DirtFish can exclusively reveal the first image of the all-new Project Rally One car set for next year’s World Rally Championship – the sport’s first-ever constructor chassis.
Designed by renowned motorsport engineer Lionel Hansen, the bodywork delivers distinctive lines on a car which will begin testing soon after April.
Following its announcement in December, Hansen has confirmed significant interest in what will be the WRC’s first constructor car for 2027.
He told DirtFish the car is on target to start its first shakedown in the second quarter of the year. While precise technical details of the car are still to be confirmed, a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 engine is understood to have been deployed in the all-new chassis.
Hansen said: “It’s still a bit too early [to say] because we are really designing the car for the moment. From the picture it really brings to mind a number of cars that defined the great era of the WRC.
“For sure, we have a first prototype, but it was really a prototype to showcase what we are able to do it. Now we are working on the prototype which will be the test car. It’s difficult, today, to say what will be the major components.
To comply with the FIA’s WRC27 regulations, Project Rally One will have to build capable of supplying 10 cars to potential customers within a two-year period of the homologation date. Hansen is confident of hitting that target.
Additionally, Hansen has confirmed there will be one factory car competing next season.
“For sure,” he said, “we have a lot of requests, a lot of people who are asking some information, even people who want already to pre-order some cars, but the decision has been taken not to do it currently. We will release the first orders at the end of the year.
“To be sure and to understand where we are, [we are] not to go too fast in the process. But, for sure, there is interest and we are confident that the request from the FIA to sell 10 cars will be really something that will be achievable.
“We will look to build 12 cars, one per month and I would say [have] maybe around 15 cars between end of 2026 and 2027.”
Hansen is no stranger to bringing rally cars to market, having been behind the latest Porsche 992 Rally GT which has sold in 30 units.
Hansen added: “We are confident with the knowledge and with the experience from the Porsche 992 Rally GT that we also developed in the last year and the 20 cars that we sold during year one, we are confident that we are able to build [the Project Rally One cars].
“For the Porsche, we target 15 cars per year. We already sold 30. This is a good surprise, but what’s also interesting is that we sold one car in Australia and we have request from everywhere in the world – we look to Rally One, we already have some requests from outside Europe to buy some cars.”
