Two weeks ago the first spy photographs of the new Fiat Grande Punto 'Super 2000' rally prototype broke cover - courtesy of Italian magazine SAM (SportAutoMoto) Rally - now we present a closer analysis of the new rally car, courtesy of the same publication.

Fiat - along with up to eight other car manufacturers - are at present developing a rally car for the FIA's proposed new 'Super 2000' regulations. These new rules effectively call for costs to be tightly controlled - to stem the haemorrhaging of manufacturers away from rallying - and are to be essentially based on the successful 'Super 1600' class regulations. The biggest changes foreseen will be in the area of engine capacity, which will be raised to two litres, and the addition of four wheel drive - both factors that will allow the proposed 'Super 2000' category to form the basis of a future top-line class, and let the new cars be exciting and dramatic to watch for the rally fans. Keeping the cars' weight limit restricted to 1,100kg along with a strict control on the use of 'driver electronic aids' will help to create a new breed of potent new rally machines.

The first 'spy' photos of the lightly disguised new Fiat Grande Punto Super 2000' prototype taken at Balocco - with project test driver Paolo Andreucci behind the wheel - offer some hints of the overall technical theme being developed. It is noticeable that only two images have emerged - and both of these are essentially frontal views, which hide the rear, and mask much of the side areas. The car - which is not shown travelling at any great pace - is obviously in a very early development stage (in fact it is currently using a 2.0-litre powerplant 'borrowed' from the FIA World Touring Car Championship-contesting Alfa Romeo 156 racer which is also built and developed by N.Technology) as there is no exaggeration visible to the front camber angle, meaning that the set-up is still a long way from being fine tuned.

The rear wheel track has been extended right to the proposed new limit of the 'Super 2000' rules, and is clearly wider than the front one. This presents a first look at the power distribution of the new category, which is expected to see the bulk of power being transferred through the rear wheels. SAM Rally also point out the tarmac-specification tyres chosen for the test by Engineer Adamo - the N.Technology Fiat Grande Punto Super 2000 project manager - for this test suggest that the visiblr 'footprint' means that between 260 and 280 bhp of power can be transferred to the wheels.
 

The larger front brakes are fed with dedicated small cooling air intakes. The bulbous front wheel arches stop precisely at the doors: the exact point where the hot air generated by both the front brakes and the engine exit. The muscular new styling of the car is used in essence only to expel heat - this is very much the trademark of N.Technology's chief engineering - Sergio Limone - who prefers to concentrate his efforts in the area removing the hot air generated more effectively, rather than aiming to push in more cold air.

The Grande Punto 'Super 2000' prototype features no outrageous front spoiler arrangement - which implies that aerodynamic studies carried out in the wind tunnel have been very effective, even in relation to the 'road going' Fiat Grande Punto, itself designed to offer an excellent segment drag co-efficient. The lower bordered front splitter has been carefully designed, and it receives its load without making excessively dirty the front section. In the centre it exploits an air channel which feeds towards the lower part of the car, in order to deploy to the optimum the flows which then are moved to the rear. While this is a provisional solution, it is clear that N.Technology's engineers are not searching for any increased front loads, and that it is an arrangement coherent with a power balance that is distributed with a prevalence firmly biased toward the rear axles.

The high-level rear wing is basically quite small, and it seems to accurately resemble a required airflow deviator, which is needed to augment the prototype's aerodynamic penetration, while at the same time helping to decrease the braking vortexes, which tend to form their shape behind the rear window.

The front air ducts aren't particularly large (as we have come to expect from the WRC category) and the bonnet intakes doesn't draw in too much air either, and have no facility for removing any exhaust air at all. Meanwhile at each side of the front headlamps N.Technology's design team appear to have developed a new cooling intake. These facts confirm that there isn't an excessive amount of power available, but that power which is 'on tap' is carefully used, because the need to cool the mechanicals isn't deemed to be priority.

by Marco Tenuti / based on a feature from SAM Rally