Yahoo Autos The Return of Rally México Will Put Hybrid Car Technology Through a Brutal Stress Test
After a three-year hiatus, the FIA World Rally Championship is going back to Rally México. The stages will kick off on Thursday, drawing WRC teams from Hyundai, Ford and Toyota, which are competing in Rally1 hybrid cars that debuted last year. As the season’s first gravel round, Rally México will put the hybrids through a stress test in conditions they haven’t been exposed to yet.
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The previous rounds of the 2023 WRC took place under the winter conditions of the Rallye Monte-Carlo and Rally Sweden, in what Toyota Gazoo Racing calls a “stark contrast” to the conditions at Rally México. Ambient temperatures there can be as high 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), which may not sound hot enough to stress the machines, but the event’s combination of high temperatures, high altitude and gravel will be a baptism by fire for the hybrids.
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While the first stage is set in historic Guanajuato — along the capital city’s narrow cobblestone roads and old mining tunnels — later stages will run in the mountains overlooking the city of León. These courses climb over 2,700 meters (roughly 8,860 feet) above sea level, making it hard for the rally cars to breathe. Rally1 machines are powered by a 1.6-liter turbocharged inline-four engine, which can lose up to 20 percent of its power at those altitudes, per Toyota.
