Ford recently unveiled their new 2012 Ford Fiesta WRC Rally Car in its full livery at the Autosport International Racing Car Show in Birmingham, England.

This will be the Fiesta’s second year competing in the WRC and the race team is looking forward to building off of its success last year when it won the season opener and the last race of the season. It’ll be powered by a 1.6L Ford EcoBoost turbocharged powerplant and was prepared to go rally-racing by M-Sport, Ford’s long time partner. As you can tell by the livery, Castrol remains the team’s primary sponsor.

The successor to Ford’s Focus WRC, there are high hopes for the Fiesta this year and things could get mighty interesting against Citroen.

GALLERY: 2012 Ford Fiesta WRC Rally Car

MINI finally confirms their entry into the 2012 World Rally Championship after missing the official entry deadline of December the 19th. MINI has had issues with coverage of the event in the past and it seems has tried to make a statement about their dilemma.

A source in the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) said, “We have an agreement that Mini will be registered as a manufacturer for this year’s championship. We understand there are existing concerns over the position of the promoter – and particularly the implications for the sport’s coverage in Germany, but we are addressing those concerns.”

MINI also announced along with its entry that they will only be running one factory car rather than the originally planned two. The driver of the MINI factory team WRC car will be Dani Sordo, with the other MINI factory team driver Kris Meeke not in the running this year. ”This is not an ideal situation. Ideally we wanted, in fact everybody involved wanted, the original plan of two cars, two drivers: Sordo and Meeke doing all 13 rounds. That wasn’t possible, so we had to find a solution which we have done. The priority here is that Mini is a manufacturer in the 2012 WRC”, said the source inside the FIA.

MINI has not confirmed yet whether they will be running their WRC car in the most expensive rounds of the championship such as Rally New Zealand, but has said that they are submitting the car to the full world championship.

[Source: Autosport]

MINI‘s hopes for capturing the 2012 World Championship Rally title took a big blow before the effort even started. Mini has missed the deadline for signing up for next years championship, which expired at midnight, last night.

The Mini rally car, which is based on the Countryman model is prepared by Prodrive in Banbury, U.K. Now Prodrive, Mini and its parent company BMW are in talks with the FIA to seek an extension to the deadline.

The driver’s for the Mini WRC; Kris Meeke and Dani Sordo made no comment on this situation, but sources say that the team has a strong desire to compete in the WRC 2012 season.

Despite the setback, Mini is expected to make a return to the Monte Carlo Rally next year, an event that made the Mini a legend back in the 1960′s.

Will the FIA grant Mini the extension it needs? We’ll keep you posted on any developments.

[Source: Autosport]

Dacia has taken quite a different approach in revealing its latest minivan, Lodgy. Rather than traveling the usual auto show circuit and looking pretty on rotating pedestals, a unique, race-prepped Dacia Lodgy has been made to compete in France’s ice rally series, the Trophée Andros, months before any information on the production model is available.

While the race-prepped Dacia Lodgy’s general proportions are likely very similar to the production version, the rally car is built upon a tubular chassis with a profile that sits lower and wider than its production variant. Power comes through a mid-mounted V6 engine good for 355-hp to all four wheels.

Expect the production Dacia Lodgy to debut at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. No technical information yet, but a selection of four-cylinder petrol and diesel engines will be offered, including the 1.5 dCi. Sources have also claimed that the people mover will offer both five passenger and seven passenger trims.

GALLERY: Dacia Lodgy

[Source: Left Lane News]

Valentino Rossi is clearly a warrior on all things two-wheeled. Rossi won his first 125cc championship in 1997, a 250cc World Championship in 1999, a 500cc World Championship in 2001, back-to-back World GP Championships in 2002 and 2003 with Honda, and another back-to-back in 2004 and 2005 with Yamaha. It would take until 2008 for Rossi to recapture his title, but he had no problem retaining it in 2009.

Despite a disappointing season in 2011 for Ducatti, Rossi is still first in all time 500cc / MotoGP race wins with 79 victories. And while we don’t expect Rossi to hand up MotoGP anytime soon, he did proclaim that he sees himself racing in rally sometime in the future.

