Mega machine

René Münnich’s day has been one of disappointment heaped on disappointment. The German driver had good reason to believe that this might be the day that his experimental 1400cc Skoda Fabia II Super1600 car finally delivered on its promise. In timed practice Ulrik Linnemann shaved  0.114s off Münnich’s best lap to snatch away fastest time. Second place achieved from the relatively lowly 22nd starting place on a track that seemed to getting faster as the session progressed was still an immense effort, but Münnich was unhappy not have been fastest.

Münnich led until the engine broke. © Henk de Winter/RallycrossWorld.com 

In the first qualifier, Münnich was led his race comfortably and appeared on course for a clear win, and very likely fastest time until his Fabia stopped in the last lap with an engine problem that has been diagnosed as terminal and ended the weekend early. “I’m very disappointed, it’s the tenth time now that we have had engine problems with the car, the only thing to do now is have a beer!” said Münnich who continues to believe that the move to run a smaller engine and lighter car will pay off. “It’s going to be a mega machine. With a 1400 engine the minimum weight [for car and driver] is 860kg, 140kg lighter than a 1600cc car. We are able to get down to the weight limit so that is okay and this engine has 200bhp so it’s only about 20 less than a 1600. There are some more improvements to come on the engine, a better cylinder head and some other parts and we hope that we can eventually get to about 235bhp with this engine.”

The smaller engine is currently producing around 150nM of torque and on the current performance it seems that the weight saving is worth more than the power loss. Although he did not finish the heat, Münnich set the fastest lap time of the heat. The Münnich Motorsport team will now focus its attention on Mandie August who was ninth in timed practice and 17th in the first heat.

Bakkerud, Tohill and Jeanney fastest

The beneficiary of Münnich’s problems was Andreas Bakkerud who set fastest time ahead of Czech Jaroslav Vancik who reappeared here and picked up the good form displayed at Lydden in round one. Derek Tohill set fastest time in the first heat for the TouringCar championship, the Irishman maintaining the momentum from practice in which he was also fastest. Davy Jeanney, the hot tip this weekend, was best of the Supercar bunch, the Frenchman beating an inspired Jos Kuypers to lead the order at the end of the first day.

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