Chery to compete in the 2010 Dakar Rally Options

[Cavver]

Chery has announced that it will compete in the 2010 Dakar Rally, and with that be the first Chinese automaker to participate in what’s famously known as “The World’s Toughest Race”. Next year’s Dakar will again be held in South America over the challenging terrain of Argentina and Chile. Chery acknowledges the difficulty that lies ahead – it calls the race “devil rally”!

Chery will campaign its Rely fleet of SUVs – two X5 race cars, one X5 conductor car and one H5 support car. Ningjun Lu, who has raced in Dakar five times, will lead the driver lineup. Jiang Yaoheng is the other driver with Dali Ma as the team manager. “It’s definitely stressful to attend the 2010 Dakar Rally, but X5, as a real Chinese brand, has different meaning, we have to get good scores,” said a motivated Lu.

Rely is a sub-brand created by Chery for its home market focussing on “high-end all-round commercial vehicles”. Besides Rely, Chery also has Riich (premium passenger cars) and Karry (compacts) brands under its portfolio, but just for use domestically.

The 2010 Dakar Rally will start on New Year’s Day at Buenos Aires and end on January 16 in the same city. This year, the route will measure 9000 km, with a long stint in the Atacama Desert.

[Leepee]

This is a good test of their cars!
China cars are up and coming for sure.

[Thugstercena]

sorry dont know much about dakar racing. i only know its off road. but does it suppose to look like minivans?

[Desong]

dakar racin is more than jus offroad..its a race across deserts :)

vveri harsh conditions..desert bikes also take part

[GoodCar]

It is all about R&D, test and trial, improvement from mistake.
But when the the management focus shift to focus on only dollar ,cents and more profits, the organisation will start to decline.....lesson from Toyota.
Than again this is the fastest way to impress bosses isn't it?

[Shull]

It is all about R&D, test and trial, improvement from mistake.
But when the the management focus shift to focus on only dollar ,cents and more profits, the organisation will start to decline.....lesson from Toyota.
Than again this is the fastest way to impress bosses isn't it?

Impress both bosses and investors...but very very risky...look at Toyota now...i am pretty sure after all these scandals, their stocks are very vulnerable now..

[GoodCar]

Exactly, A lesson we must all learn from Toyota.

[Thaiyotakamli]

time to show off china, come u can make it!!

[Viceroymenthol]

wow.... impressive... this chery management very daring. good for brand and reputation building, PR. also, unlike Toyota or some bigger brands, if they fail they have nothing much to lose. so why not give it a try?

[Pocus]

It's a good move by any infant car company with not so goodreputation.
If Chery pull this one off good, People may really start to buy their cars..

wish they luck..

[Vhtfhwlego]

Wat i feel that even a car were to win such events, their cars on sale to public might not have the R&D done.
For instance, EVO 7 rally car and the one they sent to rally are not the same.
Focus has a 4wheel drive but the fastest focus is on FR.

[Pocus]

Wat i feel that even a car were to win such events, their cars on sale to public might not have the R&D done.
For instance, EVO 7 rally car and the one they sent to rally are not the same.
Focus has a 4wheel drive but the fastest focus is on FR.

Actually it depends on how they make use of their experiences in these event. Usually for high-profile races like WRC or such, the team directly involved in the Rally usually has a few personnel right from the R&D department. It's from these race where the R&D guys will access certain parts of the car that are most proned to failure and study ways to improve them. Sometimes they involve simple quick fixes and the rally cars are good to go, some more severe case, the whole car was shipped back to the factory for diagnostics.

Take your example, the EVO 7 rally car is more like a "testbed" for the R&D guys to test, it will reflect in all their models and not just the EVO lineup. Same goes from the Focus, I'm sure ford gain alot on their 4wd technology from the rally, maybe they'll put in the improvment in their next-gen pickups? Look at Hyundai, they put their Accent WRCinto some rally in the early 2000s, I'm sure they put some of their lessons to the current Genesis.

I followed the Suzuki WRC team in 2008 closely, their target is to take whatever issues they learn from the rally to make better cars. Some of the problems they hit from the SX4 WRC are suspension hydualic issues and their fuel pump. There even once the engine cannot take the punishment. These are nitty girtty things we don't see the improvements enough in our b&b cars.

I mean even an established company like Suzuki, so experienced in their JWRC where they emerged champions for years with their Swift JWRC and Ignis JWRC, really hit the dirt in WRC due to inexperience in TC technology and probably harsher off-road punishment. It's a pity they bail out due to the global downturn in 2008. In one thing for sure they will take that 1 season of lesson to make better models for the future.

So that's why I say, it'll be a good but steep lesson for Chery. But if they pull though good, their car will definately become more creditable.

[Sw20]

hyundai was in wrc... but apparently.. none of their rally data was found on their cars... more like marketing gimmick.
Chery... I would say due to different conditions and terrain... their data for car production or technical advancement will be proven too erratic.
Nothing like on the road and track racing... data is more consistent... and you can see how the car reacts to weather and climate change on the same track.

