N. Tajima :
WRC is a top category of motorsport; naturally, it demands extremely high standards, in every aspect. In particular, to deliver good results with some consistency, the car must be built driver friendly - it should have a highly controllable performance so it can be driven fast while maintaining good poise and stability. It’s a difficult-to-attain ideal, but we strongly keep that in mind in our development process.

Watanabe :
We are pretty much building a 4-wheel-drive turbo car from scratch, and we cannot hope to come up with a “winning machine” unless we begin by being true to the basics of car building, and make sure we fully clear every requirement and look into every detail.

N. Tajima :
We are still in the early stages of development, in the process of refining the basics, including the engine, transmission and suspension. The early-stage model we have now will be put to thoroughgoing driving tests until the beginning of 2007. Then we will feed back the test results into our competition-entry model and see how they stand up in the heat of competition, in Japan. After that, we’ll start testing in Europe from the spring of 2007.

Watanabe :
Before test-entering our machine in competitions, we have to address the big issue of homologation. We need to submit for homologation a machine that’s well on the way to completion, because if we don’t and we encounter a problem later on, it could become a devastating setback. (Note: Once a vehicle is homologated, no modification will be allowed to the vehicle or its major components for one year.) We have to finalise the basic construction of the vehicle, its settings and specifications, and make sure they are what we want before we apply for homologation. That means the engine by that stage has to be tough enough to withstand the rigors of actual competition, to a certain degree. And also by that time, we should finalise the overall vehicle layout concept with the engine installed.

N. Tajima :
I guess it’s the same in building anything, the way new objectives spring up one after another in the process. “We’ve come this far, but we can take it much further.” “We want it more this way.” “No, we’re not ready for that.” It’s always like that; we always find ourselves with new goals, new desires. We never have enough time. We have to find a good compromise to move on to the next stage.

Watanabe :
The biggest difference between JRC and WRC, in terms of engine development, is the turbocharger. The addition of a turbocharger brings on a whole new set of design requirements. With Super 1600 engines, they don’t have a turbocharger, the displacement stays small, and we had a good idea of the rev range used in competition. We only had to make sure the engine has good torque-output characteristics within that rev, or engine-speed range, so the list of requirements wasn’t so extensive. Often, the challenge was how completely we could fulfill the requirements, and our Super 1600 engine actually still has room for further development. By contrast, with a turbocharged engine, we also have to take into account the effect of heat from the turbocharger. Moreover, the addition of turbocharger increases the amount of torque output by three times, so naturally, the stress on the engine is much greater. So we have to always keep in mind the durability of the original engine.
At one time, we had a lot of difficulties with the new requirements of turbocharging; now, we are finding good performance with much consistency. We need further refinement, but we are quite confident we will meet the necessary requirements. I won’t say we can start winning right now, but I also won’t say we don’t have a fighting chance. We are certainly finding much of the powerband and torque we were looking for.

When working on the Super 1600, I was often asked from many people, “How many types of engine does SUZUKI really have?”
Because of the big differences between rally rounds – for example,
just for tarmac events, there are low-speed tarmac, high-speed tarmac, courses with much loose gravel, etc., - I’ve heard other teams had at least four different types of engines. By contrast, we made do with just one engine type, the reason being that we were able to come up with an engine with high-rpm power matching any other, one with a wide powerband and smooth power pickup from anywhere in the low rpm. We believe that was the key to our eventual JRC success.
However, in WRC, the cars are fitted with a 34mm-diameter restrictor (intake restriction device required by regulations), so the powerband becomes very narrow. I’d expect there would be torque generated from an unimaginably low rpm, and at high rpm, it will probably have to be up-shifted at an rpm range very low in terms of normal driving, probably around half the rpm of the Super 1600, so it’ll be very important to make the best use of such powerband characteristics.

Watanabe :
There are a lot of issues to be resolved in tuning a production engine into a rally version. In recent years, the base engines tend to have very lightweight designs for fuel efficiency. And since the base engines are not turbocharged, we have to proceed with care in checking engine durability, how it bears the stress of extra intake charging and higher power output. In particular, the cooling system requires various extra equipment, such as for cooling the high-power-engine pistons. To find the optimum space and layout for such equipment, we shouldn’t stop short of making changes to the base engine. This is just one example of why, in order to create a winning engine, it is absolutely essential that we work closely with SUZUKI to resolve various technological issues.

N. Tajima :
In order to compete strongly in all 16 rounds of the season, we’ll have to make good preparations not only in terms of logistics, but also personnel management for everyone involved in the effort. Through the World Championship calendar, we’ll need the help of a great number of staff and engineers from many countries, although of course the project will be under the primary control of the manufacturer, that is, those of us working with SUZUKI headquartered in Japan. Once the car is built, it will be taken to Europe – its actual site of competition – for further refinement, but the development, design and manufacturing work will all be conducted inside Japan.
As for team composition, we are thinking of organising our effort into two teams. One team for entering events in Europe, another for events in Asia and Oceania. We are looking to compete in strong form throughout the total 16 rounds by carefully switching between these two teams.

Watanabe :
Ever since SUZUKI started full-fledged JRC efforts with the Super 1600, we had a great number of fans cheering us on; we are very grateful for their support. Now we are heading forth to the top category, the WRC, and I’d like to ask everyone to keep an eye on our team, and share with us the moment of our first victory, when it should come. With the ever growing popularity of the WRC, we can look forward to an even greater number of people taking up interest in rally competition, and also, hopefully, a greater interest in SUZUKI cars. Such attention and interest are what keep our rally action going; please keep cheering us on!

N. Tajima :
We had for some time fought hard in the JRC, and got some good results we were looking for. We at SUZUKI and SUZUKI SPORT intend to redouble our joint efforts in our WRC campaign; we very much look forward to your continued support!