Daihatsu Charade General Information
Funny to think that Daihatsu's only ever semi official adventure in rallying was actually with a 4x4 turbo car! However the car was created in the first place to find a gap in the Japanese tax laws, giving advantage to cars with less than 660cc. This in turn led to funny little turbo or super charged things in Japan, including the Subaru Vivio and the Nissan March. The Daihatsu Charade in some versions actually had the engine capacity increased beyond that, but still only 3 cylinders. This however didn't change the fact that this car was desperately short in power and short altogether compared to the "classic" meaning of 4x4 turbo cars. Daihatsu never made a serious effort beyond the Safari Rally and also some British adventures with Terry Kaby.
Talking of Terry Kaby, especially he did compete in a very interesting version of this car. The GTTI was the FWD version of the GTXX. Sounds like a step back. But seing that in groupA power only increased from a standard 101BHP to 115BHP, the 145kg extra weight for the 4x4 should not be underestimated. As well looking at the only mild power increase over the road version, Kaby competed in a groupN version of this car rather than groupA! And to put even one on top, the tiny 986cc times the new turbo factor of 70% (x1.7) makes this a 1626cc engine. Unfortunate for the N3 category=showroom 1601-2000cc it seems first sight. But compared to all these 2000cc 16v cars the little turbo charged Daihatsu is a potential class record holder for low weight and big torque! So note G880 PKK is groupN!
