World Rally Cars are not ordinary cars. Far from it. They are the super-heroes of cars, capable of extraordinary feats. Cars with enough horse power under their bonnets to literally fly round the most punishing terrains in the world and then stop in a second.

Sure, they look pretty similar to the car you hired on holiday last year, but underneath that familiar exterior lies £400,000 of high-tension steel, carbon fibre and titanium packed with the most sophisticated technological hardware available. They have 2.0 litre turbo engines that produce over 300bhp, 6 speed gearboxes and 4-wheel drive. The extensive safety measures include a 'roll cage', welded into the car to protect driver and navigator in case of an accident.

They're familiar because the FIA stipulates that every World Rally Car must originate from its fourseater road-car and be available to the general public (so at least 25,000 of them must have been built). But that's where the similarities end...Building a World Rally Car

To make it rally-fit, the car has to undergo a World Rally Championship makeover. Teams start by stripping it down to its very barest of essentials, its panels, and then work up from this blank metallic canvas. Usually, it will take 100s of back-wrenching man-hours just to turn these bare panels into a chassis on which the World Rally Car can be built. And this is no normal chassis. It's 2-3 times more rigid than a normal road car and comes complete with an ultra-stiff roll-cage and acres of safety tubing (40m if laid out fully).

The car starts life looking like its suburban counterpart, but teams are allowed to re-shape the noses and add a rear 'wing'. The aerodynamics at the front produce less drag and the 'wing' (like an aircraft wing, only upside down) at the back generates a down-force which helps the car balance on the road.

All this technology requires a huge investment of time. It takes six mechanics working flat-out for three weeks to create a World Rally Car.

Usually, each World Rally Car has 6 forward gears, which are changed by a sequential shifter mounted on the dashboard (not your conventional hand-height gearstick).

There's a clutch pedal too - but it doesn't get much use other than to drive away from the start line. The drivers push or pull the shifter and let the computers do the rest. Which is just as well. With rally cars travelling at over 200kph, and every tenth of a second saved counting towards your final time, you can't waste time messing around with your feet. A gear-change in a World Rally Car takes 50 milliseconds - that's nearly 10 times faster than a road car.

Engine and transmission
World Rally Cars have the same 2.0 litre engines found in ordinary hatchbacks. It's just that they've been turbo-charged into fire-breathing, terrain-chomping monsters. They're four-wheel drive and have over 3 times more power than your average 100bhp engine. Stopping quickly requires carbon-fibre brake discs that have a bigger diameter than the wheels of a usual car (which means it can stop in an instant).

Tyre choice
For extra grip and safety, World Rally Cars have giant 18 inch tyres (15 inch for snow), which are changed regularly. It is not unusual to hear of crews changing tyre type seventimes in one rally. For asphalt, cars need racing-style, smooth 'slicks', though when it rains they have to be changed to wet-weather grooved tyres. On gravel, the tyre has a chunky tread capable of flinging stones out of the way. For ice, studded tyres are a must.

The tyre companies Pirelli and Michelin also fit anti-deflation systems which, if punctured, fill the tyre with a mousse that expands to prevent deflation and potentially dangerous accidents.