MINI’s->ke57 entry to the World Rally Championships->ke523 certainly caught a lot of people by surprise, not because the brand can’t hack it in rally competitions, but because, well, they’re MINI.

It’s hard to take a company seriously, especially one that prides itself on producing some of the weirdest and most eccentric marketing campaigns of any automaker on the planet.

The thing with this WRC entry, however, is that the company is dead serious on it and if you’re one of the cynical types, this video of the company’s Countryman WRC prototype should quell all of your doubts.

The video, which took place at Ponte de Lima in Portugal, shows the WRC Countryman doing some serious rally testing, and with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder turbo-charged engine courtesy of BMW Motorsport, the Countyman WRC prototype is looking mighty impressive in its test run.

We don’t know how that’s going to translate in an actual competitive race, but the car looks to be in good shape, and if they give more time on their testing and development, then MINI could become a player in the WRC when it starts its run in 2012.

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