Tuesday 20th April 2004

Land Rover in Granite Rally

V6 Freelander to race

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When you think of rallying, Land Rovers only spring to mind for events like the Paris-Dakar.

This week however, we'll see a a Land Rover Freelander in the Granite City Rally.

Matthew Wilson (17), son of motorsport great Malcolm Wilson, will pilot a special rally-prepared M-Sport Land Rover Freelander during the event, which is contested over 44 miles of gruelling terrain and takes in the fearsome forest stages south of Aberdeen.

The M-Sport Freelander is based upon a standard V6 model - which is powered by a 2.5-litre petrol engine - but also incorporates a full roll-cage for safety and an uprated suspension system and brake pads to deliver improved handling in the heat of competition – making it the most capable Freelander in the world.

Aberdeen’s Granite City Rally, on April 17, has a strong heritage, having grown from a small, local navigational challenge into a fully-fledged, and internationally recognised, forest rally. Now in its 35^th year it attracts many leading drivers with its challenging course and welcoming atmosphere.

Links

• www.granitecityrally.org.uk
• Land Rover Links
• Rallying Links
• Land Rover Owners

[mcecm]

The news is a bit late because the rally has passed....However I think he finished just inside the top 50 about 9 or 10 mins off the pace.

[davefiddes]

I saw a precursor to this on the Jim Clark Memorial Rally last July. One of the course cars was a rally prepped Freelander. It was a very quick car and behaved most unlike a Freelander on the tarmac and when it got to the gravel round Leith docks it just kept going where the pukka [fwd] rally cars bogged down. I think it had something like 400bhp on tap. Definitely a cool concept.

[psimpson7]

I think, believe it or not, the rally prepared freelander on the Jim clarke rally as a pace car was standard mechanically!

[NDT]

I thought I read something in Motoring News that he only used the Freelander to get some more points for his race license?