Since Fiat Auto made up its mind to return with to the competitive rally world with an ambitious plan and bags of enthusiasm, many fans from around the world began dreaming of a return to the very top series, which is represented today by the FIA World Rally Championship, where turbocharged 2,000cc cars fitted with an all wheel drive and tons of electronic controls, battle out the current scenario.
 

Fiat stated though that it will enter through a smaller door, which although it has been complained about by the many of the people involved in the rally circus, should point the right way for future existence of rallying at a worldwide level. Fiat Auto, through its rallying and racing engineering arm N Technology, opted to develop the new Grande Punto adhering the upcoming Super2000 Rally regulations, which call for the use of an atmospheric 2,000 cubed engine – no turbocharger nor supercharger at all – and fitted with a mandatory all wheel drive system provided by an unique technology provider – currently the French manufacturer Sadev – but not fitted with all those amenities and electronic aids which are designed to help out the current crop of WRC drivers.
 

The Super2000 Rally regulations haven’t actually been published by FIA yet: there’s still a lot of arm wrestling going on between Claudio Berro – the Fiat and Ferrari regulations' delegate within the FIA Commission – and David Richards – the current boss of ISC (International Sport Communications), which bought all the broadcasting rights to the WRC, who also happens to be the owner of the Prodrive factory. Fiat wants too see more constructors entering the rallying world, and without having to develop the massive quantity of parts which are needed by current world rally cars. On the other part, Richards want to preserve the investments that have been made by the current WRC manufacturers and keep the privileges of home made components which have been developed and designed for the WRC cars. It’s basically comes down to a matter of advantages and investments made by the Japanese Subaru and Mitsubishi brands, while the other WRC actors are neutral in any such decision. It seem however that Citroen, the World Rally Championship winning manufacturer of 2003, 2004 and shortly 2005, is aiming squarely for the Super2000 solution in 2007, after taking a sabbatical year in 2006.

At present it seems that only Fiat has a Super2000 car which is almost ready to race in the championship. Two other manufacturers are still in the early stages of the process of developing their prototype. Renault, in fact, is currently utilising all its rallying experience on the new Dacia Logan Super2000, although the homologation date for the Romanian-built car has been fixed for April 1st 2006 and not January 1st 2006 as is the case for the Grande Punto Abarth. Another Super2000 rally car is in the development stage, although few  actually regard it as a serious attempt. It hails from Russia: the Lada Super2000.
 

Fiat would ideally have wanted to start competing in the new Super2000 world series in January 2006, but such decision is really nonsense if only one manufacturer ready to offer the hardware to the teams and the drivers. It does seem though that the FIA will accept the Super2000 cars – initially only the Fiat Grande Punto – to run in the Production World Rally Championship 2006 against the established Japanese models in Group N specification, notably the well-developed Subaru Impreza STI and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, although the drivers who will use the Super2000 prototypes won’t be able claim points for the championship. Such terms haven't great impressed the Fiat official team: Fiat Squadra Corse.

While they were testing the car in Sardinia N.Technology decided to draft in an established rally star, in the shape of the Scottish former FIA World Rally Champion Colin McRae, to try out the car, and provide valuable initial comparisons to the many top-line machines he has driven in a long and successful rally career. Although he has been absent from the front-line of the WRC for almost two years now, McRae did recently drive a factory-entered Skoda WRC rally car on the recent Wales Rally GB. The Scot made six runs of the San Biagio stage in the Punto Super2000, with N.Technology's regular project test driver Paolo Andreucci's, co-driver Anna Andreussi, alongside him.

McRae recounted his test to leading Italian motorsport magazine Autosprint: "Fiat has a great tradition in rallying, that is why I immediately accepted their invitation to test the Super2000 car. To try out a car built for this new category has been an interesting experience. The Super2000 cars are very different from WRC cars. Even though they are four wheel drive, there's less power. You immediately notice the engine lacks the push from a turbo. On top of that, driving it is much more physical, a bit like it used to be, because there is no electronics.

"My sensation has been very positive, the Punto S2000 has good traction and with large potential for improvements," added McRae, before concluding - when asked by Autosprint if he might have any future involvement with the Fiat rally project, "I don't know, my job was limited to this test. At the moment there are no agreements for the future, but I wouldn't rule this possibility out. It depends also on how many constructors will have a car like this. I'm convinced that Super2000 can be the category of the future."

The general opinion of fans and journalists who observed the tests is that the new car is really amazing in action, many because it is able to drift so much, almost like the more powerful breed of World Rally cars, and because of the engine sound, which is very aggressive and fierce. Fans familiar with the Super1600 sound won’t be surprised, because it is basically the same, although it is much louder. It is believed that the times set by Paolo Andreucci, the official Fiat tester for the Grande Punto, on the Sardinia test stage are really very comparable with the times posted by the Skoda Fabia WRC 2004, which is credited with having at least 70 more horses, and more than doubled the torque, although the WRC-specification car does weight more: about 70 kg in gravel specification.