Prodrive behind Countryman WRC for the road

Back in January this year we gave you the scoop that MINI was planning a road-going version of its Countryman WRC. It would stand to reason that Prodrive would be the company to turn their racecar into a road car and that’s exactly what will be happening.

Dave Richards, Prodrive boss says the transformation makes sense, “Mini obviously has the Cooper and John Cooper Works brands and it will want to work out ways of harnessing this campaign, its rally heritage and those giant-killing acts of the 1960s through its road cars.”

While our tip that the road-going Countryman WRC could be on show at Frankfurt didn’t come off, a prototype version of the car does exist and will feature a unique widebody to set it apart from other Countryman models.

It currently has its engine boosted to 230bhp through the use of a Milltek exhaust system and a Superchips ECU reflash. Apparently the chase for more power is on and a larger turbo is under consideration.

We like where this is heading and look forward to learning more as the car’s development progresses.

[Source: Autocar]