It may not be the first name you associate with the World Touring Car Championship, plenty of people might even say that hell just froze over, but Lada is almost ready to compete in Europe's premier WTCC. BMW and Alfa Romeo ruled the WTCC for many years, and only recently did Seat and Chevrolet get a foot in the door. How will the Russian marque do? We will soon know.
Russian Bears Motorsport plans to enter two Lada 110, dubbed LADA 1106, into the WTCC for the next race at Valencia, May 16 – 18. The Lada 110 WTCC is powered by a 280 hp 2.0 liter Opel engine and has withstood its first tests on the Zandvoort track in The Netherlands.
Drivers Viktor Shapovalov and Jaap van Lagen drove the race car through about 40 laps with one unscheduled stop in the gravel trap, the car remained undamaged. Next trial will take place at the official two-day WTCC test at Oschersleben.
Jaap van Lagen drove the Russian car for the first ever time, but he was very optimistic: “ We're only at the beginning of the project, so we can still make a lot of progress. The Lada 110 WTCC really surprised me. We had very good lap times. I have a lot of confidence in the future. Perhaps we can get into the top three of the privateers at the end of the season”.
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