Sticking with the Modified Class again this week, Keith takes us through some of the secrets behind the Grand Punto Rally and Toyota Celica VVTi

Another S2000 car in the Modified Class is the Grande Punto Rally. This is another new rally car that is doing especially well in the current Intercontinental Rally Challenge. What is really quite interesting about these S2000 cars is that they compete over a wide variety of surface types, so you’re likely to see a Grande Punto Rally slammed on big tarmac wheels on a road event, and then jacked up on gravel spec wheels and tyres on a safari event.

The Grande Punto Rally is a particularly pretty rally car; it was first seen at the 39th Tokyo International motor show in its Grande Punto Rally Abarth Super 2000 prototype form. To be honest it has remained fairly unchanged since then and only deviates externally from the stock road car with its wide arches, roof mounted spoiler and re-profiled front and rear bumpers. Obviously the running gear and construction of the rally car are a world apart from the road car, but give it time; the word is that there will be an officially released hot looking performance Grande Punto on the roads soon.

The Toyota Celica VVTi is one of the larger cars from the Modified Class. We chose this road going coupe because it looks great and is very popular, especially in the current tuning/modifying scene. The car in SEGA Rally runs as a fast front wheel drive car and frankly looks stunning, especially on the road settings. As I mentioned in my previous blog the liveries for this particular car are simply superb, particularly one of them which like the previously mentioned Citroen C2 features a very popular SEGA legend (You have to unlock this, it would be a crime not to!) 