What It Feels Like to Go 0 to 60 in 1.9 Seconds in a Rallycross Car
After a stop in the nation’s capital last month, Red Bull’s Global Rallycross Series made its way to the New York City area, transforming the parking lot outside of Nassau Coliseum into a track for the road-ripping competition on June 20. All of the GRC cars come from the factory as production models of Ford, Volkswagen, Subaru, Hyundai and Chevrolet vehicles, but each driver has a team of specialists who make improvements to the engine, chassis and safety features to make them race-ready.
I zipped up into my royal-blue fire suit and hopped into New Zealand-born driver Rhys Millen’s souped-up Hyundai Veloster, which produces 500 horsepower, 600 lb-ft of torque and tons of tire-smoking fun. His GRC vehicle even performed faster in power lap times than cars like the Dodge Viper SRT10ACR, Ferrari F50 and Lamborghini AventadorLP700-4. Millen and I took to the dirt and asphalt track before the wheel-to-wheel race between the 10 competitors began, but the ride was just as fast-paced as a GRC heat.
After the final heat in the fourth round of the Red Bull Global Rallycross series in New York, Volkswagen drivers Tanner Foust and Scott Speed finished on the first and second steps of the podium. The next stop in the series will be on Saturday, July 26 in Charlotte, N.C.
