Official WRC thread

Just a random thought I had. Forgive me if it's obvious, if there is a rule about it or if it was done before. I'm newish to rallying.

Here it goes, on all events (except for tarmac) the first driver is always at a disadvantage as he has to "sweep" the road. His tires grab the sand, stones, snow or whatever, and throw them aside making a cleaner and faster line for the driver coming after him. Now, if the first driver (or all drivers) were to have mud flaps on his car, the dirt thrown out by the tire would hit the mud flap and fall right back down onto the line the car has taken. Therefore, the car coming after would no longer have the advantage.

Why isn't this done?

Um... the cars do have mudflaps - and penalties are handed out if they are not present! They do not apparently have any effect on the loose gravel though.

DSCF1159.jpg


Spot the flaps!
 
They were source of controversy a few years back when Petter Solberg was handed a time penalty for missing mud flaps. Undeterred, Petter drove a brilliant rally and won the event despite the penalty, and the whole Subaru team celebrated by wearing mudflaps on their heads.
 
Just a random thought I had. Forgive me if it's obvious, if there is a rule about it or if it was done before. I'm newish to rallying.

Here it goes, on all events (except for tarmac) the first driver is always at a disadvantage as he has to "sweep" the road. His tires grab the sand, stones, snow or whatever, and throw them aside making a cleaner and faster line for the driver coming after him. Now, if the first driver (or all drivers) were to have mud flaps on his car, the dirt thrown out by the tire would hit the mud flap and fall right back down onto the line the car has taken. Therefore, the car coming after would no longer have the advantage.

Why isn't this done?

Hahahaha sorry dude but given your signature has a picture of a WRC car in it this is pretty funny. They DO have mudflaps. You have clearly never been to a rally as these cars (even Group N stuff) just destroy the surface. I would hate to drive in a rally behind a decent flock of WRC cars, the road would be torn to pieces. The tyres are so soft and they have so much grip that they literally dig into the road. The top gravel surface (which makes it so slipeery) gets torn up by the tyres into the wheel arches, stuck in the tyres, flung out the sides etc. etc. By the time 3 or 4 cars have gone through the road is down to the solid base which equals lots lots more grip on the racing line.
 
As a quick note, Malcolm Wilson has confirmed that the Ford drivers next year are Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala, with Khalid Al-Quassimi also in for some rallies. So exactly same as this year.
 
Good news. Khalid is the definition of pay driver though! Shame they can't give a top rung driver the third seat :(
 
Very true. I also doubt the money that Abu Dhabi contributes is insignificant, a man can dream can't he!!
 
I wish our TV here in the US didn't suck. I saw rally once a few years ago on SpeedTV (a couple seasons before Carlos Sainz retired from it) and instantly fell in love. Then, about a year ago, SpeedTV decided they didn't like WRC and preferred more NASCAR coverage and that was the end of that. There are some serious problems with this nation... though every nation has its own problems. But when something as hardcore as WRC gets cut for more "Yee-haw! Rubbin's racin'!!" we really need to take a good, long, hard look at ourselves.
 
Speed's decision is easy to explain. WRC does not get even reasonable ratings, NASCAR does, so show NASCAR instead.

I think there's very little chance for rallying to gain popularity in US in close future. Look at where F1 is, and that's mainstream motorsports compared to WRC and has a history with american drivers and races, which WRC does not have. Travis Pastrana and the X-Games are doing big favours for the sport by bringing attention to it but I still don't see it getting popular. American top class driver could change things but that's unlikely to happen as long as all driving talent goes to various forms of circuit racing.
 
Ok Catalunya out of the way and can't really say there were any surprises. Loeb won it at a canter, Sordo was very close but lost out just a tiny bit everywhere. He was losing 3 or 4 secs over 30km but the trouble is Dani could probably drive that road 30 times and Seb would ALWAYS be 3 or 4 secs faster. I almost wanted Seb to win every stage.

Duval was very impressive, he is still a really world class driver, but having to move over for Mikko at the end surprised no-one. Shows how far Mikko has come in a couple of years. Had he been within a minute of Seb in Spain a couple of years ago I reckon he would have been over the moon, now I think he would view this as a poor result.

Good to see Latvala finally get some points and the Subaru's were pretty good too. First time in a while Petter has outpaced Atko. Also a point for Andreas Mikkelsen, good kid.

