Prodrive VW Golf 7 Development

So, I guess some of you guys might already heard about Prodrive's latest news...
they build a Regional car based on VW Golf 7. This car will run with 2.0L engine and will be used mostly in regional championships where allowed.

The main reason of this car's build is the Chinese FAW Volkswagen's dealer team which I also used one of their car (Golf4) back in 2008 in China rally championship....

I am guessing this car will debut it's first rally this weekend in China in the APRC/China rally championship Longyou stage. Chris Atkinson who is the first driver of the Beijing Qingyang FAV VW rally team will most probably drive this new car on gravel stages.
In earlier years, due to the weather conditions the stages were mostly muddy due to rain. but this time the weather at this moment in China looks ok.
I wish I could make it to the rally to see this new car and the rally itself but busy with customer.

Anyway, here is the new VW Golf7 developed by Prodrive and some photos from their media release last night.

Do you guys think this car might be also a good option for Irish Tarmac championship?


First gravel tests;









Jari Ketomaa doing the Asphalt tests last week...




And some photos from the presentation day...













By the way, the cage, gearbox and some other components looks like they are from Mini WRC...

should I also build this car in 18 scale?

I think this is identical to the Mini with just a golf shell. Its a good way to get the prodrive name out there again using parts they would have had in the factory. Hopefully it will go well

Possibly. I would doubt if Prodrive have the money to develop a brand new car from scratch. If it ran in the tarmac championship in Ireland, it would have to run in class 14 modified.

Prodrive don't just rely on money from rallying as we know, but FAW-VW in China commisioned this car with Prodrive, so they will pay what it costs to build and develop

thats completely correct but with one missing point.
It's not actually directly FAV VW as the rally team is called Beijing Qingyang is an individual private team. It's supported by FAW like M-Sports.
they are the biggest VW dealer in Beijing and create their team long ago with good relations to FAV.
In 2008 I started with them to compete here in China Rally championship with a Golf4...

and regarding the car, as Prodrive mentioned earlier, the gearbox, brakes and some important engine parts are coming from Mini. As there are local homologation in China made by their motorsports federation (FASC) this car will be homologated as China Rally Car...
we will see how the car & Chris Atkinson going to do this weekend in a China/APRC rally in Longyou...

I will later try to share more information with you guys from the rally as well...

Thanks Omer - will be interesting to see how well it goes straight out of the box, so to speak.

The livery of the Golf is quite interesting. Just how many different languages can you get on one car? I've noted three, but there may be a fourth!!?

Cheers, Steve

so far I have also seen 3 languages but if you consider Prevot name as Belgian/French then its 4 )

A Kenny McKinstry lookalike in some of the presentation day pictures

well, I guess soon you guys will see some of these girls in Irish champ ...

Hope they've built more than one if its beeen given the Crashkinson to drive...

If I am not mistaken I know 3 have been build so far...
one send over to china, chris will be driving. the other was on tests with Jarri Ketomaa (asphalt) & same car in prodrive media day, driven also in their track.
and the third one was on jacks in prodrive workshop during introduction.

but don't worry about chris, chinese are good at copying

omer yetis wrote:Jari Ketomaa doing the Asphalt tests last week...

__gda__=1424927146_be51a62338678bee6a9a203636e94e7e[/img]

This looks like Curborough to me - a local sprint course that Prodrive have used in the past for various testing and magazine shoots of the Mini WRC, Metro 6R4 and BMW M3.

I also found the following photos on Facebook, Omer...

In tarmac spec looks v nice. Expect they will sell a lot of body kits to the Vee Dub fans in the UK if nothing else!

Would be nice if Prodrive ran one on some UK events for testing as am sure if would get some interest from the BTRDA boys.

In service and ready to start its debut event

Yep, looks like Curborough sprint course to me...

Cowley wrote:

omer yetis wrote:Jari Ketomaa doing the Asphalt tests last week...

This looks like Curborough to me - a local sprint course that Prodrive have used in the past for various testing and magazine shoots of the Mini WRC, Metro 6R4 and BMW M3.
I also found the following photos on Facebook, Omer...

thanks! those are great photos mate, I already download them to my archive

Sal wrote:In tarmac spec looks v nice. Expect they will sell a lot of body kits to the Vee Dub fans in the UK if nothing else!
Would be nice if Prodrive ran one on some UK events for testing as am sure if would get some interest from the BTRDA boys.

well, if they do a body kit I will buy one

Mark Lowe wrote:
In service and ready to start its debut event

yes Mark, The rally already started and the first super special stage, Chris did 2,8 seconds better (in 1.8km) then Kopecky with his APRC S200 Fabia...
this shows that the Golf7 is too much for APRC and China rally championship. earlier I read that the car is around 300bhp... so its obviously way faster then anything in China Rally championship.
let's see what their competitors can bring out to balance the championship. otherwise, will be chinese style....

here is a photo from her first stage...



by the way, besides Chris Atkinson, Mark Higgins (R4), Neal McShea, Manfred Stohl is also competing in this rally for China rally champ points in the same class called S6... lets see what they can do....

58 CRC cars for the local championship besides the 8 APRC cars...

Cowley wrote:Yep, looks like Curborough sprint course to me...

nice photos, thanks for sharing...

I will try to share more photos and news the more I find them

Its a good job its much quicker than the rest as you'd never see a car come up behind you on a stage with mirrors that small. They are tiny, do you think the were robbed from a woman's handbag?

Fresh video from tests...
sounds not bad tho

I have added some photos on my Facebook page from the first day of the rally;

https://www.facebook.com/RallyModels18/media_set?set=a.1486503138304456.1073741853.100008343511309&type=1&pnref=story

I see Atko won in the golf

Perfect result for Prodrive on its 1st outing.

be great to see one on BTRDA rallys next year

good result for first outing but the cars were not equal...
this car is almost an WRC (35mm restrictor, 300hp+) while the competitors were similar to R4 or S2000.