- DAVID HUDSON, New Zealand

For the last 2 years the mighty Suzuki Baleno has had a high profile within the NZ rally scene,having its own championship sponsored by the Malaysian tyre company Silverstone,as well as being a force to contend within the F2 class at a national and international level.

With modifications limited to a semi close ratio gearkit,a Bilstein suspension kit that includes springs and complete legs,exhaust tailpipe,optional alloy wheels and the manditory rollcage,lightweight autosport seats,full harness safety belts and Terratrip (high tech odometer) the first of these little cars in their first major outing,the 1997 Rally Of NZ had an amazing placing of 30 th outright.To put this into perspective, that was out of 64 entries and sandwiched between 2 firebreathing 300 plus horsepower 2 litre,turbo,intercooled four wheel drive rocketships,a Subaru Impreza WRX and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 4.And just to prove that this was no coincidence, the following Baleno finished 32nd.!

This performance continued through the International Rally last year with the leading class Baleno finishing 34th outright.

Whilst entries for the series for this coming rally season are still unclear, it certainly promises to be a continuation of low budget, big results for those competing.

On a grander scale this April we have the Silverstone Queenstown Goldrush Hillclimb. This truly awesome event is based in the South Islands beautiful Cardrona Valley ,on a 13.5 kilometer ski field road that is actually an international tyre testing facility.Full of corners ranging from high speed sweepers to tight hairpins this event will be attracting some of the finest hillclimb drivers in the world including American Pikes Peak Champion, expatriot New Zealander Rod Millen in a 1000 hp custom built Toyota Celica.

Heading this world class drivers list will be the works Suzuki driver ' Monster ' Tajima driving a hybrid Suzuki Vitara 4 wd RV.This little beast is made of composite materials including Kevlar and Carbon Fibre,and is powered by a turbocharged V6 2.5 litre quad cam engine producing anywhere from 650 to 1000 horse power,depending on boost and altitude.This car is one of ,if not the fastest hillclimb cars in the world and is guaranteed to be a serious contender for this event.With last years crowd exceeding all expectations, over 20,000 spectators are expected for this truly awesome test of man and machine.


Top