Grönholm aims to give U.S. rallying a shot in the arm with new ARC2

Rallying legend Marcus Grönholm will be testing a new car specially developed for rallying in the U.S. that will bridge the gap to European Rally2 cars, and which he hopes can help grow the sport stateside.

The ARC2 is a new car developed by Johan Ragnarsson’s Georgia-based JRD Motorsport, which worked on the Panoz LMP900 car and more recently won the American Rally Association 2WD championships in 2018 and from 2020-22. It has been designed to compete in the American Rally Association series' RC2 class and be equal in performance to Rally2 machines, albeit as a low-cost alternative to the European-built machines and without the need to go through a difficult import and approval process.

Priced from $220,000 (as opposed to $350,000 for a top-of-the-line Rally2 car) and built using locally sourced parts, the car is powered by a 300 hp engine from HORSE Powertrains, tuned to match the performance of Rally2 cars while again keeping costs in check.

Grönholm – who competed in the U.S. at Pikes Peak as well as in Global Rallycross and the X Games – feels that the ARC2 will help boost the competitiveness of rallying in the U.S., which has been dominated by Subaru’s factory operation for the best part of two decades, with competition from other competitive cars imported from Europe few and far between.

“There are home-built cars which are not so nice, not so good, so this could be the step to make the championship better,” he told RACER. “I think it will be good. They have tried to make it possible for everyone.

“The price – OK, still, it's a lot of money, but much less than a Rally2 car here in Europe – but I think it's a good car for the U.S.”

The car will break cover for the first time at the PRI Show in Indianapolis this week before undergoing a testing program with the two-time World Rally champion behind the wheel.

“Reliability is number one,” he said of the upcoming test’s focus. “Then we see the suspension and the diffs … [there are] many things to try, we’ll need a lot of days.”

Grönholm hopes that providing competitive cars at a reasonable price point will help to grow U.S. rallying.

The ARC2 could just be the beginning, with Toyota and 18-time WRC winner Jari-Matti Latvala also interested in an American project. And with competitive cars at a reasonable price point, the bigger picture is that rallying as a whole in the U.S. could benefit and grow as a result.

“We hope for that,” Grönholm said. “Let's see how the car can perform. Everything is possible, I think it's something good anyway.

“They don't really know rallying in the U.S. – when I’m there, nobody knows who Grönholm is, so that's the first thing: to get them to know what it is.”

The long-rumored addition of the U.S. to the World Rally Championship calendar could also give the national scene a shot in the arm.

“I think if the WRC could do a rally there, ARA could also grow,” he said. “To have top drivers, top cars there to see what it is – it has been there in the '80s (when the Olympus Rally featured on the calendar between 1986-88), but there could be a chance to come back.

“They have just Subaru now – only one make is fighting, the others are minutes behind – so the first thing is to get good cars there. I have seen that the stages are nice, and they have many rallies there, so I think it's a good thing we are developing it.”

As for the rallies themselves, don’t expect Grönholm himself to be making a competitive comeback in the new car. His son, however – nine-time World Rallycross winner Niclas Grönholm – could compete around his rallycross commitments, which will take a different form in 2026 after World RX’s demise.

“I’m trying to involve Niclas in this program,” Grönholm Sr. revealed. “He's a really late starter with all his notes and everything … We loved rallycross, so it's a shame that the world championship is gone now. So he will do the Finnish championship here. That's number one, and then we are looking for some other [rallycross]; rallying is there, but let's see.”

You can get a first glimpse of the ARC2 before it hits the stages next year at the PRI Show, which runs from Dec. 11-13.