Finished up Baumholder. I’m feeling lonely out here, was it something I said? 
A couple of departures from the track cost me a 24 and 36 second penalty on a couple of stages, but aside from that I managed to avoid the huge keystones littered about the track.
Looking forward to seeing the times come in.
Stage 3 and Stage 7 by chance? I was feeling good and stayed real clean up until stage 9 where I pinged one side of stones and shimmed into the other side. Cut 2 tires and had run Stage 10 a tire down 
was pretty clean up till that point.
A breakthrough will have to come another week.
I also managed to actually hit a deer on the straight by the big jump, but it doesn’t show at all in the replay. No collision on the deer, just went right through the bumper, hood straight into my front seat.
Awesome! Thanks for all the great tips folks :). I’ll definitely dive into it later tonight. It will serve as an excellent game to play on the couch while not flying :P.
Just put up times for the first 6 stages. 
First of all I have to say a thank you for being the trailblazer on this one and giving me something, anything to aim for. It’s not easy driving the stages with no feedback as to how fast or slow you are, so I salute you for your sacrifice!
What I discovered is that we are extremely closely matched. For the first stint (stages 1 and 2) I took the medium tires since there was a long stage coupled with a short stage. Started out at what I thought was a reasonable clip, only to find out I was 1.5 seconds down at the first split. 
Started pushing a little harder and went off at the right turn that goes over a crest and falls away really quickly. Ended up in some stone bollards and got a +4 second penalty. You must have done the same though, as I didn’t loose any time for the off track excursion. Ended that stage almost 6 seconds down on your time, even after pushing quite hard.
For the second stage I really started paying attention to the boost gauge, as I figured that’s where some of the time deficit was. Out of the really tight hairpins sometimes I’d catch the little engine off boost, and it would take what seemed like ages to spool up again. I started taking really wide lines in the hairpins to try and keep the speed and revs up, which seemed to work as I clawed back a second on stage 2.
Switched to soft tires on stage 3 (which I’ll be running for the rest of the rally, as there are no other long/short stages duos), and that must have been the first of you large penalties, as I got some good time up on you there. Stage 4 went pretty well until right at the end. During the descent down the side of the hill I ran a little wide and went straight into a stone bollard, thankfully at low speed. Then, probably 500 feet from the finish I did the same thing, but really managed to wedge it in between the bollards and the trees. Took me a long time to extract the car, and ended up 16 seconds down again.
Stages 5 and 6 were pretty much error free. We seem to be extremely closely matched. If we’re both running cleanly, I can generally gain around a second on you per split, but any mistake will easily wipe that out. I think the car differences are pretty negligible, as the Lancia has the advantage of earlier throttle response out of the tight corners, but the Pug has a few more horsepower to pull back that time down the straights. So it’s shaping up to be an extremely interesting and close rally. Really looking forward to running the rest of it tomorrow. 
That’s the last time I send @Mudcat a video first if he’s going to be a old man with technology who copies and pastes the message here and not just opens the link. 
So here it is, still haven’t spotted the deer that was there.
I plead the 5th…of burbon.
I finally made it to the end of a rally. While no major crashes I did spin out quite a few times. Who turned the grass in Germany into glass? Kept dipping a tire off and instant spin. I almost made it through without having to change a tire, but instead blew it on the last stage. At least I was under an hour for once
Well, I figured since I won the last one, it was only fair.
Interested to see how you fair, this is close, but I had a whopping 34 secs penalty for a relatively small incursion to the woods on SS7. I did drive the rest relatively cleanly, so you can’t drop your guard. 
2 days left
Will try to drive it tonight.
woo, we had a distinct lack of ze Germans in Germany up till this point
Well I drove a German car and wore Lederhosen.
My pit crew celebrating that I didn’t bend the car too badly this week on a Panzer stone.
Finished.
