Aidan Peterson has taken a major step towards an outright campaign in the Bosch Motorsport Australia Rally Championship (ARC) after purchasing a Subaru Impreza.
Having run a Daihatsu Charade in the ARC Junior Cup component of the ARC over the past couple of years, the Tasmanian has revealed plans to build a G4-spec vehicle using the Subaru as a donor.
Starting the overall build from scratch, the project is likely to take most of the year, with Peterson hopeful of getting ready for the season finale in his home state.
In the meantime, Peterson will use the Subaru to run rounds in the Motorsport Australia Tasmanian Rally Championship before returning to the ARC in August for The Middle Of Everywhere Gippsland Rally for the White Wolf Constructions ARC Production Cup.
Not wanting to rush the process, Peterson was looking forward to the next chapter in his rally career.
“The G4 platform is pretty much Australia’s answer to an R5 where you start with a Production car platform and convert it into a lighter modern shell. It’s certainly a more cost effective way of doing it,” Peterson said.
“We really like that concept, so I am excited to get it up and running, although it won’t be a high-end spec car to begin with, more like a 4WD version of the Charade and we plan to take a bit more time getting things right on the first go.”
“For us, the main goal this year is to build the car and get some kilometres on a 4WD Turbo platform by doing a few state and ARC rounds. From there, we’ll work out what works and what doesn’t, before applying those lessons in figuring out the best approach for the G4.
“Moving up into the outright competition has always been the goal. We built the Charade pretty quickly for the Junior Cup while I was still eligible and we have been considering the G4 pathway for a while now, so it’s all been a process about taking the right direction.
“We had some chats with Activ Rallysport, but it’s expensive to go with the Mitsubishi Evo based platform and using the Suzuki shell we have chosen, the Subaru parts work better. It won’t be as advanced as theirs, but it will get us in the door.
“It does help that I am quite familiar with the Subaru platform, and we have a few teams already running them in Tas. and I believe that a little bit of familiarity goes a long way when building a car.”
