Hello rally fans :)!
Let’s talk a bit more about Rally Sweden!
At this rally, Hyundai introduced a cool innovation to combat one of the biggest challenges of winter rallying: snow accumulation on the car🙃.. As seen in the video by @/n9ik_ on instagram (that I’ll put down below) and the photo by @/dirtfishrally (also on insta), the team covered the car’s suspension. This is an approach that provided both performance and maintenance advantages in the extreme conditions of Sweden rally.
Why Cover the Suspension?
You’re probably wondering “Now Mimi… why in the world would they do that!?”. The primary reason for this is straightforward and simple: to prevent snow and ice buildup on the suspension components. When rally cars blast through snowbanks and deep winter roads, they collect significant amounts of ice that often add 15 to 20 kg of extra weight. This additional weight negatively affects performance, making the car heavier and altering its handling characteristics or if you wish making it slower :).
Moreover, ice buildup on the suspension itself can lower the functionality. If the dampers and springs get clogged with ice, they become less responsive, potentially affecting grip and stability. Hyundai’s solution ensured the suspension remained as effective as possible throughout the rally.
Another major benefit of this approach is that it simplifies mid stage adjustments. Between special stages, crews often make suspension tweaks to adapt to figerrent road conditions. Normally, mechanics would first have to remove frozen snow and ice before accessing the components. By covering the suspension, Hyundai eliminated this extra step, allowing for quicker and more efficient setup changes on the road sections! Cool right?
I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Thank you for upvoting, reblogging & commenting. It is greatly appreciated :)❤️!
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