Lada competed in the 2009 season of the FIA’s World Touring Car Championship with the 110 and the Priora. Both cars were heavily modified for competition, but Lada finished the season without a single driver point and dead last in the manufacturer’s ranking.
Lada doesn’t want the 2009 fiasco to be the end of its racing career. The TMS Sport team that coordinated the Lada program three years ago has announced that the brand will make a comeback to the WTCC series this year. It is only planning on entering two races, one in Budapest, Hungary, on May 6th, and another in Estoril, Portugal, on June 3rd.
TMS Sport will field the same cars that compete in the Granta Cup series that takes place in Russia. They are powered by a 1,600cc four-cylinder engine and they weigh 2,380 pounds. These specifications are almost on par with the FIA’s S2000 regulations for the WTCC series, so Lada only needs to make minor modifications in order to compete.
No word has been spoken about who will pilot the cars, but if the Granta is successful Lada could compete in every race of the 2013 WTCC season.
One of Lada’s biggest successes in international racing was in the grueling Paris-Dakar race. Several Nivas competed in the three-week long race in the 1980s; none have ever won the race, but the SUV took third place in 1981, and second place in 1982 and 1983.
References
1.’WTCC: retour de…’ view
