“Clearly our performance in the last two asphalt events was not as we expected and we’ve made an extra effort to make the Impreza WRC2006 a more competitive package for Germany,” added Subaru’s director of engineering, Steve Farrell. “We’ve worked on all areas to develop the overall performance of the car, specifically by improving the suspension and differential set-ups. There have also been a myriad of small changes and developments which have been packaged together into an engine upgrade for this event.
“So far our testing has confirmed we’re heading in the right direction. Over the summer we’ve also worked very closely with Pirelli and we should see an improvement in the tyres as well.”
Regular
Subaru number two driver,
Chris Atkinson will also compete, entered in a third car.
Manufacturer 2.
OMV Peugeot Norway WRT:
[Manfred Stohl, car #7].
OMV Peugeot's Manfred Stohl is feeling confident ahead of the Rallye Deutschland, following a successful pre-event test.
Stohl, who will be the sole representative for the OMV Peugeot Norway WRT team and who as such will only be eligible to score drivers' points, completed around 120 kilometres on Monday in preparation for the German event.
"The tests in the vineyards were promising," he reflected. "We did some tyre testing and tried out several new differentials. I do think that we found the right set-up for the rally. Now I’m into gear for the start of the second half of the season."
Although the 34-year-old hasn’t had the best of results in Germany, after technical problems on all three of his previous outings, he reckons he can definitely finish in the top eight and score points this time out.
