Two automakers confirmed that they will rely on their
subsidiaries in Argentina to produce competition cars that represent them around the world
: Peugeot, which will manufacture the
208 Rally4
at its El Palomar plant , and Toyota, which will use its facilities in Zárate to prepare the Corolla TCR through his
Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina team.
The novelty of the León brand makes sense because a few years ago in its Buenos Aires factory it made the investments and remodeling that allow it to produce in the country, precisely, the street version of the 208. For this special edition it will apply that same base and add components imported from Europe, where it is already being prepared and marketed.
Peugeot 208 Rally4.
This is a strategic decision on the part of Peugeot: although it does not have an official presence in the rally, it does provide its services to private teams, and its objective is to
land with this offer in the Latin American championships
.
As importing the vehicles from the Old Continent is not viable due to the high costs, the idea of leaving Argentina quickly gained consideration and ended up being imposed.
Peugeot 208 Rally4
With the approval of the FIA for national and international rally competitions, the Peugeot 208 Rally4 is a five-door front-wheel drive that
runs with an EB2 1.2 Turbo engine, which delivers 212 HP of power and 290 Nm of torque
.
The block is associated with a Sadev five-speed sequential box, and the car is also equipped with a suspension kit that has adjustable Ohlins shock absorbers.
In this way, Peugeot once again produces an authentic
homologation special
on national soil , as street vehicles that have their special edition to comply with the regulations of a particular competition are popularly known.
Something that has not happened since the 504 TN –prepared, as its acronym indicates, for National Tourism–.
Peugeot 208 Rally4
Toyota, with a competition laboratory in Zárate
A similar path is taken by Toyota with the Corolla TCR, which
transformed its traditional sedan into a beast
to run in Tourism categories aligned precisely under the TCR regulation, which has championships at all levels: there are from local to regional. and world.
The green light from the organizer, WCS, and from Toyota's own headquarters in Japan allowed the official team of the local subsidiary, Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina, to start from the Brazilian Corolla to carry out its own development in Zárate, where it has already allocated
a space specially dedicated for this project.
Toyota Corolla TCR.
But the history of the car does not begin there, but in the Toyota Gazoo Racing workshops in Córdoba, where they take the car with the base body and adapt it to add components such as, for example, the safety cage and the engine, which is
a Lexus 2.0 Turbo to reach 350 CV of power
, the maximum allowed in the category.
From there, they take over in Zárate and take care of other key elements, such as the gearbox, suspension or steering, as well as the electronics and finishing details that leave it ready to hit the slopes.
Toyota Corolla TCR
But the numbers of that production line, it is clear, do not aim to be like those of its neighbors, where, for example, the Hilux or the SW4 come out: for a first stage, the mission is that about 10 units a year come out of there of this Toyota Corolla TCR, all destined for the TCR championships in South America and Brazil, which have a value of 148 thousand euros each.
It is that Toyota's objective with this Corolla is not to supply its own teams, but rather responds to the same logic as Peugeot's with the 208 Rally4, that is, to develop competition vehicles for their customers to run, and so
on
. add presence in more and more categories.
The TCR is, in this sense, an ideal platform for a global brand like the Japanese one, which gains versatility and can thus take advantage of that common code to expand its possibilities and present its niche product in different scenarios and markets.
Toyota Corolla TCR.
In addition, Toyota's possibilities will allow it to offer some differentials compared to other companies that offer this type of product: beyond selling the cars, they also make their after-sales service and the provision of spare parts for each race available to their customers.
The truth is that its competitive capabilities generate a lot of excitement behind closed doors.
In fact, his first official participation on the track was victorious: he won the penultimate function of the TCR South America championship, held at the Óscar y Juan Gálvez Autodrome, in Buenos Aires.
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