[Newod]

A bit of overnight bodywork required.

Danny

 

[Greg]

That's terrible news. Was everyone OK? Are there any other updates for the 124s at Monte?

Greg

 

[Greg]

Well, the word is that both occupants were OK, but the damage was too severe to continue. Apparently the car was doing really well until that tree interfered with things.

Here is the actual wreck

Greg

 

[LongBeachJim]

Good to hear that the drivers are ok. Not so sure if those rally cars even have side airbags. The car held up fairly well given the severity of impact. In our case it could be an SUV running a red light instead of a tree.

 

[reece146]

I expect this car has full cage and racing seats w/ HANS (no air bags in racing cars).

This event is not indicative of what a road going 124 can mitigate.

 

[Greg]

I expect this car has full cage and racing seats w/ HANS (no air bags in racing cars).

This event is not indicative of what a road going 124 can mitigate.

That's for sure. It's a $300k car. A lot of that is in safety stuff.

Greg

 

[ItsyBitsy]

Did the rear wheels lose traction in that turn?

 

[Greg]

Did the rear wheels lose traction in that turn?

It looked like a case of oversteer, simply going in a little to hot for the road conditions. The driver is only 23 and was doing very well up to that point.

Greg

 

[Newod]

Monte Carlo results

Quick update.
3 cars entered. 4 cars in the class, the other was a Porche 997 RS 4.0 RGT - evperienced car and crew.

Results:
Day One - Delecours retired - differential failure. Delecours is an experienced top driver. The car has to cope with 2 wheel drive and 300BHP on snow and ice with studded tyres and bits a bare tarmac - possibly the biggest test to date for the diff. He didn't participate in the shake-down stage before the formal event - did they know something?

Fabio as we have seen was doing well until the tree - conditions, new car etc.

Noberasco - always the slowest of the 3 124's but he got to the finish - 2nd in class behind the Porche ( 3.24 mins) and 45th out of 54 finishers.

What can we take from this?
The 124 finished it's first WRC event.
It was fastest in class until it broke - diff or bodywork.
It was in the top 20 on day one.
Diff failure - could it be due to the extreme conditions of the Monte or is 300bhp too much? We may learn more prior to the next event.

Overall a very good first event in this extreme class of racing.

Danny

 

[reece146]

Thanks for posting this. I tried to find this info last night but didn't have much luck.

It will be interesting to see how the reliability of the rear differential pans out going forward. Would be good to know the failure mode; clutch pack disintegration or half shaft borkage listed as diff failure or other?

Does anyone know if it is an Aisin unit? 230mm? Shared with the S2000 and the ilk? There's lots of aftermarket for diffs in the other Japanese cars so here's hoping for some solid "cross-pollination".

 

[Greg]

Not bad for its first outing, and Monte Carlo is a big deal. They could have started with smaller races, but they went right to the top. That's a pretty gutsy way to debut your new car on the world stage.

Greg

 

[pikeman]

I'd feel pretty good taking 2nd to a 997!

Pete

 

[Greg]

We don't know much about the diff failure yet, but we are trying to find out. I suspect it failed due to heat buildup. At this moment I haven't got any confirmation on what type of diff they were running, stock Abarth or...

Greg

 

[Newod]

Monte Carlo Rally update - Fiat press release.

Delacours retirement was due to Diff oil cap failure. Perhaps Greg or others will know how important this is for us?

Link to full report below.



http://www.fiatpress.com/press/article/excellent-results-for-abarth-124-rally-for-its-racing-debut-at-the-85th-rallye-monte-carlo

Danny

 

[Greg]

Delacours retirement was due to Diff oil cap failure. Perhaps Greg or others will know how important this is for us?

I really wish I know more, but I don't. I do think the results were pretty good. This was a very tough event, and these were private teams, not factory teams running a new car in conditions that were far from ideal.. Hopefully Fiat sees it this way and jumps back into rally racing.

Greg