Chevrolet ready to test new engine

The RML team has been developing the 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol unit for the 2011 WTCC regulations. It has already been tested on a dynamometer and is ready to be tried in the Cruze for the first time.

RML's chief engine engineer Arnaud Martin said: "We started the project from a white sheet of paper in the second week of January and the engine was tested for the first time last Monday, so it has been eight months of very intense work.

"The parameters laid out by the FIA are quite stringent, especially in terms of reliability. The challenge for us has been to reach a higher level of performance than the one provided by the current 2.0 aspirated engine, while ensuring superior reliability to match the new rules: only one engine change allowed during the season in 2011 and none in 2012.

"At the moment, the engine has had 15 hours on the dynamometer for tests essentially aimed at calibration and mapping. We have already done some tests at full power output and everything went as we expected. The next step is to put the engine in the car. Generally, it takes a couple of months to go from the dynamo to the track, but here we are talking a couple of weeks."

Chevrolet Europe's motorsport director Eric Neve added: "Designing a new racing engine from scratch and building it from A to Z is an ambitious programme and a tremendous challenge. Chevrolet has been one of the first manufacturers to believe in the new global race engine and we are anxious to hit the track with the new car."