, eight stages have been run and Meeke leads the rally from Ogier by about 30 seconds, and he’s followed by Sordo and Mikkelsen, the next Volkswagen driver.

Despite not being on top, Volkswagen still have high hopes for this rally. Portugal is the course on which Ogier has won the most, and last year his teammate Latvala (currently in 9th) won the rally. That win started Volkswagen Motorsport on the their record-setting 12 win streak.

The Portuguese rally is the fifth stop on the WRC calendar, and the first European gravel rally. It’s also a somewhat special rally, because of its long history. Deep ruts, sandy roads, and a massive jump make finding grip difficult here, so tire selection will be important this weekend.

The festivities started last night, with a super special stage at the Lousada rallycross circuit. That’s followed by 19 regular stages, until the last one on Sunday.

The post Rally de Portugal Kicks Off with Hotly Contested Early Stages appeared first on VWVortex.

from VWVortex http://ift.tt/1WH3DKJ
via IFTTT

Comments

2018 Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster Review

“Supercars just don’t excite me anymore.” These words, spoken to me over a month ago by another journalist, friend, and (so-called) enthusiast were echoing in my head for far too long, but they’ve finally been drowned out. Drowned out by the wail of a naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12 engine mounted in the middle of the new Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster. My friend’s point is that back in the good old days, there was a crop of supercars that captured the imagination with amazing style, sounds, performance, and more. Today, it seems like everything is capable of supercar performance, with large luxury sedans outdoing some of the best and most dedicated teams of car nuts, while former pillars of automotive excellence are suddenly pumping out family-friendly SUVs. Beyond that, another league of supercars, dubbed hypercars have cropped up with hybrid gas-electric powertrains that make magical things happen quickly, but at the cost of the acoustic drama, visual flair, and engag...

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier. The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow. While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something . To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it. Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait. So with this in mind, we lined our G...

The 10 Most Expensive VWs at Barrett-Jackson

Barrett-Jackson just wrapped up its 46th annual Scottsdale auction, which set all kinds of records, including the sale of Kindig-It Design’s 1965 21-Window Deluxe Bus for $302,500 (pictured above and below). Not only did that bus set an auction record, it was the highest priced Volkswagen in Scottsdale that week. While it outdid the next closest VW by quite a margin, it wasn’t the only high priced VW at the show. Here, are the highest priced VWs from the auction: 1. $302,500: 1965 Type II 21-Window Deluxe Bus Featured on Velocity Channel’s Bitchin’ Rides, this microbus was completely restored by Kindig-it Design and repainted in Mercedes Black and Bentley Magnolia White. With a 1915cc 120 hp flat four out back and a 4-speed transmission, this bus sits on 17″ wheels. 2. $143,000: 1967 21-Window Deluxe Bus Not sure if you noticed a theme here, but we have another 21-window bus in black and white, but this time the colors are flipped and it has a 2,027 cc engine. Comes with a ...

Vorderman Volkswagen

Search This Blog