The company announced that the rallying crossover has successfully completed its shakedown phase at Prodrive’s private test area, which is located in Warwickshire, UK.
The first phase of the vehicle’s development program saw the engineers put the car through its paces for a period of four days, with the tests focused on tarmac driving. The vehicle is now being shipped to Portugal for special gravel testing.
“This initial part of the car’s test and development programme took place with the engineering team driving the car over four days, primarily on tarmac, but also including several kilometres on loose surfaces and Prodrive’s low grip facility. The car will now travel to Portugal for a week of testing on gravel,” stated the press release.
“As with any totally new car, it is vital to take time to ensure all the systems are working as intended before embarking on a week long gravel test,” said David Lapworth, Prodrive technical director, describing the complexity of the test session.
It’s no use trying to guess the design elements of the future vehicle from the adjacent image. This is because the first test car shown here is using test mule body parts, with the final WRC body design still in the works.
The MINI challenger will only take part in certain events of the 2011 WRC season, with the full offensive prepared for 2012.
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