In Finland my rule is:
“If any two of the following list are mentioned together then at least tap the brakes”:
- Crest
- tightens
- a number smaller than 4
- alert
- slow
- narrow
Otherwise there is a significant chance to go flying.
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I’ve just had a couple of horrendous rally’s.
Finland, I started ok, though driving like I had dynamite in the car. The second stage I picked up the pace a bit, then during the 3rd stage it started to go wrong.
I missed a turn, then got some good pace going between jumps and rolled the car. Hit a tree. Used my spare, burst another tyre, then had to start the next stage like that. Steam coming out of the engine.
“The engine seems to be losing power”… Really!!! Have you seen my door is missing? I think I finished the stage being able to max 25 MPH. LOL
I managed to limp into the pits and fix a bit of the car and was picking up the pace again. Final stage I’d got into the flow, really enjoying myself on the long long stage. An double jump put pay to that as I slammed into the side of a house, level with the bedroom window.
Terminal Damage “Wheel failure”!!! What about heart failure, two broken arms, engine somewhere near the North Pole and I last saw the body work on stage 1.
On to Hawkes Bay. Those damn R5’s. I think its the AWD i don’t like. I prefer a car to oversteer so i can control the cornering. I can’t get the drift going well at all.
I’m not sure if anyone else has this, but it seems like the tyres are made of paper on this stage. I punctured tyres on every stage, three times by clipping what looked like plastic fence. What did for me was the double rear puncture at the same time. It doesn’t drive well in FWD. 
I think I’m still running so will carry on, but I have to go back to Rally school and try to master those R5’s.
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My recipe for tight turns in the R5 cars is this:
2nd or 3rd gear, start to steer, hit the handbrake to initiate the drift, and then use the throttle to control how strong the drift is, similar to how a RWD works except you have a bit more control with the wheel instead of the throttle.
It is worth it IMO, the R5 cars can be a lot of fun.
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I think the R5s are actually my favorite right now. Perhaps it’s just due to familiarity from all of the Alt rallies. I will say that New Zealand is probably one of the most challenging ones for R5s, so don’t write them off because of this location.
The R5s do take quite a different driving style. You need to be quite determined to get them sliding, but once you do they’re great fun to balance. For the higher speed stuff you need to be quite aggressive with the weight transfer, either by significant trail breaking or a relatively sharp and sudden twitch of the wheel. Slow speed stuff you lean on the handbrake quite a bit, especially if you haven’t set up the weight transfer and/or trail breaking enough.
Once into the slide, instead of steering with the throttle, I mainly use the wheel. Basically pin the throttle, then use the wheel as needed to tighten or open the turn (you do still need to modulate the throttle, just not as much as other cars). Mostly you have to keep the wheel turned into the slide or you’ll just back out of it with the driven front wheels.
The other thing to keep in mind is that I’ve found the cars are happiest when you’re pointing 30-45° into the corner. They really like getting the nose in and pulling the car around with power. If you keep the nose pointed along your velocity vector, they can feel quite sluggish.
So rule #1, be aggressive. Get 'em sliding then power through it!
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Jamsa Finland reminds me of a high flying big jump convex bowling alley complete with gutters on each side that’s trying to kill you. 
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Here is my stage #1 video from NZ.
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And here is stage #9, the car is still damaged a bit from a little accident I had in stage 7 or so.
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Finished Finland.
Not ideal but since some of you crashed out I might get a good result.
Videos soon.
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I love the R5 cars, but due to RL obligations, won’t have time to drive New Zealand. Hope to get in the QL rally tomorrow, but no promises. Cheers.
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I was fighting with racenet all through NZ. I wasn’t really doing all that great when it was working either, I took my AUS tuning to start, but that was a mistake. I would have finished but racenet failed after a repair but before any actual driving took place. Twice, that happened and finally my car just died.
I had a weird hiccup on stage 2 in Finland, but I wanted to keep going anyway. The pug has the absolute worst understeer which probably made me drive faster since dropping to low lower gear in the turns would instantly put me off. I had tire penalties and some repair ones too, but missing a stage made it not matter. Stage 6 was good I thought, went through 23 seconds faster than anyone till that point, but I gave it all back with extra repairs before the next stage.
Long stage, everyone in the family deciding they needed to be right where I was, heavy rain, bad understeer, all equals me saying the heck with it lol.
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Here are my videos of Finland, stage 4 and 11:
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Oh man, stage 1 was so bad for me.
First I accidentally disabled the wipers, then my children came in right where the dreaded logs are and I almost totalled the car. I was almost 20 seconds faster than everyone else in the beginning and ended up 40 seconds behind everyone in the end.
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That reminds me, the dreaded log pile everyone jumped into… hugged the right side over the jump and managed to only hit the telephone pole instead 
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So I went “big jump” flying into a telephone pole on the QL stage 10 - Naarajarvi today. Thank god this is just a game LOL! I wouldn’t be here to type this message otherwise. 
I have no idea what happened after that … it’s all a blur … I think I finished.
Sidenote … props to @Aginor and anyone else that survives stage 9 - Kakaristo. I think I might have PTSD after that one. 
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No no no, don’t worry about it. No need to run this stage. With Keets crashing out, if you don’t make it either (or crash in Stage 1 or 2), my crashing out so early might not completely tank my chances for the championship. 
(In all seriousness, I hope you do manage to get a crack at it.)
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I never heard of this until this thread.
Just started playing yesterday.
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We’re on to the next one already Chip.
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not in the QL
Big chuckle out of me Roo. My getting free for a rally is still very up in the air atm. Executive summary: my brother is moving this week and and was afraid to call a moving company. So brothers and nephews were recruited. And here I sit with sore back and another truckload to unload. Not complaining though, as I could do with the exercise during the pandemic.
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