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A daily article on global humanities and geography
Earth Knowledge Bureau – Morocco's World Cup
NO.964 - World Cup in Morocco
Author: Tofu milk
Draft: Sun Lu / Draft: Cat Stu / Editor: Yogurt Bubble
A while ago I went to Morocco, if for nothing else, just to chase my teenage racing dreams, to see the opening match of the WTCR.
As a result, I did not expect to witness a breakthrough of zero in China. At the Morocco opener of the 2019 WTCR, a team with Chinese ancestry reached the podium three times in three Japanese races and won both the driver and the constructors' double championship in the final race.
It is hard to hide the joy of receiving the award
The exciting thing about this news is that before that, not even a team with Chinese ancestry had participated in the race.
What's going on?
Why Morocco
Morocco is a North African country, across the Strait of Gibraltar, facing Spain and the British Overseas Territories, and is currently one of the more developed countries in North Africa. Readers who love car culture will certainly not be unfamiliar with Morocco, which was an important stop in this tough race before the Dakar Rally as a whole moved to South America.
Although the Dakar Rally route is also different every year before moving to South America
But basically Europe is the starting point, Dakar as the end
Morocco cannot get around it
(The following is the approximate route of 2006)
Even in the more familiar history of Formula 1, Morocco has its own name. Although the Monte Carlo circuit in Monaco, a small European country with a similar name, is more famous and thrilling, the Ain Diab circuit in Casablanca, Morocco, also hosted a 1958 race.
Morocco and Monaco do not mess around
And this time I went to watch the RV World Cup WTCR, and for the second consecutive year, the opener was selected at the Marrakesh Moulay Hassan Circuit in Morocco.
The track looks like this
It is not unreasonable that all major auto races have chosen to run car races in this country.
Readers familiar with the geography of North Africa will know that the core territory of Morocco is an oasis between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlas Mountains, and that the Vast Sahara Desert is rolled over the Atlas Mountains.
Oases and large cities are largely not north of the Atlas Mountains
The difference between the north and the south is still quite large
Although it is an oasis, the temperature here is still very high, and there are occasionally a lot of desert dotted, and the climatic conditions are relatively harsh. Both international-level rally and road races require such special stops to comprehensively consider the vehicle's performance in harsh conditions and the rider's endurance.
Although Marrakech (capital) is north of the Atlas Mountains
But the capital is also in an oasis, and the surrounding area is also full of deserts
Of course, there are many similar countries on the African continent, the Middle East and even Central Asia, but in contrast, Morocco's humanistic and social advantages are more obvious.
Morocco's political situation is relatively stable, the level of social development is relatively high, the government can guarantee the smooth progress of the event, but also to protect the personal safety of the team and drivers. And although it is an Islamic country, due to long-term contact with Mediterranean European countries such as Spain, Morocco has a high level of secularization, is not unfamiliar with the Western set, and there is no social resistance to playing with cars.
Modern building in Morocco
In the chaotic lands of Africa and the Middle East, not many countries can do this. With the blessing of the dual advantages of geography and humanities, Morocco has been favored by many international competitions.
In fact, China, this country is also very friendly, before its king announced that the Chinese passport is visa-free, in the future everyone has an African travel plan can pay more attention.
Visa-free works well
Overall, this is a country with a very strong car atmosphere, with continuous car races throughout the year, and they are all the more difficult conditions in these races, which is a huge test for both cars and drivers. The rankings won in Morocco are often regarded as treasures by the team.
What is a WTCR
Morocco has such a high gold content, what is the RV World Cup (hereinafter referred to as WTCR)?
The caravan here is not the kind of car that pulls a small house and can travel the world while living with people, but a touring car, which is what we usually call a sedan with four doors and a trunk. The cars that run on the streets in China are basically these cars, and when they are modified and raced, they are called "motorhomes", which is a translation that is easy to cause ambiguity.
WTCR is a merger of WTCC and TCR series of events, is an international level event recognized by the FIA of the International Automobile Federation, and F1, world rally WRC, world car endurance championship WEC, world car crossover rally championship WRX and listed as the world's top five top car races, there are many fans around the world, and many crooked nuts buy cars to choose the brand standard is this competition.
F1's youngest track winner is also a WTCR fan
Why? Because the WTCR stipulates that the cars participating in this race cannot be the kind of special cars on the F1 track, but must be mass-produced (more than 2500 cars per year) that can be modified on the street. In other words, the cars that participate in this race can also be bought in the 4S shop - of course, the street version before the modification.
So what are the car dealers and models participating in this competition?
