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]

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

You may not be a racecar driver, but that doesn’t mean you can look like one. No, we don’t think it’s a good idea to wear a Nomex suit adorned with logos everywhere you go, but we like the new Edox X-Treme Pilot III, a watch made for WRC drivers.

Made by Edox (the official timekeeper of the World Rally Championship), the X-Treme is a great tool for divers, WRC or otherwise. Thanks to cool oversize push-buttons, it’s easy to make your way around it even with driving gloves on. The watch is housed in ultra-light titanium and the movement is rotated through 180 degrees. Electric green highlights put us in mind of starting lights, and the X-Treme is held on your wrist with a rubber strap that features a rally-spec tire tread pattern.

The Edox X-Treme Pilot III will be available to purchase in June for €1,890 (about $2,750). There will only be 1,000 of the beauties will be made, so be sure to get yours while they are around.

[Source: Watch Happens]

It’s been 40-some odd years, but Mini is finally returning to the world rally stage.

The Mini WRC Team will be competing in the 2011 World Rally Championship with the John Cooper Works Countryman, as modified by legendary performance company Prodrive. The team was recently launched in its factory in Oxford in a nostalgia-laden gala that saw Paddy Hopkirk and Rauno Aaltonen show up in the Mini Cooper S that won them three rally championships in 1964, 1965, and 1967.

“On the one hand, MINI can look back on a unique success story,” said Ian Robertson, a member of BMW’s board of management. “On the other hand, MINI is the epitome of excitement for millions of fans around the world and thrills them with its energy. This is precisely what we are able to authentically represent through our motorsport involvement in the World Rally Championship.”

This year’s drivers and navigators in the Countryman will be Kris Meeke of England and Paul Nagle of Ireland, and Dani Sordo and Carlos del Barrio, from Spain. Their first race will be at Rally d’Italia Sardegna from May 5th to the 8th, and they will enter five more races in the season.

Former F1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen will join NASCAR, in a surprise move, a departure from his previous endeavors in Formula 1 and rally racing.

A Finnish newspaper, cited by Autosport, claims that Raikkonen will start out in the Truck series before moving on to both the Nationwide and Sprint cup car series. No start date has been announced, but Raikkonen is expected to join sometime in the summer.

The Finn will be part of the newly formed ICE1 Racing, owned by Foster Gillet. Gillet had previously partnered with Richard Petty Motorsport, and the Gillet family has had previous ownership of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, as well as the Liverpool F.C. soccer team.

Kimi will finish up his World Rally Championship season as part of his contract, and is scheduled to compete in 8 events throughout the season.

[Source: Autosport]

After teasing us with a hopped-up version at the Paris Auto Show, MINI has now revealed the official race-prepped Countryman WRC machine. Unveiled in Monte Carlo, MINI brought out drivers Dani Sordo and Kris Meeke, as well as the 1967 Monte Carlo Rally winning Mini Cooper and drivers Rauno Aaltonen and Paddy Hopkirk to celebrate.

Built to new WRC specs, the car makes use of a turbocharged 1.6-liter 4-cylinder and weighs around 2,645 lbs – roughly 560 lbs lighter than the street car.

The 2011 World Rally Championship kicks off February 10th in Sweden.

GALLERY: MINI Countryman WRC

GALLERY: MINI Countryman WRC Show Car

[Source: Straightline]

With a huge gulf existing between the road-going version of the MINI Countryman and the WRC-ready version, a halo version that could bridge the gap between urban crossover and full-blown race car could be an asset for MINI, and help them leverage some of the image boost that their rally program will provide, especially in parts of the world where WRC is a popular motorsport.

At this point, the idea of a hardcore Countryman is just a rumor, but the it’s not hard to imagine a pumped up Countryman, perhaps with some tweaks courtesy of a JCW upgrade package, more macho bodywork and big wheels. So far, a concept is supposedly planned for.

[Source: Ausmotive]

Recently Ford announced that it would be retiring the Focus from WRC racing duty as new rules will see the switch to using the Fiesta and a smaller 1.6-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder.

To celebrate the car and honor its legacy Ford of Europe has put together a 5 minute tribute video, packed full of jumps, crashes and even the famous incident where the late Colin McRae kicked his Focus in frustration.

Check out the video after the jump and click here for more on the new Fiesta WRC car:

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We all know Ken Block is a cool guy and a self-made millionaire, but what nobody seems willing to admit is that the guy can’t drive. Well, maybe he has some talent, but not nearly as much as Ford and Monster Energy Drink’s PR machine would have us believe.

Although he has some of the most successful viral videos to his credit, Block has only scored a total of two points in WRC over three whole seasons. It seems like without a purpose built, hydraulic-handbrake equipped car and some quality video editing, Block can’t pull it together. Hit the jump and decide for yourself.

Video after the jump

[Source: Youtube]

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As part of our coverage of the Paris Auto Show, we decided to throw in some bonus galleries of cars we thought were cool but didn’t quite fit with the rest of our coverage. Paris was the site for a lot of important competition cars from French manufacturers, like the Peugeot HDi LeMans car, the new Citroen DS3 rally machine and the upcoming Fiesta RS WRC. Hit the jump to check out our galleries and information on the cars.

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