Should have left it, there aren’t a whole lot of places to go over 2/3rd throttle there anyway 
I felt the same way, but realized it was just me being a dumb dumb and not keeping the turbo spooled up, it really dies in the Skoda around the hairpins, would be stopped and looking if I was still holding the ebrake, nope, lots of turbo lag cause downshifting to 1 scares me normally.
1 Like
Only for Monte Carlo from Stage 2 until the one before my demise.
It was awful, each hairpin I was pulling away like I was in a Nissan Micra. 
Finally getting the beast unleashed, I had to chase you down @aginor and should have been more patient.
Have I said how much fun I’m having and not a thought about lockdown.
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Got too cocky for the last stage and lost 30 seconds. 24 of which were penalties for
- grinding along a crash barrier in a totally safe way, but there were spectators behind it.
- cutting two hairpins, not hitting a spectator, only the yellow tape.
Anyway, I made it!
And until guys like @roo, @elby, or @chipwich come around I’ll just act like I was very fast. 
Video of stage 10 soon, containing one of my closest calls.
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Here is the video.
Btw., did y’all notice that the co-driver didn’t say “don’t cut”? Not even once?
I guess a minimum of common sense by the driver is expected after all.
Or the pre-stage briefing is like “Remember, don’t cut. No, in none of the turns here. Seriously. DON’T. CUT!”
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Here’s some guy called Walter driving up the Col de Turini, slowly, in some old car or whatever.
You will recognize some of those turns, the game designers did a great job there.
(and Walter Röhrl is a cool dude and a rally legend)
EDIT:
And here is an onboard track of Petter Solberg (you might have heard of him) doing it, too.
Edit2:
And now I see what I have been doing wrong. Way too few turns driving completely sideways!
That way you can do it, like, 40 seconds faster it seems. 
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Sweden Easter Snow Bowl has concluded.
12 racers entered
10 1/2 finished in some variety.
only 2 cars crashed out, progress!
Congrats to @Roo on the win, @keets had an unfortunate disconnect on the final stage, with an End Time that would have put him in 2nd. And we’ll round out the top 3 with good Runs from @chipwich and @weaponz248
I tried taking a very laissez-faire attitude at the team thing and anyway you slice it, it was just Roo and 5 VW’s. I had all sorts of ideas on dropping the worst times for both teams, averages, points, catagories, stages. You name it VW won everything but the very top spot.
So here’s what I’d like to do. Since Roo was first overall he can pick either the Lancer or WRX STI for the next team challenge as a captain.
Since there was a bit of a racenet issue yet again, I’ll let keets/chipwhich pick the rally location and whoever didn’t pick can be the captain of the other team, I’ll let yall decide on that.
I figure we probably need some set teams, so this seems the easiest way. plus bonus for wins and team win.
(we could just pick 2 specific cars for any old class I suppose if that works better)
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Actual photo from the rally.
After a few runs through my favorite test stage in Greece, I’ve decided to switch from my Argentinian ride and go with the Lancer. Just felt a bit better once I got to know it. It’s a handful, but what good is a rally car that doesn’t secretly want to kill you.
So final decision: Lancer. (Unless you guys want to pick a different group, which I’m perfectly happy to do.)
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I had a racenet racing incident, so it’s only right that @chipwich is the captain, having finished 2nd. 
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Oh dear. @roo is making us look bad. Again.
Aginor vs. Roo in various Monte Carlo stages:
#1: Roo 10 seconds faster
#2: Roo 20 seconds faster
#3: Roo 14 seconds faster
#4: Roo 20 seconds faster
#5: Roo 63 seconds faster
#6: Roo 36 seconds faster
…wow. half the rally and he is leading by over two minutes already.
Unless he crashes out this will be embarrassing for me. Again.
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says the guy 5 minutes ahead of me
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I already wondered about that actually.
What happened with you there? In most rallies you were faster than me IIRC, except in the ones where you crashed.
Too cautious, or unlucky? Or is Monte Carlo just not a environment you enjoy?
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I was unaware of the e-brake’s magical ice ignoring properties and when I did figure that out near the end I only used it sparingly.
I was using throttle only to steer the completely ice covered stages.
The Skoda is also exceptionally bad at the exact kind of hairpins that are all over the stages.
I didn’t actually damage the car much, had a few random spin outs. I dunno, I wasn’t thrilled with how the ice is compared to other surfaces. I was cautious by mostly because it felt too unpredictable to me.
Tldr : I was being a bit stubborn
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After a long weekend off driving I’ve bashed out a couple of stages on the fun rally in Spain.
So far it’s been a lot better than Sweden mainly due to the fact I’ve lasted longer than 30 seconds
You certainly like to change the scenery don’t you Mudcat? I couldn’t think of 2 more contrasting courses, the only similarity is it feels like there’s a disaster waiting for me round every bend.
5 Likes
Argh. Let me tell you a fun story.
Until today I had not driven any car of that class, so I took them for a spin in training to see which one I like most. I started with the Impreza and I sucked driving it.
So I took the Lancer and immediately liked how it felt, so I drove a few stages in Spain for training (don’t judge me, y’all know I need it. )
It was awesome and the times were pretty good, by my standards. So I decided to take it for the rally.
…then I started the actual rally and wrecked the car in every stage. What the actual frickin’ heck…
Ended up having one halfway decent stage, #5 of which I am going to post a video soon.
Colossal disaster, that rally. No clue why. Probably felt too comfortable in the car, and then later too nervous or something.
At least I finished but that’s all.
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I took the Delta to the woodchipper early and often and didn’t even make it halfway through the first stage before an 82 mph collision with a rock wall ended my day for good
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By chance are you practicing with assists on? or different settings at least?
No, everything is on realistic (off) except automatic windshield wipers.
But now, after some cooling down I think it boils down to these factors:
- in my practice stages I always used soft tyres, here I had medium or rain tires most of the time
- in my practice stages I didn’t carry spares, in the actual rally I always carry two. That changes balance.
- bad luck and being over-enthusiastic because those practice stages felt so great.
Here is the video I promised.
Nothing special but I post at least one of each rally so here it is.
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Hey, don’t worry about it. I do the same usually, just a short one to get me used to the car and conditions.
Wonder if that was the same one that took me out in the R5. Quick right 5 over a crest, then a ramped start to a guardrail on the left into a big rock face on the right?
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Yes, but in reverse
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I’m planning on not carrying spares. Most of the time the penalty isn’t worth it and I’ve never had a retire or been forced to put a spare on that I can tell.
I finish the stage faster than the minute penalty for tire change. And you get a fresh tire next stage no?
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