Skip to main content

Watch: VW’s RX Team Explains its Front Mounted Intercooler

Rallycross is a dirty sport. Literally. Mud, rain, stones, and even tire gunk pelting the front of a car mean that the accepted wisdom in the sport is that cooling systems must be mounted in the back. Unless you’re VW.

PSRX Volkswagen Sweden, racing in the European FIA World Rallycross Championship, this year decided to run their radiator where you might expect to find it in any other Polo: up front.

The team has been extremely secretive about this, but rallycross commentator Andrew Cole went to the VW garage, such as it is, to speak to the team’s project manager, Fabrice van Ertvelde to find out why they decided to ignore 40 years of rallycross dogma.

Turns out Volkswagen’s reason for doing it was really simple. It just simplified the set up. It works better with the cooler up front, says van Ertvelde, thanks to a lack of tubing and the missing coolers out back and the team is confident that they can keep the radiators clean.

Just how the team has managed to keep mud and grime from blocking the coolers, van Ertvelde isn’t saying. That said, he’s confident that the testing shows that even in the rain, the system works well.

And it has worked well. After two rallycross events this season, PSRX Volkswagen Sweden leads the team standings, though its drivers, Petter Solberg and Johan Kristoffersson, are still behind Audi’s Mattias Ekstrom in the drivers’ standings.

They’ll look to take Ekstrom’s lead away, though, when they head to Germany on May 5 for the third round of the 2017 FIA World Rallycross Championship.

The post Watch: VW’s RX Team Explains its Front Mounted Intercooler appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2oMM4ts
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volkswagen’s Gone to California with Grand California Camper

Volkswagen is bringing the California XXL concept to production. It will debut at the Dusseldorf Caravan Salon as the Grand California. It’s set to be based on the medium wheelbase Crafter van. That’s the company’s full-size commercial van, larger than the T6 Transporter based California. The high roof means room for adults to stand up, though it won’t get the concept’s extended length. The Grand California offers a full wet bathroom. It’s not exactly spacious, though, measuring in at around 31.5 x 33-inches. A toilet, shower, and sink are all crammed into that space, but at least there are motion sensor lights to stop you from reaching for a switch. Standard, the Grand California it comes with berths for two adults. Space for two children is optional, but they’ll be stuck in a berth amove the driver’s area. The kitchen offers a sink, stove, and two fridges. The front seats swivel to add seating space when the RV is parked. It’s also got solar panels, an integrated satellite dish,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bugatti Chiron Won’t Get a Roadster Version

The all-new Bugatti Chiron hypercar will not get a convertible version like its Veyron predecessor did. Speaking to Autocar at the London grand opening of the sole Bugatti showroom in the U.K., marketing boss Stefan Brungs confirmed that the French automaker’s latest hypercar will only be sold in coupe format, with “no roadster or convertible” version in the plans. Brungs also said that the company is only planning on selling the allotted 500 Chirons as standard, so faster variants like a Super Sports version also aren’t likely. This is a very different strategy than the Veyron, which has targa top Grand Sport and Super Sports models, as well as a number of special edition models. The Chiron is set to try to break the world record for fastest car and attempt to beat the Veyron’s record of 268 mph. It is believed that the Chiron will be able to hit 288 mph. Powered by an 8.0-liter W16 engine with 1,500 horsepower and 1,106 pound-feet of torque, it shouldn’t ...
Post a Comment
Read more