Kiwi rally star Hayden Paddon will take to the course this weekend in a special car unveiled in Christchurch last night.
Paddon will be driving the Hyundai WRC rally car which he drove to victory in the 2016 World Rally Championship at Christchurch's Ashley Forest Rallysprint this weekend.
"This is actually our 2016 Argentina-winning WRC car," Paddon said.
"It's pretty special to have this car in New Zealand.
"I never dreamt I would have it here eight years later.
"And obviously it's a big piece of history for us and for the sport.
A the end of the 2016 WRC season, the car was sold to the Italian Hyundai team and was last raced in a competition in 2022.
Paddon said it has been a team effort getting it to New Zealand, where it is now set to remain permanently.
"This car was our one-and-only world championship victory.
"This is everything I worked towards as a kid, as a five- or six-year-old driving go-karts, watching my heroes, Colin McRae, Possum Bourne rally around the world, and then get to a point where we could win our own world championship event in this very car.
"This is what, 20, 30 years of work was all about."
Paddon will drive the car at the Ashley Forest Rallysprint on Saturday and Sunday.
He will also be taking his fully-electric Hyundai Kona EV World Rally Car out for some runs.
"Of course we want to be competitive.
"We come to these events to try and fight at the front and we're expecting some tough competition, but we'll be given it everything.
"This car, maybe not so much, we just want to enjoy this car, no risks. But with the electric car, we'll be pushing pretty hard."
"A lot of that technology we want to utilise and find a way to get it into the car as well. So this is the first step towards that."
The 37-year-old has long been advocating for a switch to alternative energy sources in rallying, which he hopes will take his electric race car to the next level.
"I'm getting a little bit older now, but I'm still loving it.
"I feel like I'm at the peak of my game at the moment and we're still obviously competing in Europe. So hopefully there's a number of years left in me yet."
Paddon is looking forward to lining up on Saturday at the Ashley Forest Rallysprint, which features a series of short and punishing knockout hill climb time trials on gravel tracks.
- By Geoff Sloan, made with the support of NZ On Air
