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Mills: New cars are ‘mind-blowing’

2003 world champion co-driver Phil Mills described the performance of the latest spec world rally cars as 'mind-blowing' after he came out of retirement to partner Elfyn Evans for the Corsica Linea - Tour de Corse.

Mills is usually part of Evans' gravel note crew at the M-Sport Ford squad, but he strapped back into the navigator's seat in Corsica after Evans' co-driver Dan Barritt was ruled out following a concussion at last month's Rally Guanajuato Mexico.

Evans' fellow Welshman, who won the 2003 title alongside Petter Solberg in a Subaru Impreza WRC, talked after the rally about how the 2018-spec Fiesta compares to the older machines.

"180kph down the straights was the same 15 years ago and a hairpin bend is the same, the biggest difference is the medium-fast stuff. In third and fourth gear corners the old car would be on three-quarter throttle as you picked your way through, in these new cars you simply do not lift - it is mind-blowing!" he explained.

Mills' last WRC appearance came eight years ago, and he arrived at the 'Rally of 10,000 corners' without any testing, but despite the absence he said it was 'worrying' how quickly he got used to being a co-driver once again.

He added: "Had I done the test that would have been good, but I didn't and the next thing I knew was on shakedown. We did the first launch control at shakedown, two corners later my backside was still on the start line!"

Zdroj: wrc.com