Its really really hard to see Loeb losing this title. He shouldn't anyway, he has won 9 of the 12 rallies this year. He could break his own record no?? He is truly something amazing. The big fight will be between Atko, Petter and Latvala in the championship standings.
 
Effectively Loeb needs to retire in one of the remaining rallies while Mikko needs to dominate the gravel events and not do mistakes in Corsica. In truth I wouldn't mind if he had a problem in Corsica, it would propably hand the win to Sordo who IMO would deserve a win. He would have several by now if Loeb had not dominated the tarmac rallies (he has won every single one of them since Catalunya 2006).

It was interesting to see Mikko's comments during last weekend's rally. Ford did lot of tarmac testing beforehand and Mikko thought he progressed with his setups, but during the first day he reverted back to the setup he used in Germany and his speed improved immediately. Also, the new setup was much harder than the old one, and after they softened the car it was in effect the complete opposite from what Duval used, and the two were very closely matched after the first day. Apart from saturday morning . Mikko and Jari-Matti thought the Citro?n has the advantage of better differentials which would explain some of the speed difference.

You mentioned Mikkelsen as impressive, which he was, and I'll throw Urmo Aava in with the same title. He was heading towards a really respectable fifth place after tough battle with Petter before damaging his suspension just few stages from the finish line. He has had some really good outings in the recent rallies.

Corsica is up this weekend, I'm looking forward to it. Both Mikko and Jari-Matti progressed with their setups this weekend and it will be interesting to see whether Mikko can challenge Sordo for second place and if Jari-Matti can produce a better result. I'm not expecting a battle for the win unless Loeb hits major trouble, actually he might well repeat his unique dominance from few years ago and win every single stage.
 
A predictable outcome .

Not many surprises.

I was glad to see Solberg having a solid run.
 
disgrace

disgrace

am i the only one that hopes that Seb crashes out in every rally he runs? :)

i dont particularly like loeb's domination of the scene but ur statement is ridiculous


also not many people know this but citroen are the only fully backed factory team in the championship the rest are just clingers on fact!
 
granted, it was a bit ridiculous... hence the :)

i guess when one person dominates a series, it can become repetitive... you just want someone else to win for a change!
 
granted, it was a bit ridiculous... hence the :)

i guess when one person dominates a series, it can become repetitive... you just want someone else to win for a change!

Repetitive sure, but like the Schumacher era in F1, we're lucky to witness a driver of the caliber of Loeb. Enjoy it while we can I say.
 
Repetitive sure, but like the Schumacher era in F1, we're lucky to witness a driver of the caliber of Loeb.

Agreed.

It was cool to see him start competing as a rookie and quickly begin to dominate the sport. I actually enjoy watching him win.


I'm not impressed with the team orders Ford keeps using to manipulate their position. This weekend was pretty silly, but I suppose as long as it's legal...
 
Loeb is an awesome driver, in an awesome car, in an awesome team - and they are all French! So it must be true if I say it.

Yes, just look and wonder at that blokes skill level. ....
 
I don't know if any non-finns get anything out of this vid but I'll post it anyway since it's one of the funniest rallying videos I've ever seen.

Brice Tirabassi made is WRC debut last weekend in a Subaru Impreza WRC08, and his pace was cautious as expected. On 11th stage he passed Toni Gardemeister who had stopped due to technical problem. Toni got going again shortly after Tirabassi went past him, and started a hot pursuit in his Suzuki which was fitted with an in-car camera. And here's some footage:

[YOUTUBE]jTrJUhNCiFk[/YOUTUBE]

Some selected phrases from Toni and codriver Tomi Tuominen. freely translated
0:15 - Tomi: Right, let's see how this Tirabassi bloke goes...
0:36 - Tomi: Bloody hell he braked early for that corner
0:53 - Toni: The recording from this is going to be great! (followed by laughter)
1:08 - Toni: Going quite slow, isn't he? Tomi: Yeah, slow as hell!
1:27 - Toni: That thing turns much better, doesn't it?
1:40 - Toni: How is he going this slow?!
1:47 - Tomi: How about pass him on the inside or tackle him a bit? (followed by a big moment in an intersection and even more laughter)

Ahh, this kind of stuff is why I love the rallying world
 
I just found this:
0508.jpg

:lol::-|:cry:
 
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