I’ll do a few more years in MotoGP, then I’d race in rallies: these machines are really fun to drive because they have less electronics,” said Rossi.

For the 2011 edition of the Monza Rally Show, Monster Energy and Rossi put together a three-car team and shot a video of Rossi behind the wheels of a WRC Ford Fiesta. And despite not having a ton of time behind the wheel, Rossi showed off why he’s one of the fastest things on wheels (two or four) by finishing second in two race formats behind multiple WRC champion Sebastian Loeb.

Check out a video of Rossi piloting a Monster Energy WRC Fiesta after the break.

[Source: Autoblog]

Earlier in the month we reported that Volkswagen was testing their new WRC Polo R with Carlos Sainz behind the wheel, and now there’s video from Sainz’s testing sessions along with the official announcement of VW signing Sebastian Ogier as their first driver for the FIA World Rally Championship alongside Julien Ingrassia as his co-driver.

Ogier finished third in the 2011 WRC and looks to play a pivotal role in shaping the Polo R to become a championship caliber race vehicle. The 2.0L turbocharged Polo R cranks out 296-hp and 285 lb-ft of torque and looks right at home as it tears through its testing. Ogier drove for Citroen in 2011 and won’t be back behind the wheel until 2013 with the Polo R. The 2012 season will be dedicated to developing the Polo into a serious contender.

GALLERY: Volkswagen WRC Polo R

Check out the videos below:

[Source: Inside Line]

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Volkswagen’s WRC entry in the form of a Polo R is out testing a little over a year before its official competition debut. The Polo R recently got its first bout of testing on a 1.5-mile tarmac track out in the vineyards in Trier, Germany.

Behind the wheel during test was Dakar winner Carlos Sainz and Volkswagen board member Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg; both took turns piloting the WRC car for about 60 miles with Timo Gottschalk as co-driver.

The actual car being used for testing won’t be the final version of the Polo R WRC, as Volkswagen is trying to gather as much data as possible to tweak the final race car before the start of the 2013 season. Both drivers said the car felt very good and its first batch of data is very promising for a real serious contender.

Details are light on the Polo R WRC, but it’s assumed that it’ll have around 300-hp to all four wheels. Volkswagen clearly knows they have their work cut out for them to compete against veterans Ford and Citroen in WRC, but they’re clearly taking the initiative in ensuring they have a fighting chance.

GALLERY: Volkswagen WRC Polo R

[Source: LeftLane News]

Prodrive is synonymous with turning everyday family runabouts into championship winning rally cars. Most recently, they have competed with a Mini Countryman, which is faring quite well so far.

Now Prodrive is turning its attention to making a special version of a Countryman for those who don’t have a race seat in the FIA Rally Championship.

Based on information by some industry moles, the Prodrive Countryman sports a more muscular body, a large rear wing and some tasty alloy wheels.

The changes won’t be just cosmetic as it will also feature a Milltek exhaust and a performance enhancing chip by Superchips, which will easily boost output to 230-hp. It might get even more if they decide to replace the current turbo unit with a larger one.

No pricing or availability is known for now, but since North Americans never got to sample any other products Prodrive produced in the past, chances are we won’t get this one either.

Mini will eventually offer its own John Cooper Works version of the Countryman, which will be exciting enough for most of us.

[Source: Autocar]

Ask someone from Volkswagen what their most important reveal is at the Frankfurt Auto Show and the answer will be simple: the Up!, the diminutive city car with a 1.0-liter 3-cylinder engine. That’s all well and good, but what about a car (another small car we might add) that’s just awesome. We are, of course, talking about the Polo R WRC, the VW brand’s entry into the World Rally Championship.

Shown before in sketches, Frankfurt is the first public showing of hot-hatch on steroids, with massively flared fenders doing a poor job of hiding VW’s all-wheel drive setup. Under the hood is a turbocharged 1.6-liter 4-cylinder engine pumped all the way up to 296-hp.

Set to compete in next-year’s WRC season this is at least some indication that VW is planning a Polo R street model with AWD – a full baby brother to the Golf R. We’ll just settle for a Polo GTI.. if only VW would bring the sub-compact to North America.

GALLERY: VW Polo R WRC