They regularly challenge the 4WDs for sheer speed, so this weekend's Otago Rally provides a welcome 2WD battleground for quick Kiwis Derek Ayson and Marcus van Klink.
Hailing from Gore and Kaiapoi respectively, the duo are rated in the fast gang of four - within a 44-car field - who could potentially claim the Otago Classic Rally title.
They will be up against former Subaru, Ford and Peugeot WRC driver Markko Martin, of Estonia. Although he is a winner of five WRC rounds, Martin will be driving a classic Ford Escort RS1800 and this will be his first taste of rallying in Otago.
Martin (40) completed some test runs yesterday in the Escort to ‘‘feel how the rear-wheel-drive classic works on gravel,'' he said.
His WRC career was spent in 4WDs and the ‘‘first time ever'' he stepped into a 2WD was for a tarmac event in Belgium a month ago. He lived up to his driving credentials by finishing second overall, after a puncture scuppered the lead he held for most of the event.
Ayson is somewhat of a veteran and notched up a hat-trick of wins in his then newly-built Ford Escort from 2009 to 2011. He still runs the Nissan FJ20-engined car and has upgraded its rear brakes with vented discs this season.
‘‘The car is probably going the best it has ever gone,'' he said.
He has redemption in mind after last year's bitterly disappointing Otago event, in which he was able to complete only 8km of the first stage before his engine blew up.
In another fiercely-fleet 2WD, van Klink and long-term co-driver Dave Neill won Otago's classic category in 2012 and finished second last year in his Mazda RX7. Running just under 300hp, it is a fair handful and its stage times at this Dunedin-based event usually sit just outside those of the top 10 4WDs, which have superior grip and handling.
Laughing, van Klink said he would have to back himself for a win come Sunday.‘‘But I wouldn't put any money on it.''A pinch of luck and enough steady nerves to keep going flat out right up until the end of the 17th stage, would most likely determine the winner, he said.
He is picking Ayson, Kaikoura's Regan Ross (Ford Escort) and Martin as his main rivals.
Ten Australian crews will contest the classic event this year, headed by the deceptively fast Porsche 911 of Sydney's Jeff David.
The leading Dunedin competitor is Allan Dippie, in a Porsche 911.
The Otago Rally gets under way with a publicity start in Dunedin's Octagon on Friday from 5pm. The competitive stages take place over the following two days.
