The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Nagle’s new Citreon C3 WRC car unveiled at Autosport International
KERRY rally fans got the opportunity to view the new for 2018 World Rally Cars for the first time at last week’s Autosport International in Birmingham.
For the first time in its 27-year history Autosport International launched this year’s World Rally Championship. The four manufacturer teams (Citroen, Ford, Hyundai and Toyota) and their current driver and co-driver lineup were present at various stages over the four-day exhibition that traditionally kick-starts the European motorsport season.
Pride of place on the Wales Rally GB stand was the 2018 version of the Citroen C3 World Rally Car that Paul Nagle and Kris Meeke will use throughout the season, beginning with next week’s iconic Monte Carlo Rally.
Citroen World Rally team boss Yves Matton revealed that his engineers had made significant improvements to the car’s suspension geometry after issues last season were blamed for many of the accidents and non-finishes that Meeke and Nagle suffered.
Matton said: “Main evolutions are primarily on reliability. Last year we had some problems since the beginning of the season on some parts that gave troubles.
“The main recent work was done on the suspension and the geometry of the car. Some parts have mainly been on the car before, be some new parts mainly for Monte Carlo.”
Meeke and Nagle spent the remainder of Thursday’s opening day at the show mixing with fans and supporters including the many Kerry-based rally enthusiasts who made the annual trip to the show.
The Kerry/Tyrone team will continue their pre-season testing in the South of France this week, ahead of Monte Carlo which gets under way next Thursday.
Killarney and District Motor Club member and current British Rally Champion Keith Cronin was in attendance on Saturday. Speaking on the British Rally Championship stand he told a captivated audience about his fourth title in 2017 but he has not yet revealed his plans, if any, for 2018.
A replica of Volkswagen’s new R5 Polo was also on display, a car engineered by Firies native Richard Brown.