Lada to enter World Touring Car Championships

In a shock move Lada looks set to make its World Touring Car Championship racing debut

In a shock move Lada looks set to make its World Touring Car Championship racing debut competing alongside the BMW of British Champion Andy Priaulx.

The Lada 110 racing car took part in its first official test at Oschersleben this week, taking to the track amongst a pack of rampaging BMW 3-Series, Seat Leons, Chevrolet Lacettis and Honda Accords.

Drivers Viktor Shapovalov and Jaap van Lagen drove the Lada 110 for around 40 laps, and made one unscheduled stop in the gravel trap.

Luckily the car was undamaged, and while some work still needs to be done to improve the Lada’s handling, the 110 recorded a best lap of 1 minute 52 seconds - not too far off last year’s pole-position time of 1 minute 48.

The front-wheel-drive Lada 110 is powered by a highly-tuned 2-litre Opel/Vauxhall engine which is capable of summoning more than 280bhp.
 
It’s being developed by Dutch-based Russian Bears Motorsport and could be a stepping stone for an official Lada team into the world motorsport scene.

So far it has proved reliable with the Russian racer surprising the team with its speed so early in development.

Lada and its parent company AutoVaz are certainly no joke - they are big players in the huge Russian car market and sell plenty of cars in Eastern Europe.

A return for Lada into Western Europe and even the UK could be just around the corner.

Entering a Lada into the World Touring Car Championship is one way to get its cars noticed and boost Lada’s brand status.