Supercar Lites recycling plan set to become the new FC2 car

The Olsbergs MSE Supercar Lites is as important in the modern rallycross history as the Ford Fiesta ST RX is, bridging up the gap between the Super 1600 and the Supercar classes for practically a decade, but the Swedish firm and FirstCorner will use it as base for a new spec dubbed FC2, which will be basically the Lites car on steroids to offer supercar spec performance..

According to Olsbergs MSE, there are 55 units of the Supercar Lites car in the hands of customers, but only 17 were put to use during the season, with only RallyX Nordic and Nitrocross adopting it as a support class and second tier in the rallycross ladder.

The plan is to get 24 out of the 55 cars and convert them to become FC2s, with the dramatic change being that the 310 hp Mountune engine will give way to a 550 hp turbocharged engine with 700 Nm of torque that will run on fossil-free fuel, a concept incredibly similar to the Pantera RX6 developed by MJP Racing that is the car of the Titans RX Championship, which went to an alternative fuel to add to its list of features to not only keep running and maintenance costs low and also to minimize environment impact while also keeping rallycross machinery as spectacular as possible.

The modifications that will happen in the Supercar Lites to become an FC2 won’t be just a more powerful engine, as the conversion kit that will be marketed will adapt pretty much every corner of the car to be able to withstand the extra grunt, with the clutch and suspension being practically new while the electronics and transmission will get updates.

With the focus being totally on recycling, the FC2 kit upgrade will be around 75,000 Euros, with the recycling program for surplus parts potentially reducing the cost of the kit to around 50,000 Euros, and the first cars might be seen in action in May 2024, in time to be included as part of the Supercar class in RallyX Nordic, which at the moment allows the traditional supercars along with the Zeroid X1 RX2e, the STARD ERX family and even RX1e class cars from the World RX.

The recycling idea behind the FC2 class is to give a clearer path to make the transition to the higher levels in the rallycross ladder, which will reduce the probability of a bottleneck in the Lites class due to the usually hefty step in the budget that is needed to transition to supercar rallycross, as drivers and teams in the Lites can either move to Supercar with the current car in upgraded form or get vacant drives in the already upgraded machines.

Tests will be conducted next month while an initial batch of 12 cars of the 24 predicted will be ready in early 2024, with the remainder of the production going on until 2025. According to Olsbergs MSE, the FC2 won’t be limited to RallyX Nordic, with an unconfirmed series potentially being home of the FC2 as a standalone class.

The remaining number of Supercar Lites models will keep the class running as Olsbergs MSE intends to keep it running for a long time, being part of the Swedish firm portfolio along with the FC1-X and the Zeroid X1.

PHOTOS: RallyX Nordic