FEATURE
Getting involved
A brand-new top-of-the-range Cross Car will set you back around £ 30,000 – although some used cars can be found, particularly in Europe, for as little as £ 15,000. The secondhand market is set to expand too, as popularity grows, and their acceptance in Rally and Sprint and Hill Climbs means UK growth could well follow the trajectory seen in Europe.
The basic mechanics on the car also make self-running relatively simple – so all you need is a trailer or a van, a few spare parts and you can soon take to the track.“ You cannot go that fast and get that performance for the same amount of money with anything else,” adds Price.“ You would have to spend four or five times, if not more, to get that from a car.”
Juniors are catered for too. A de-tuned version of the adult Cross Car has been developed for drivers as young as 14, with a Championship category specifically for them. To make for easier progression into the senior category, that same chassis can then be upgraded into a higher-performance model, eliminating the need to replace an entire car.
Price and O’ Donovan both quickly identified the Cross Car as a machine that can teach true driver skills – making it the ideal learning platform for Rally, Rallycross and potentially Sprint disciplines.“ You can be lairy and sideways, but you can also drive it really neat like a race car, so it suits a lot more people,” continues Price.
“ The engine is in the back which means the front is so light. You need to get used to the balance of it, but once you get it, you get it. It’ s quite a unique thing to drive, but the technique from a rally or racing perspective translates a lot from what you learn in a car and vice versa.”
O’ Donovan adds:“ It is so lightweight and nimble you can sometimes get chronic understeer and when you try to get the power down, you need to stab on the brakes a bit or try to steer with the rear. Those are skills you can use anywhere in motorsport, on a rear-wheel drive or a four-wheel drive car, and that makes this a really good way to learn.”
Not only are Cross Cars fun to drive, they also provide access to one of the most welcoming groups of racers in the UK – where friendly competition and wheel-to-wheel racing go hand-in-hand.“ It is respectful competition in Rallycross,” explains O’ Donovan.“ There’ s a bit of a give and take and these cars are built to handle it.
“ The paddock might be the least egotistical and most open you can possibly walk through. It doesn’ t matter if you’ re a marshal, a spectator, a competitor, anyone can walk over into anybody else’ s garage, get up there and ask questions. That is something I just really love about the sport.”
Cross-discipline future
The UK growth of Cross Car has, so far, been focused on Rallycross, but its use in other formats across Europe point to a future where these machines could be seen in many paddocks across the UK. Morgan has been working with Motorsport UK for more than two years to get the car classified for Rallying and its first official event took place on January 17th.
“ The main place you can use the Cross Car is still in Rallycross – in fact, it’ s now the biggest class in UK Rallycross – but Rallying now opens up a whole new market,” he explains.“ It is a specific class for Cross Cars, running as its own field in a similar way to how the Junior 1000 Championship runs, and there were already around a dozen entries for the first event.”
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Revolution- January 2026