As you may have read in our news section, Rhys Millen will be joining the U.S. Rallycross championship the first weekend in October in a car originally developed for the World Rally Championship. Millen's new ride -- a Hyundai Accent - is a highly developed version of the car the Hyundai World Rally Team ran as late as 2003 in the WRC. When the program was folded that year Marcus Dodd of the British firm HPM Motorsport purchased everything that remained - trucks, jigs, molds, tools, spares and of course, cars.
HPM then further developed and raced the cars in the British rally championship through last year. Development included the use of active differentials and electro-hydraulically shifted transmissions. In other words, the cars became nearly as advanced as WRC cars.
Millen's car, a brand-new machine which has never been raced, has been decontented for rallycross which doesn't permit advanced electronic powertrain controls. HPM added a larger 45mm turbo restrictor and recalibrated the engine accordingly. Presumably there's a larger turbo to accommodate the available flow. An Xtrac six-speed sequential transmission sends power to all four wheels.
Millen estimates the car will produce 500 hp but stresses that the two events this fall will be for development of the machine to make it competitive for next season and the X Games. Of course, it will get model-year-appropriate Hyundai sheetmetal by then as well. We'll leave that to your imagination.
The new car doesn't even arrive in the U.S. until next Tuesday, only four days before it's scheduled to race in New Jersey. And that's not a lot of time to sort things out. So look for good things from Millen and company next year.
felonious says:
02:18 PM, 09/24/10
There are some very nice shiny bits on that! Dan, wanna do an analysis for us? :)
Good thing Rhys is experienced at off-road racing with little-to-no shakedown runs!
agnh says:
03:10 PM, 09/24/10
My Mother in law just got a used Hyundau Accent Sport. I wonder if she'd appreciate a little extra lighting?
moar_revs says:
04:52 PM, 09/24/10
As crazy as the rally lights are, the car looks pretty good! The previous illustration made the car look downright dowdy but in that first picture, the fender flares and wheels do the car MANY favors. Either that or all race prepped cars look good...
4g63 says:
12:24 AM, 09/25/10
wow thats one bad-ass Accent!