East Yorkshire rally ace Jonny Milner is excited by the potential of his new Abarth car.

Milner, the former double British rally champion from Huggate, is looking forward to more events in his Abarth 500 rally car after a successful debut at the Jim Clark Rally.

Abarth is prepared by Milner’s own company, Merlin International, and the driver deliberately selected the Jim Clark Rally on the Scottish border to race his first national rally for three years, believing it would be the best judge of pace for his new car.

“Although we are at an early stage of developing the car, I was eager to see where we stood against the top British Rally Championship runners,” Milner said.

“Although we are a good three seconds per kilometre down on the very top, we can already mix it with some of the Citroen DS3’s that dominate the category. I was pleasantly surprised, considering how little running we have done.

“I can already see where we can find time in the suspension and braking and there is a lot more torque to come from the engine.”

The Abarth car is currently in a development program designed to make it fully competitive for the 2014 season.

Milner will next show off the car at this weekend’s Cholmondeley Pageant of Power in Cheshire ahead of the Rally Northern Ireland in August.