Rallycross

F1-style standing starts, 550-bhp 4WD cars that rocket from 0 to 100 kph in less than 2.5 seconds. More bumping and rubbing than in a NASCAR race. World Rally Championship levels of car control around an easily viewed, compact course that switches from tarmac to gravel and back again half a dozen times a lap. The technology - active differentials, 275-hp/liter engines - is second to none, but it's displayed in a Sunday night dirt-track format. Welcome to the European Rallycross Championship. Rallycross traces its beginning to the 1967 RAC rally. An outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease caused a last-minute cancellation of the event, but, boys being boys, it was decided to contest a single gravel stage anyway, and a week later a race was run on Lydden Hill, staged by the Thames Estuary Automobile Club and reserved for club drivers. Four cars started each heat, and during all the fighting for both finishing position and overall time, organizers realized they'd found a new motorsport recipe. Today's Division 1 cars are sparkling examples of technology and one-off thinking. "You cannot take a WRC car, it's not good enough," said Per Eklund. "The basis is good, but you need much more power." A 45mm restrictor, stock block requirement and a displacement/weight ratio have most teams settling on 2-liter turbocharged motors. Hansen's factory-backed Citroen Xsara displaces 2.056 liters, right on the maximum limit, and pumps out 515 bhp and 553 lb-ft of torque. Eklund's Trollspeed-built Saab four pumps out nearly 600 bhp!