Grrrr…
Made some dumb errors there that cost me at least two minutes. Completely avoidable. Like clipping a red fence which apparently gives 15 seconds penalty and clipping a rock elsewhere that cost another 20s.
Also: why don’t they fix those damn two spots? One doesnt have a callout at all (a square left don’t cut) and one spot (6 left into 1 right … … don’t cut) has that “don’t cut” WAY too late.
Otherwise… more of the same I guess. Once I got used to how the car handles in that rally the rally was over. I still cannot drift in that class.
@521 that was close! You were just a few seconds faster or slower than me in most stages, it added up to around a minute a few stages before the end. But the last two were good stages for me (good meaning: only around 40 seconds slower than @Roo…)
Good race! I always dislike it if I am way faster (rare) or way slower (often) than the drivers around me.
I was in last place, think you clipped @Magnesium_Overcast . We got some wires crossed and cause confusion from long ago teaming up for games and tagging alike. The issue that is the only way to really detangle things is to delete the codemasters accounts. Those names can’t be changed without doing so and Dirt Rallys insistence of being inconsistent with using a steam/ps name and their account name. I’m sure we can help fix it to make that less confusing.
Nice racing @Aginor bested me again.
Will be doing the same once the scheduled races are up. Logistics no one thinks about when creating accounts.
Yeah, the first one I know to be cautious of now. I keep forgetting about the second one until I’m right on top of it. Thankfully didn’t wrap the car around it though.
Finished up the rest of the stages yesterday and had a really great time. Stage 8 or 9 I had a moment at the beginning. Just after emerging from the hill climb through the woods, I let the tail get just a tiny bit wide. Didn’t see anything around so I figured it was fine, but must have tapped something as next thing I know I’m spun around 180° reversing through a hedge at 50 mph. Little damage done though, so all good.
Stages 11 and 12 were absolutely awesome. Had gotten really comfortable with the car and location by then and everything just flowed beautifully. I slipped into an semi-zen state where everything just worked without me having to think about it. I get that every now and then when everything clicks, and it’s just awesome. Don’t think I put a foot, or tire, wrong on those last two stages.
Was interested to see how the Audis fared here. I thought their monster engine would propel them up the order, but looks like their unfortunate heft dulled their pace a little.
Overall, I think Germany is a very close second in my favorite Group B venue now (Scotland is just narrowly ahead). In the lower powered cars, Germany can be a bit boring with the multitude of square corners and long straights, but the Group Bs just eat them up and it was awesome fun. Really nice change from the tight and tortuous Argentina and frustrating Australia. Roll on Poland! 
I need someone who talks a bit faster than Phil, I was really far away from the chicanes when he started the call and right on top of it by the time he finally spit out the entry side. (it was the first chicane in one particular direction)
I am slightly proud of myself for not cutting the 6L 1R DC only because literally every other time I’ve ever gone through that section I cut to the right of the stone and get reset on the track with a penalty.
They did something with that specific turn from DR1, I think the stone was there, but you could cut on the other side to no penalty, or there was no stone… I dunno, always been a problematic corner for me at least.
There’s also a 3R that you can make a big cut safely over, but they don’t make that call this time around either so I keep forgetting it coming in. (it’s like Finland Sweden where in DR1 there is a Square Right after house, but in DR2 they don’t mention the house at all)
Nice one and well done. Looks like another rally win. Even without my mishaps, you’re times for the last 4 SS were enough.
I know what you mean with the zoning out, not having to think to much and catching the slide perfectly without having to worry about it breaking away.
From this point, forever known as slow talking Phil. I usually don’t find him too bad, but some of the pauses in the worst places…
“6 right, over crest… (make a cup of tea), 1 left” <anchors out, parachute, flintstones feet>
I finished my first rally for several weeks and it wasn’t pretty. I say finished because after crossing the line in stage 11 I was told I wasn’t connected to Steam so apparently my time wasn’t recorded, same with stage 12.
No big deal. Was good to be back though. 