[PRiNcEsSCaRly19]

wonder the car will halfway break down or not

[Pocus]

wonder the car will halfway break down or not

Confirm WILL....if their car didn't break down it the races....their technology will be better than all the euro/japanese cars out there liao...if like that tomorrow I'll go buy a Chery.

Sure break down one...not just Chery but for most brand will suffer some form of malfunction or breakdown too... it's DAKAR rally leh, not kallang carpark drift.

The question should be, will their cars survive for 5 minutes before retire?

This post has been edited by Pocus: Feb 9 2010, 04:11 PM

[Zyrofillica]

yup, but over the course of this extreme race and test of machine and man, the engineering and design teams will gain valuable insight and information that will help them design better components for their cars. so i hope Chery breaks down more often, at least they will have brought home lots of ideas for improvements for their future products.

[Xefera]

Wah Zan! These China people really want a piece of everything.
Will they be using the same technology that they bought over for the races?

No originality.

[Pinkypink]

wow this piece of news is really interesting, thank you for sharing!

[Calford]

德國紐博格林10月13日，作為我國首款挑戰世界最難賽道的中高端轎車，瑞麒G5於10月13日現身紐博格林北環賽道，以8分56秒的成績，完成了上市前的一次完美極限征服。來自國內各大媒體的數十名專業觀眾，在北環賽道T13看臺，現場見證了這一世界級記錄的誕生。

　　此次成功挑戰紐博格林北環賽道，瑞麒G5的技術先進性和強大產品力得到完美驗證。瑞麒G5搭載的全鋁2.0T發動機，前期設計是AVL與奇瑞公司共同完成，有著強勁澎湃的動力輸出。底盤設計以車輛主動安全、乘坐、靈活駕駛作為首要考量因素，並由英國著名的跑車公司蓮花汽車公司耗時2年精心調校。此外，瑞麒G5還擁有目前最先進的車身設計

Chery took their soon to be launched Riich G5 premium sedan to the Nürburgring in Germany for some serious testing of its credentials, and obtained itself a great score considering the previous contenders.
The G5 is the first mid size sedan from Chery [Riich], and will carry a 2.0L naturally aspirated engine, and also a 2.0T engine. The 2.0T model was the one put through its paces at the ‘Ring yesterday.

Chery obtained a fantastic result of 8:56, which puts it in the Nürburgring hall of fame:

1. Cadillac CTS-V – 7:59
2. BMW M3 (E92) – 8:05
3. Audi RS4 Sedan – 8:09
4. BMW M5 (E60) – 8:13
5. Mercedes C63 AMG – 8:13
6. Renault Laguna RS R26.R – 8:16
7. BMW M3(E46) – 8:22
8. BMW M Coupe(E36/8) – 8:22
9. Audi S5 – 8:26
10. BMW 335i Coupe（E92）- 8:26
11. Mazda3 MPS – 8:39
12. Honda Civic Type-R – 8:47
13. VW Golf
14. Ford Focus ST – 8:51
15. Vauxhall Corsa VXR – 8:54
16. Riich G5 – 8:56
17. Ford Focus RS – 9:05
18. Jaguar S-Type Diesel – 9:12

Obviously the Riich G5 is not quite upto CTS-V standard, but it has proved its worth on the ‘Ring, and overcome many early prejudices from people that believed that the G5 would fail miserably against rival vehicles, especially cars that have been in development and production for close to a decade, such as the Ford Focus. Readers would also be wise to remember that the Riich G5 is not being pushed as a sports model, it is being pushed as a premium vehicle, where as other rivals from the ‘Ring, barring the S-Type diesel are performance models in their respective niches, which only goes to prove that the G5 really does have it what it takes to be a premium car, its relative luxury and performance.

According to Chinese media reports, even the designated driver, Mr. Dirk Schoysman, was shocked by the G5’s performance and overall timing on the day.

Of course the G5 was not a production standard car, but it was fairly close. The tyres on the day had been changed to 225/40ZR18 Yokohama tyres to counter the extreme G-forces that the car would under go in tight corners, the braking system also under went upgrades. A roll cage weighing a mere 20kg was added to keep the car stable and to protect the driver should the G5 flip or crash during the race, a lot of equipment was removed from the car such as the DVD-GPS system, air conditioner and obviously rear seats, this also saved a lot weight, even the door inserts and window opening mechanisms were removed to shed those vital grams.

The end result of 8:56 is a great step in showing that Chery have made enormous advances in their ability to design, engineer, and produce a car. Previously Brilliance were struck down in Europe due to the shabby actions of ADAC, this is obviously a mistake that Chery do not want to follow and are carrying out their own different way of proving that the G5 has got what it takes to take on Europe, and then the world. The next step for Chery would be for them to obtain a 5 star or better crash test rating from N-CAP, here we mean a crash test performed by N-CAP and not to N-CAP standards.

[Silver_z]

The supremacy of China. They gonna build the Noah's Ark of 2012.

This post has been edited by Silver_z: Feb 12 2010, 09:18 AM