And here are stages 9 and 11. Enjoy!
1 Like
Ah yes, Stage 11. So Sweet Lamb (Stage 9 I think, we’ll get to 11 in a sec) went really well. I found that if you rotate the Stratos just a little bit in the corners, so the steering is straight ahead and you’re steering the car on throttle, it’s actually quite nice and (almost) tame. Go past that point and it wants to keep on swinging around and you need a huge dose of opposite lock, but keep the slip angle low and it’s really nice. Drove the whole of Stage 9 like that and by the end of it I was even thinking “wow, this is actually quite good, maybe the Stratos’ fearsome reputation is unfounded” (yeah right…). Stage 10 was close to the same, but I did tap a few rocks. At this point I’m still thinking it’s a “nice” car…
Roll on Stage 11 and a torrential downpour. I set out with my newfound (and gravely misplaced) confidence…and end up pin-balling through the stage, smacking rocks and ditches with the back end like an overzealous musician who’s irritated with his bongo drums. Half a mile from the end of the stage, I ended up rolling the thing over and puncturing the right rear tire. 
My only saving grace was that it was on the flat area, not in the forest so no instant woody death.
So yeah, that’s what happened on Stage 11. 
On an unrelated note, I did a few of the daily challenges in the career mode. One of them was a run in the F2 cars in Scotland. Was intrigued enough to run it again in the R5 Fiesta. Scotland is actually a lot of fun. There’s some really awesome quick sections, much like Finland but without the jumps. And there are some nice hairpins too where you can have fun with the handbrake. Completely different (and much better!) place when Noah’s Ark isn’t floating by. 
4 Likes
To tie two stories together, one section has a 3 left don’t cut that is actually over a ledge. The don’t cut is because there is a big rock that you hit mid air if you try it in most cars. The other night I cleared it though in the Stratos felt good
the replay didn’t do the jump justice (also I totally pegged that log with my rear end after the cut)
1 Like
Here’s a little preview of what awaits us in Finland soon:
4 Likes
Finished up Germany in the R5s. Looks like another race of attrition, only 50% finishing rate at the moment. Wouldn’t have thought it was that bad heading in, but after threading the needle through plenty of bollards and rocks after misjudged, or missing, calls, I’m not so surprised now!
There’s one particular missing call that irks me. The co-drive just calls “over crest,” so we dutifully go trundling over at full throttle. He neglects to add “caution, immediate square left!” Caught me out both times. That said, from what I remember the calls for this course in DR1 were also quite off at times, so can’t complain too much.
I can complain, however, about getting a puncture from the hay bale chicanes. A puncture from a hay bale at low speed? Seriously?!?
3 Likes
you found the needle in the haystack!
3 Likes
Indeed! 
2 Likes
It caught me twice last time I drove a rally in Baumholder, and once this time. I was lucky to go straight between the bales and only receive a small penalty.
2 Likes
Alt Rally Germany
with the top 3
Special shoutout to @TeTeT for battling back and forth for the top spot up until what I suspect was an unfortunate accident. New Zealand is next up for the R5’s
4 Likes
Race 1 is a go! Dates for each race below. Enjoy it and just fyi, the more people who participate, the more points everyone gets towards the standings.
2 Likes
Finished NZ, paving the way for y’all!
Had a few decent stages, not many errors.
Sadly screwed up hard in stage 10 damaging my radiator, which made me drive stage 11 in grandma speed. Couldn’t repair everything properly so I had to drive stage 12 relatively slowly as well, despite taking 30 seconds penalty for taking too long with the repairs.
That was sad for me since I like that stage.
A few videos coming soon.
1 Like
Here is a little teaser, me making an error and still kinda making that turn.
4 Likes
Indeed! Made some errors early on so I was playing catch up for a while. Was good fun.
@chipwich had a really good Stage 11. I was driving basically flat out and there was only 3 seconds between us. Nice driving!
2 Likes
In Baumholder I was on wet tires and so I gained quite a bit on the wet stages, but lost second after second on the dry ones. In my final stage (6 or 7), I did something stupid and lost control over the car when on the grass, drifted over the road and crashed with high speed in a tree, terminal damage. Up until then the rally went very well for me, a few minor mistakes, but neither wheel fix penalties nor engine damaged after a crash.
3 Likes
Yeah the tyres thing was evil in Baumholder.
If you have to plan tyres for three stages and the first is rain while the others are dry…
If the ground is only wet I think medium tyres are just fine, but in heavy rain I take wet tyres. And then suck in the dry stages after that.
But I tried it the other way round and it sucked even more. Cost me a lot of time.
3 Likes
I made a similar mistake with my tyres in Finland last night. I didn’t read we only have repairs etc after every two stages so messed my tyres up and therefore was all over the place on the second stage and just drove to finish.
By the way, whoever moved that big pile of logs from Wales to the bend just after the jump nearly caught me out. If I had been driving normally (correctly) I would have gone head first into it at the manic speed I approached it but I was doing my usual spin, slide, curse and wobble manouvre well before I reached it and easily missed it.
I was the first to start apparently and was delighted to see my name at the top of the leaderboard for the first ever time 
but I fear another 12 stages of hanging on for grim death and limping over the line if I am lucky.
5 Likes
I took wets and they seemed to go pretty well in the dry. But I usually short-shift and try not to abuse them in the dry. I’ve yet to blow one. IMO, taking wets and using them in the dry will gain you more time than running softs in the wet. Well, I guess that it depends on the amount of standing water on the track. Different amounts are definitely modeled.
2 Likes
When I saw that the Wet tires were only 1 in durability I was worried about them lasting over 3 stages, but they seemed to have more grip in the dry on stage 3 then any other tire does
2 Likes
I just nailed a triple aileron roll off a rock in Pitkajarvi Finland. I wish I could tape this stuff. 
4 Likes
So I finished up Finland, or rather, it finished me. Got halfway through Stage 2 and, well, I’ll let Camembert describe it.
Um, yeah. I can neither CONFIRM nor deny that happened to me…
I was pushing a lot harder and taking a bunch more liberties than I was with the R5s. Took that jump without a second thought and went straight into the log pile. Thought I might get away with a smashed up radiator (which I could have repaired at the end of the stage), but got an impact speed of 58 mph and Terminal Damage. Sigh. 
Have fun guys, see you in New England in three days!
After that I went and did the daily AI challenge, which was R5s in Australia today. Beat them by an even 2:00 minutes, so that made me feel better.
3 Likes