Petter Solberg World Rally Team

[LotusLocost]

Taken from Petter Solberg

Snow, cold weather and a lot of people made today’s presentation perfect. But the happiest person, without doubt, was Petter Solberg. Smiling, and with the old energy, he enthusiastically told the media and other guests about the past few weeks. – I have been working flat out, and I’m really proud to the present my new team today. Even though Petters new slogan is ”Never give up”, he admits he could never have done all this by himself. – I have a lot of brilliant people around me, and they have all been working 24hrs shifts for me the past weeks. Without them and my sponsors, this would not have been possible.

The brand new Petter Solberg World Rally Team is managed by Ken Rees. FX Demaison is responsible for the car. Read more about who else are in the team under Team on the website.

Petter and Phil will start Rally Norway on Thursday, 12. February with the new Citroen Xsara.

Specifications Citroën Xsara WRC

Weight 1230 kg
Length 4,196m
Wheelbase 2,555m
Width: 1,770m

Engine turbocharged
Capacity 1,998cc
Max power 320 hp at 5500 rpm
Max torque 750 Nm at 2750 rpm

Transmission
4WD
Carbon 3 disc clutch
All electronically differential controlled
Sequentially controlled 6-speed semi-automatic

Brakes
4 ventilated disc 4-pot callipers
Hydraulic hand brake

Wheels
7×15 inch
Pirelli tires

First of all, good luck to Petter.
It may look hard to manage to impress in this car, considering it's age.
Anyhow, it was a very good and solid car, winning rallies all the way to it's end of career in WRC.
And the second matter is if Petter personally got it in him to impress in this car. I like Petter, despite his bad English, so I would like to see him do well in this car. Maybe not winning, but at least top 5 in some rallies!

[Wouter Melissen]

It is a shame that a driver of his caliber has to resort to this extreme measure to at least keep competing.

[Matra et Alpine]

Well many have wanted the revival of the great rallying of past times.
Welcome to a step away from manufacturer team domination

[henk4]

Didn't he have access to a C4 yet?

[Wouter Melissen]

Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine

Welcome to a step away from manufacturer team domination

I highly doubt he can compete with the manufacturer teams and perhaps not even with the two 'B' teams.

[fpv_gtho]

I wish Petter nothing but the best.

The last few years with Subaru as their performance has dropped, and coincidently as Ford/MSport got everything together, its been easy to believe Solberg and Atkinson were partly to blame, perhaps losing motivation or even performance, but Atko was setting good times in the C4 the other week and Solberg was usually the faster of the 2 Subaru drivers.

[Matra et Alpine]

What I was considering Wouter, was that this IS good in that other drivers may start up small teams with "at distance" assistance from the factories.
A much more "competitive" environment than relying on BIG teams outspending each other.

[Wouter Melissen]

Originally Posted by Matra et Alpine

What I was considering Wouter, was that this IS good in that other drivers may start up small teams with "at distance" assistance from the factories.
A much more "competitive" environment than relying on BIG teams outspending each other.

The problem is that this can only really work if there are no manufacturer teams but who would then supply the cars?

[Ferrer]

Originally Posted by henk4

Didn't he have access to a C4 yet?

Well he has access to the new Xsara. Maybe it's different to the old one...

[Matra et Alpine]

The manufacturers, but now instead of a handful of the very peak of performance costing ££££ there will be dozens of them sold to small teams to operate.
They're going to have to look at the whole WRC "manufacturers championship" anyway as no doubt next year will see less factory team
Back to the 70s then the private teams did well, buying the cars and performanc parts from the manufacturers. Of course, then the "factory teams" would copy the tuners efforts and roll them back to their own "factory teams" eg Gordini/Alpine, Cooper
It was that "heyday" I was thinking back to.

[LeonOfTheDead]

It's a shame, really, to see him trying to start his own team with an old car instead of fighting with Loeb&Co with the new Impreza (wish it was a better car tough).
I really hope he will run a consistent season, with some good placement, with the possibility to grown next year.

[Knuto]

Great news that he found a car. Saw an interview with him last night and he was very happy that he had full control of the team this time.

Would be so nice to see him do good, but as he said himself the 2006 engine might be a weak link.

[scottie300z]

He is setup to make a strong statement if he does perform well. Which would be refreshing seeing how the past couple of years have lacked results. I'm pulling for him and hopefully this becomes a strong storyline for this year.

[092326001]

i'd like to see him, as well as other privateer teams, do well
it'd be nice to see them challenge the big manufacturers