British motorsport team JRM is assessing the viability of a World Rallycross program following its acquisition of ‘a brace’ of Mini RX rallycross cars from Prodrive. JRM has also acquired a complete spares package, and all of the Mini RX Intellectual Property (IP) from Prodrive.
The firm has yet to decide which championship the cars will contest in 2015 but the team plans to announce more details later this month.
Derived from the Mini World Rally Car that was originally built for use in the FIA World Rally Championship, the Mini RX utilises the same chassis but features an upgraded 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, lightweight body panels and other performance-enhancing modifications that are permitted within rallycross.
“The Mini RX has had a limited number of outings in rallycross up to this point but we believe we’ve got ourselves an extremely competitive package,” JRM executive director, James Rumsey said. “The car won on its debut at the X Games with Liam Doran and we know that the chassis and handling characteristics are hugely impressive. We’re delighted that we’ve brought such a fantastic package to JRM and we’re working hard to prepare for the 2015 season.”
A potential rallycross programme signals the beginning of a journey into a new motorsport discipline for JRM. The team is currently an official partner of Nissan Motorsport International (Nismo) in the GT3 racing category and Nissan GT-R cars that JRM has constructed and engineered have won both the FIA GT1 World Championship and Blancpain Endurance Series titles in recent years.
JRM is also an official base team for Subaru Tecnica International (STI) and currently builds R4-specification Subaru WRX STI rally cars for use in various FIA and international rally championships across the world.
