Armed with the Ibiza Kit Car experience on the World Rally Championship, in mid-1998 SEAT made the leap into the top category, called WRC. The SEAT Cordoba WRC was a four-wheel drive turbocharged prototype, with which the Spanish brand returned to the overall podium in world rallying… (read more)
Date 1st homologation: 1 August 1998
Debut: 1998 Rally Finland
Last event: 1999 Rally New Zealand
Number built: 20 (total Cordoba WRC)
Petrol, 4 cylinders in-line
Position: At front, transversal
Bore x stroke: 83.0 x 92.2 mm
Capacity: 1995 cc (3392 cc x1.7 coefficient for turbocharged engines)
Valve gear: DOHC, 16 valves
Fuel system: Multipoint electronic injection Magneti Marelli, Garrett turbocharger, 34 mm inlet restrictor (as per regulations)
Max power: 300 HP at 5300 rpm
Max torque: 470.7 Nm at 3500 rpm
Repsol lubricants
Drive: 4-wheel drive, with active central and front differentials, and mechanical rear
Gearbox: Hewland 6-speed sequential
Clutch: AP 3-plate carbon
Front suspension:
McPherson struts, lower wishbone. Coil springs and Öhlins gas shock absorbers
Rear suspension:
McPherson struts, lower wishbone. Coil springs and Öhlins gas shock absorbers
Steering: Rack and pinion, power-assisted
Front: 378 mm ventilated discs (304 mm on gravel). Water-cooled AP 6-piston brake callipers (on tarmac)
Rear: 304 mm ventilated discs (same on gravel). AP 4-piston brake callipers
Tyres: Pirelli
18” Speedline all-alloy wheels on tarmac and 15” on gravel
Body: 3-door steel monocoque reinforced with integral Matter roll cage
Length/width/height: 4150/1770/1400 mm
Wheelbase: 2443 mm
Tracks: 1520 mm
Peso: 1230 kg (minimum as per regulations)
Armed with the Ibiza Kit Car experience on the World Rally Championship, in mid-1998 SEAT made the leap into the top category, called WRC. The SEAT Cordoba WRC was a four-wheel drive turbocharged prototype, with which the Spanish brand returned to the overall podium in world rallying.
The introduction of the World Rally Car regulations for the World Rally Championship's main category of cars was the key to SEAT's new sporting challenge. WRC rules allowed brands to develop a prototype rally car based on a mass-production car. SEAT chose the Cordoba SX 2.0 16v and turned it into a 4x4 car, powered by a 300 HP turbo engine. The look of the new competition SEAT, complete with aerofoils and flared wheel arches, was spectacular, even more so with the striking Bengal yellow colour already sported by the Ibiza Kit Car. The SEAT Cordoba WRC was unveiled on 27 May 1998, at the Oporto Motor Show.
Actually, SEAT would rather have developed its WRC car from the Ibiza, but had to opt for the Cordoba because the regulations stipulated that the base car had to be no less than 4 metres long. Interestingly enough, the first version of the SEAT Cordoba WRC was simply called "SEAT WRC" and did not get the "Cordoba" name until the 1999 Catalunya Rally. Anyway, the SEAT WRC was always known as Cordoba WRC by the press and the general public.
The SEAT Cordoba WRC made its debut in the World Championship at the 1998 Rally Finland, when SEAT was still competing with the Ibiza Kit Car in the 2-Litre category. The Spanish brand had won the previous two titles in the the FIA 2-Litre World Rally Championship for Makes and in 1998 would add the third one in a row, brilliantly closing the Ibiza Kit Car's career in the world rally scene.
Thus, 1998 was a development season for the Cordoba WRC with a view to 1999. But combining two top categories with two different cars was a major technical and logistical challenge for SEAT Sport. For example, in the Rally Australia the team run a formidable five-car squad, two Cordobas WRC and three Ibizas Kit Car. The 1998 Cordoba WRC season ended brilliantly at the Rally of Great Britain, where Harri Rovanperä finished sixth and gave SEAT its first point in the overall championship. The other drivers of the Cordoba WRC in 1998 were Oriol Gómez, Marc Duez and Gwyndaf Evans.
The 1999 season began just as well, with another sixth position for Piero Liatti (Rovanperä's new teammate) in the famous Monte-Carlo Rally, where Rovanperä was the fastest on the legendary Col de Turini stage, the first Cordoba WRC scratch on the World Championship. At the Swedish Rally, future world rally champion Marcus Grönholm made a one-off appearance for SEAT.
Finally, at the New Zealand Rally came the long-awaited first podium of the Cordoba WRC, with Toni Gardemeister finishing third. The young Finnish driver had made his debut with the SEAT Ibiza Kit Car the previous year in that same event, and this was his first rally at the wheel of the Cordoba WRC. So, SEAT got its first overall podium on the World Rally scene since the 1977 Monte-Carlo Rally - when Gardemeister was two years old!
The 1999 New Zealand Rally was the last event contested by the first version of the Cordoba WRC, as in the next one, in Finland, the Cordoba WRC Evo 2 made its debut. SEAT HISTÓRICOS keeps this unit of the Cordoba WRC E1, with the colours used by Gardemeister in the antipodes, on the way to the first World Rally Championship podium for SEAT Sport's 4-wheel drive prototype.