Volkswagen Golf GTI, Honda Civic, Hyundai Phase One, Audi RS3, Alpha Romeo Giulietta Veloce, all big famous small steel gun cars, which boy does not want to drive such a car.
Alfa Romeo on the field
Of course, in order to prevent car dealers from competing viciously in the race, so that the competition originally used to evaluate street modified cars became a "money-burning conference", the organizing committee of the competition required that only private teams buy the mass production cars of car dealers. The depot can give technical guidance and cooperate with the modification, but the total manufacturing cost cannot exceed 750,000 yuan.
It's really not a high expense, not even a fraction of the development of top cars. But because the budget ceiling is low, the team wants to spend on such a small budget, it must make the quality of the mass production car itself excellent, rather than spending all the money on modification. This places high demands on automakers, who must ensure that a car can both sell on the civilian market and perform well on the track.
Who can perform as well as they do
This is a comprehensive embodiment of the scientific and technological content and cost control of a car factory, without decades of accumulation, the car factory does not even dare to participate in such a race. For Chinese car companies that started late, this requirement is even higher. So in the previous WTCR competition, it was difficult to see a team with Chinese genes on the stage.
Until the emergence of Lynk & Co 03.
Blue Lynk & Co, of course
How is it Lynk & Co?
At present, the popularity of Lynk & Co in the Chinese auto market is not very high, but behind the low profile, the ambition of this car brand is not small. Because the brand is relatively new and targets a sporty market, it has been welcomed by young car owners since its birth.
So how does Lynk & Co perform? In fact, before the WTCR Morocco race, the organizing committee also asked the Lynk & Co team to increase the counterweight by 30 kilograms and not to use the power to the maximum, so as not to destroy the balance of the event. In such an international competition, this car was weakened by the organizers, and the performance was really hammered. What's even more amazing is that this weakened car also won the driver's and team's double championships!
The territory of Lynk & Co. on the field
In fact, standing behind Lynk & Co is an automobile group from China.
Li Shufu, the founder of Geely, is no stranger Chinese. This thick-faced Zhejiang boss started almost from scratch and built Geely Automobile, which is one of the best brands in domestic cars and is very common on the streets of the south. If you pay attention to cars, you will also know that Li Shufu was also active in the international car market in the past two years, acquiring the Swedish veteran car company Volvo and becoming the largest shareholder of Daimler of the German Mercedes-Benz corporation.
Having the right to speak in these two car companies is an important step for Chinese car companies to go global. The participating Lynk & Co is a brand jointly developed by Geely Holdings, Geely Automobile and Volvo Cars.
Laymen are also familiar
In fact, behind this, there is also a little bit of auspicious selfishness, that is, they hope to let a car with Chinese genes show off on the international racing track. For many years, Geely Holdings has been paying attention to the field of world auto sports, secretly preparing to push Chinese cars to the world and promote the development of China's auto sports level and car culture.
After the acquisition of Volvo, Geely's industrial structure officially entered the era of globalization, leaping forward in technical capabilities and manufacturing levels, and finally developed a cutting-edge mass production car for the sports economy such as Lynk & Co.
It was the mule that the horse was going to pull out and slip, but I didn't expect to slip on the WTCR and become the constructors' champion.
That's the championship
Recall that at the beginning of reform and opening up, China's national automobile industry was poor and white, and in the face of German, Japanese, and American car companies, it was simply a primary school apprentice who was not worth mentioning. It is said that it is a joint venture car, but in fact, the lifeblood is all controlled by foreign technology. Today, the birth of Lynk & Co means that Chinese can lead the research and development and production of joint venture cars, talk and laugh with European experts, and run out of the world championship results, greatly increasing the morale of the Chinese people.
Ah five-star red flag
So when Lynk & Co Cyan Racing's champion driver Björk excitedly waved the five-star red flag, the Chinese audience on the scene boiled over and detonated the domestic car circle and social networks, after all, it was a proud moment.
After the race, I also quietly went to the backstage of the team to visit the class and hooked up with the head of the Lynk & Co team.
They asked me to ask if everyone was interested in winning the championship car. After the game, Lynk & Co may choose the opportunity to release the on-field version of the Lynk & Co 03 TCR, which is expected to be priced at about 1 million. Of course, because it is a modified car, the performance of this car is too strong, the traffic police uncle will not let you on the road, you can only have an addiction in the racing track, experience the taste of being a champion.
If you are interested, welcome to leave a message in the message area, I am well entrusted, the final business.
*The content of this article is provided by the author and does not represent the position of the Earth Knowledge Bureau
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