Ok hands up those who go in the tuning up section before they race. All I ever do is change tyres and repairs. I never adjust things because basically I have no idea about all that stuff.
Also how do you pick your cars, I like to pick one that is least favourite if I can because I’m a bit silly like that, interested to see how others approach it.
On picking cars, being German I’m biased towards Opel 
Audi and then BMW are my next choices. But then, for the Rally GT I use the Aston Martin instead of the Porsche. Maybe my logic for car selection is not so strong 
I change tyres and I repair. I leave everything else as it is.
Hmmm… I do it roughly by this priority list:
A car with the steering wheel on the left (my angles are off in the others so I crash more often)
A car that is kinda iconic (Opel Manta, Opel Kadett, Golf GTI, Audi Quattro, Subaru Impreza or the Citroen DS for example)
A car available in red (I like red cars)
I attempt to tune, although I could possibly be making my cars worse 
I pretty much rule out picking the car I’m fairly certain a majority will take. That’s about the only thought I put into my selections, trying to diversify the field a bit.
Cheers guys, had my little sulk and feel much better now. . Will see how much time I can claw back and chalk it up to what could have been. Guess I’m up for a good finish in Finish rally, just hope I finish the first Finish stage before the Finish stage finishes my car. 
As for turning, I just change tires and repair. Similar to you guys, I don’t want to mess up something up I don’t understand. The one exception I might make is for final drive great ratios. In Dirt Rally (1) sometimes first gear was useless (too short at the start, need second immediately, and too short for hairpins), though I haven’t seen that in Dirt Rally 2.0 yet. The other reason is topping out in top gear. Normally I’d just keep my foot flat against the limiter, but in the Porsche at Germany I did that for ~15 seconds and heard a horrible grinding nose afterwards. Went away after a few minutes and engine was fine at the next repair, but now I’ll back off to not abuse the limiter.
For cars, I’ll usually take each option for a quick recce run. I’ll typically pick the shortest stage, but even then I usually only get to the first split, about the same distance as the shakedowns come to think of it. Then I’ll go for the car that best suits my style, rotating nicely but not trying to spin at every control input. That’s usually my choice, unless something else is significantly faster, then I’ll go with that, unless that one really wants to kill me (Stratos anyone?).
Only 3 1/2 hours left to finish up Baumholder. If you’ve been waiting now is the time.
A first step into a larger world. I have just joined my first multiplayer club. This one. And I am dantdbv
Now we will see when I am actually going to attempt a Rally here. Baumholder is out of the question as Flu induced shoulder and neck pain is holding me on the edge of a migraine. I am tempted, but I just know that I very much will pay for it after.
already got ya all set, hope you feel better so and join in the fun.
Picking cars, I tend to pick a car that I would like to drive. e.g. I took the Lancer Evo X and the Aston as I’ve love to have a go in one.
I’m currently driving the Mitsubishi in the R5 Alt rally, purely because I didn’t know what to pick and thought it looked fun, but it looks like they all are.
Tuning, I tend to leave it pretty much alone, maybe shift the gearing if it looks like there’s a longish straight. For the last asphalt at Baumholder I lowered the cars ride height.
Most of the time I don’t think it makes too much difference, a lot will depend on driving style and its no substitute or magic bullet vs positioning the car correctly on the road or into a corner. Obviously YMMV.
I’ve just done 6 stages of Spain straight and found it stressful but very enjoyable at the same time. I didn’t trust myself on those faster sections as I didn’t want to suffer the same fate as you.
The bit that goes… “Cut left 4, 3 right, cut left 5, 3 right, cut left 3, 3 right, cut left 4, 2 right tightens” etc, where you are repeatedly cutting the corner which doesn’t look like it can be cut so you can set up for the next right hander had me a jibbering wreck… I was expecting a super tight 1 or hairpin so was ready to bury the brakes. 
Weekend Rally #3 results : Baumholder edition.
11 racers entered
10 racers finished
8 finished with a car that still runs.
@Roo takes the win with Elby 2nd. @keets takes 3rd when i factor in the racenet goof although we should award @Camembert a duplicate 3rd place award because if the Mrs. wasn’t impressed by a 3rd place finish before, I’d hate to have to tell her that it was actually 4th 
Lots of close times and I quite enjoyed the cars on that course.
Monaro in the old stuff will be up in rolling in about half an hour and remember to have fun. When people stop having fun with things they disappear and it is a lot more fun to race with more folks then less, so it can turn into a vicious cycle.
Oh no I’m happy with 4th position, Keets beat me fair and square. I’ll try even harder in Australia and if the cars are as slow as I think in the next one I can always get out and run.
Will definitely be running this one. Just ran into an equation with time off that didn’t work out this week for the other rally. I was enjoying reading the reports though!
Just finished Spain.
Whew. I had some great moments but sadly also lost three minutes with damaged tyres.
@Mudcat same for you, eh? You were surprisingly slow so I guess that was because of damage?
yep
I didn’t actually mess up the car other than the time I ran into a post after the finish line
Whoops, reading fail.
Yeah 3 tyres sucks. I was lucky and only had to drive half a stage on 3.
8 and 9 where the ones, although the wet road might have evened out times for me a little.
No no, old chap. I said I’d take my medicine. You have a deserved 3rd.
I just finished up Spain, well as much as I could. I was running well on I think stage 8 and then hit a bit of rock and punctured the front left. Turning to the co-driver I kicked him out and asked him to grab the spare whilst I jacked the car up.
I thought he looked a bit sheepish when we hit the rock, when he returned without the tyre I asked where it was. Something to do with cutbacks, seeing as I wrecked the Aston in the last rally. Kicking him back into the car was enjoyable.
I drove to the end of the stage and to my horror, as there was no pit, started with the puncture. I drove the stage with a flat left tyre and I think this must have been the stage that you had damaged yours @Aginor, as I somehow took 5 seconds back.
It couldn’t continue and midway through stage 11, I retired.
Congrats to you both on finishing. Great fun.
From the rally announcement:
What is this mysterious thing of which you speak? It is unknown in our land. 
Did a couple of runs yesterday to figure out my chosen ride for the fun rally (still on the Alt rally at the moment though). All of them feel like your granny’s electric scooter going uphill. The DS looks and feels like a boat. The Lancia is mostly OK. And the Mini…
Going downhill in the Mini, when you can actually pick up some speed, feels like a pinball in a washing machine. Those tiny little tires do not play well with the rutted Aussie dirt roads. The DS just glides over them, but the Mini feels like an 80 mph earthquake.
I think I’m going with the Mini. I must have a death wish. 
