Suzuki SX4 WRC, 2007 SX4 WRC Pictures, News, Reviews, and Info | Conceptcarz.com - Pictures, Wallpaper, Pricing, Information, History

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More Photographs Wallpaper Image credits: Suzuki

Suzuki Motor Corporation is pleased to announce that the Suzuki World Rally Team's Gardemeister from Finland and Per-Gunnar Andersson from Sweden.
Toni Gardemeister combines impressive experience and versatility as a driver with a great ability to contribute to car development. As the Suzuki World Rally Team's primary driver throughout the 2008 WRC season, he will play an important role in fine-tuning the Suzuki SX4 WRC car.
Per-Gunnar Andersson won the 2004 Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) in a Suzuki Ignis and the 2007 Junior Rally Championship in a Suzuki Swift, so he's already a valued member of the Suzuki World Rally Team as he steps up to the bigger challenges of the WRC.
Joining Toni Gardemeister as co-driver will be fellow Finn Tomi Tuominen, who was also co-driver for the Suzuki SX4 WRC car's test entry in the Wales Rally GB. Codriver for Per-Gunnar Andersson will be fellow Swede Jonas Andersson. The Swedes have already raced successfully together in the Super 1600 category.
Suzuki Motor Corporation and its affiliate Suzuki Sport are supporting the Suzuki World Rally Team with technical and managerial know-how and resources. They see the Suzuki WRC challenge as a great chance to raise the profile of Suzuki products and gain technical data that will be valuable in future car development.

Source - Suzuki

In preparation for the 2008 WRC season , Suzuki has decided to enter two events in 2007 for the purpose of further testing and development of the SX4 WRC car in competition conditions.
The events that have been selected for this testing opportunity chosen are the Rallye De France …… and Wales Rally GB.
During each of these events, the team only has three days to try and collect as much data as possible from the car, it is the only opportunity to make changes and see the effect of these changes in ‘real time'.

Source - Suzuki

Productive weekend for Suzuki in Corsica

The Rallye de France - Tour de Corse finished today with four special stages, run as two loops of two with service at Ajaccio in between. The action today consisted of classic Corsica stages, with several tight hairpin bends and plenty of loose gravel on the road where previous cars had cut the corners. This tested traction and grip to the maximum, forming a valuable part of Suzuki's testing programme on the Rallye de France. The event also constituted the final round of the Junior Rally Championship, which was won by a Suzuki Swift Super 1600.

Car news - Suzuki SX4 WRC n.19:
The Suzuki SX4 WRC crew of Nicolas Bernardi and Jean-Marc Fortin were delighted to reach the finish of their car's debut event. The aim for them on this rally has been to continue the development programme on asphalt, and throughout the three days of the Rallye de France the team has been able to sample a wide variety of asphalt conditions.
The car re-started under the super rally system this morning, having been halted by an unforeseen fuel injector problem yesterday. It ran without major problems throughout today's four stages, totalling 112 competitive kilometres, although Bernardi was slowed by a hydraulic-related gearshift problem, which meant that the car was sometimes reluctant to change gear. Nonetheless he brought it safely to the finish, having collected vital data that will be essential for development in the future.

Driver news:
Suzuki World Rally Team driver Nicolas Bernardi enjoyed the final day behind the wheel of the SX4 WRC, on roads that he has some experience of from the past.
He said: 'We've been able to confirm a number of things we have discovered from our previous test programme and formulate some very clear ideas about the right direction for the future. During the afternoon we had a problem that affected the gearshift, but it did not stop me from enjoying these fantastic roads!'

Team news:
The team has done what it set out to do in Corsica, learning some valuable lessons that will contribute to the future development of the SX4 WRC. Nobuhiro Tajima, team principal of the Suzuki World Rally Team, commented: 'We're very pleased to get our all-new car to the finish of this event, which was our main objective here. Today's hydraulic problem was a small inconvenience, but it is all part of the process of testing. This experience has taught us a lot, and we now have several ideas about how we will work on fine-tuning the development of our car..'

The Suzuki World Rally Team's next event will be the all-gravel Rally Great Britain, round 16 of the World Rally Championship, from November 30-December 2. Sebastian Lindholm will drive the SX4 WRC, co-driven by Tomi Tuominen.

Source - Suzuki

Suzuki pleased with gravel debut on Rally Great Britain

Suzuki has successfully completed the all-gravel Rally Great Britain, the second World Championship Rally of the Japanese firm's testing programme this year.
Despite the extremely difficult and slippery conditions, Finnish driver Sebastian Lindholm got the all-new SX4 WRC to the end of the event in order to accumulate more valuable testing distance and try out some different set-ups. Today's final leg of the event - which is also the last round of the 2007 World Rally Championship - consisted of four demanding special stages, totalling 114 competitive kilometres.

Car news - Suzuki SX4 WRC No.19:
The Suzuki engineers continued to assess the car in the mud and gravel of Great Britain, having been pleased by the general level of reliability of the SX4 WRC on its very first loose-surface event. On the opening day, the team was hit with bad luck when a sharp stone severed a brake pipe but on the remaining two legs the car ran reliably and consistently all day. Lindholm worked at refining suspension settings on the final day of the rally, which was again characterised by extremely bad weather.

Driver news:
Sebastian Lindholm has been responsible for the gravel development of the SX4 WRC since the car's inception and he enjoyed confirming the settings established during private testing in competition on Rally Great Britain.

