The Ford-mounted pairing of Mark Cronje and Robin Houghton are the reigning South African National Rally Champions and they are currently in the United Kingdom preparing to compete in the Malcolm Wilson Rally on March 2.
On Wednesday they tested an M-Sport Fiesta RS WRC the car with which they will campaign this coming weekend . The seven-stage, one-day event accommodates rally cars from different eras and forms a single round of a championship event in which more than 100 cars are entered. Cronje and Houghton will compete in the top-flight WR1 class.
Their weapon of choice for the event is a full WRC-spec car, virtually identical to those run in the 2013 WRC by the Qatar M-Sport Rally Team. It has a turbocharged 1,6-litre engine developing 225 kW, about 10 per cent more than the S2000 car they campaign locally. Significantly, thanks to the force-fed nature of the motor, there is lots more torque on offer – 600 N.m, to be exact.
“The test session went off very well and the WRC car doesn’t feel dissimilar to the S2000 in terms of handling, though the engine characteristics are very different,” commented Cronje. “We did about 140 km of fairly muddy forest stage and by the end of the day we were pretty much in the groove, though the icy conditions will take time to master. It was also useful in that we were able to try out a number of components that we can use to make improvements to our South African car.”
Adds Houghton: “It was -5°C this morning, but we soon warmed up inside the car. We don’t have any great aspirations for the event on Saturday and are approaching it as an opportunity to learn more in an international environment. Having said that, we intend running at the sharp end of the field and have an excellent car as well as a very experienced engineer, Ross Sutherland from M-Sport, whom we have been lucky enough to work with back home a couple of times – to take care of us on the event.”
Cronje and Houghton will be back in SA next week ready to defend their 2012 title at the season-opener in Kwazulu-Natal on March 7. You can keep up with the team’s latest happenings on Mark’s facebook page.
