WORLD RALLYCROSS

World Rallycross Championship races might only last around four minutes, but the extreme intensity of the discipline makes it a uniquely difficult challenge for Ohlins. Watch a WRX round and just over two-thirds of the cars will be using Ohlins products, including Sebastien Loeb’s Peugeot 208 WRX, run by Team Peugeot-hansen.

“For rallycross, you need a very good combination of car control and grip,” says Jarlmark Nafver. “You need the gravel grip and the car control and precision to overtake using the very small gaps you are given. It’s one of the most complicated things that we do.”

The ALR TPX/TTX range of dampers is used for rallycross. The TPX is a three-way adjusted Macpherson strut design, the TTX a three-way adjusted twin-tube damper. And in terms of robustness, nothing is as challenging as in rallycross, where dampers must withstand peak loads in the 50-60 kilonewton (kn) range, which is more than six times the maximum you might face on a circuit.

“In rallycross, the car has to cope with so many different surfaces in such a short time, which is when it’s beneficial to have additional features to adjust. The peak loads we see tend to be somewhere in the region of 50-60kn, although you also have to make them strong enough to survive car-to-car impacts.”

Remarkably, a set of Ohlins rallycross dampers can last the full season, albeit with the need for them to be serviced between events to change components like valve parts. What’s more, the topend dampers are similar technology to the entry-level after-market dampers available from Ohlins.

“The damper structure is similar all the way from the after-market dampers to the factory gear,” says Jarlmark Nafver. “But at the top end it’s more about added features and improved performance in every single

detail.”