'We've done a lot of useful work throughout this event, and gathered a lot of information that will be crucial for the future,' said the 46 year-old Lindholm, who last competed on the Rally Great Britain in 1998 finishing fifth. 'Our objective from the beginning of this rally was simply to get to the end: we weren't even looking at the stage times or taking any risks. The conditions throughout all three days were very bad, but this is typical of Wales so it was a very good learning experience for us.'

Team news:
The Suzuki World Rally Team came away from the Rally Great Britain with plenty of information that will be vital for the car's development in the future.

Nobuhiro Tajima, team principal, commented: 'We are very pleased with the progress that has been made on the Rally Great Britain, thanks to all the hard work from our test team and drivers. In extreme weather s we have gained a lot of data, tested many things and have had quite a few problems that we have had to solve. If we had encountered no problems at all then I would have been very worried. Setting fast times was not our objective this weekend. Overall throughout the entire testing programme with the SX4 WRC we consider all our experiences, both good and bad, to have been very valuable. Our testing objectives for 2007 have been fulfilled and the experience gained has put us in a much better position than when we began. Next year will be a new start for the Suzuki World Rally Team: testing is over now and for 2008 a new strategy will begin with a new team. We look forward to our fresh challenges coming up!'

Source - Suzuki

WRC

source: WRC.com
Preparations for the hard-fought season begin months before the first rally. The governing body, the FIA approves routes, stages and final locations of the 16 rallies around the world, and passes on a copy of the proposals to the manufacturers.

Each rally must allow two days for the reconnaissance (or recce), one day for technical checks (or scrutineering) and three days for competition. The rally is divided into three legs, and typically has between 15 and 25 special stages.

The manufacturer-backed factory teams will enter two or three cars each, and arrive on location weeks before the start of a rally for on-site preparation. The competing World Rally Cars are seeded and start the event according to their ranking, with the leader of the drivers' championship setting off first. Often there are up to 90 cars taking part - the rest of the field made up of the Junior Rally Championship (smaller, lower-powered cars for younger drivers), or the Production Car World Rally Championship and private teams.

The Recce
Driver and co-driver familiarise themselves with the stages before the start of the event. They drive the leg in a standard road-car (fitted with extra safety equipment) in the three days preceding the rally. It is here that the co-driver jots down detailed pacenotes for use on the stage itself.

The Stages
The special stages are the competitive sections of the rally - where the drivers and co-driver drive as fast as possible to achieve the quickest time. They take place on private roads or public roads, which are closed to the general public while the rally is in progress. A typical rally will have about 25 special stages over three days. The stages are linked by public roads - called road sections - on which competitors must obey all local traffic laws. Each day contains about 400km of driving - a third of which are the competitive special stages. Stages vary in length from five to 60kms, with the cars' times being recorded after each stage to the tenth of a second.

The ClockForget about 'first across the line'. WRC cars don't race directly against each other. They compete against the toughest opponent of all - time. Cars start at one or two minute intervals, racing against the clock, their times monitored and entered into the FIA computer. Unless they run into trouble, rivals rarely see each other during a stage. At the end of an event, the driver who's taken the least amount of time to complete all the stages is the winner.

The Points
Results achieved during each of the 16 rallies count towards the two FIA world championships - one for the drivers and one for the manufacturers. Drivers get 10 points for coming first, eight points for second place, six points for third, five points for fourth, four for fifth, three for sixth, two for seventh and one for eighth. A manufacturer can add up the points tally from two nominated cars.

The Time Controls
A rally itinerary is governed by a strict timetable. Drivers get time penalties for being late (or early!) to clock in to the start of the special stage and at the entry and exit of service parks. Late arrival at these controls is typically penalised with 10 seconds on every minute over and is added to the overall time of the driver. Drivers can be excluded from a rally if they are 15 minutes late for a time control, 30 minutes late for a leg or 60 minutes for an entire rally.

The Service Parks
After each group of stages is completed, the cars can visit a designated service park where repairs may be carried out by the teams under strict supervision during a 20-minute time period. At the end of each day the crews are allowed a longer 45-minute period to work on the cars before they are locked away in the guarded 'parc fermé' until the following morning's restart. Crews are punished with time penalties for exceeding these alloted times.

2007 Suzuki SX4 WRC
Year	2007
Make	Suzuki
Model	SX4 WRC
Engine Location	Front
Drive Type	AWD
Production Years for Series	2006 -
Weight	1230 kg \| 2712.2 lbs
Combined MPG	0.00

Engine
Engine Configuration	I
Cylinders	4
	Water-Cooled
Aspiration/Induction	Turbocharged
Displacement	1997.00 cc \| 121.9 cu in. \| 2 L.
Valves	16 valves. 4 valves per cylinder.
Valvetrain	DOHC
Horsepower	320.00 BHP (235.5 KW) @ 4000.00 RPM
Torque	590.00 NM (435 Ft-Lbs) @ 3500.00 RPM
HP to Weight Ratio	8.5 LB / HP (Vehicles with similar ratio)
HP / Liter	160.0 BHP / Liter
Fuel Type	Gasoline - Petrol
Fuel Feed	Fuel Injected
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Standard Transmission
Gears	5
Transmission	Manual
	With sequential controls on steering wheel

Dimensions
Standard Payload	0.00
Doors	2
Exterior
Length	4135.001 mm \| 162.8 in.
Width	1770.001 mm \| 69.7 in.
Height	1450.001 mm \| 57.1 in.
Wheelbase	2500.001 mm \| 98.4 in.
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