DiRT Rally 2.0 League - Discussion

Racing Simulations
1208

Thanks for the heads up Chipwich. That’s the bane of AC, for every 1 great mod, there are 10 mediocre and 3 truly awful mods. Such is life!

After finishing up New Zealand with the Lancia 037 last night, I’ll walk back my statement slightly that it handles almost identically to the Pug. The RWD characteristics definitely come out as you drive it more, and more counter-steer is definitely needed. Apart from that, after the 480 fire-breathing horses in the Pug, the 330 hp in the Lancia felt, dare I say it, almost pedestrian. Sure it can still bite your head off in the fast stuff if you let it get away from you, but it almost felt slow after the hyperdrive of the Pug. Definitely not expected! The BMW may have been more up to my terrifying expectations with another 100 hp on top, but it looks as wide as a brick, er, outhouse, so I think I’ll stick with the 037.

Overall it was interesting to see the time difference between the Lancia and the Pug. Even with the power deficit, it was only a 5 minute difference over a 1+ hour rally. I think that was helped by the Lancia having better pull out of the hairpins. Wouldn’t have gotten me on the podium, but still an interesting comparison and great fun to drive.

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1209

Definitely a great fun car.

As this wasn’t my scoring rally, after couple of incidents putting me a minute down on the “front 6” stages, I started taking liberties and see what I could get away with.

It’s surprising how far past sideways you could get the car and still get it back pointing the right way.

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1210

I’ll have the recap, standings update and weekend rally set up later on today or Soon™ there after.

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1211

So… @Camembert beat me by two seconds. You remain my Rally Nemesis. Always a tad faster in the end.

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1212

Yes I’m sorry about that but I have to admit you were my inspiration to keep fighting to the end.
I think on Stage 8 or 9 I had a nightmare and limped over the line with more damage than all my other rallys put together. I had given up until I checked the times for the completed stages and noticed you had a bad time on Stage 10? So I drove like a lunatic and got you to within 10 seconds with 2 stages to go. I drove two really good stages to finish but only just edged you out and what could have been a boring end to New Zealand turned into a real nail biter for me.

All good stuff

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1213

That’s the fun!
I know that if I drive well I can beat you. That damn puncture in stage 10 made it impossible this time, but I will return! :slight_smile:

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1214

The weekend fun 4th of July rally is up, New England R4/NR4. There’s Service stations after every stage, so have fun! Runs till Tuesday!

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1215

I’ve also kept up with an additional car class for the event Up to 2000cc, although it is not a mirror copy of the event. DiRT Rally 2.0 (please look at the club details for access there if you need it)

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1216

Nice! :star_struck: I know we’ve already run that class/location combo before, but it was probably the most enjoyable one we’ve ever done, so looking forward to running it again.

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1217

If we still need to, I’ll designate my 2000cc run as my “official” run.

I did run the NR4s first, as I wanted to keep the fun 2000cc to last (I decided on which was my official run before I turned a wheel). The NR4s are definitely different to the Group Bs. Initially they felt horrendously slow accelerating from a standstill, but that feeling has started to pass. You can really chuck the tail out compared to the Group Bs and still haul it back, which is really fun. Hairpins are a bit tricky, as I have to do a full Scandinavian flick plus handbrake to get them around, but timing it so you hit the apex is also difficult. I did manage one time where I went around one of the bales less than a foot away from it, which felt awesome. Another time I over-rotated and accelerated into the tree at the apex, so still room for improvement. :grin:

First three stages went OK. Stage 1 there was a blind 3 left that was much tighter than I was anticipating, shot off the road, whacked the rear on a big group of rocks just off the track, and went spearing in to the undergrowth. Got it stopped and was turning around, but went too far the wrong way and got a 40 second penalty. Looks like @keets must have done the same, as we had very similar times for that stage.

Ran the last 9 stages for the NR4s last evening and had a great time. Stage 4 @keets and I were quite close. I was up by 0.2 seconds at the first split, but down by 0.2 seconds at the second split. Gained some time after that, but still only a 3s difference at the end. Rest of the stages I was the trailblazer again, except for @TeTeT, who had sadly retired earlier on.

All of the remaining stages felt really good, right up until the end. Stage 12 had the same corner than caught me out on Stage 1, and while I did drift wide on the same corner, I managed to navigate around the rocks and back to the track with no extra penalty. Looks like @keets wasn’t so lucky and bought the farm in the final stage. Tough luck, as you were looking good up to that point.

Looking back at when we ran the 2000cc class last time in New England, my NR4 run was almost 50 seconds quicker. I think that’s down to a few facts: I didn’t have any punctures in the NR4s, the rest stops at each stage meant I could run soft tires all the way through, and we’ve improved as drivers and learned a bit of the course since we were last there. Overall I expect my new 2000cc run to be faster again, but it’s nice to see our progression.

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1218

no you don’t, it’s not anything official

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1219

Asscheeks…

That’s all I have to say. I was close on each stage, but dropping 2S. Pushing the boundaries I managed to claw seconds back, but still way behind.

Still not accepting defeat, into the last stage, too much of a clip and hit the rock we shall not speak of. Terminal damage, thanks and good night sir.

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1220

Ok, expanding on the above…

Stage 1 I was quick out of the blocks, but clipped the inside of the first hairpin. The Evo didn’t like this and I toppled onto the passenger side and stayed there. 20 seconds down inside the first 1/4 mile… you just have had a similar issue late on the stage as I clawed back some deficit.

It was close on most of the stages, I did manage to beat your times on a couple, but most of them I was 2 seconds slower per split. Stage 9 or 10 I managed to get 5 or 6 seconds back, but missed the 2 right and went into the crowd, for a 31 second penalty. Ouch.

I should have consolidated and accepted I wasn’t going to get the time back on the last stage, but where’s the fun in that.

Progressing nicely, clipping corners where I could, I ran wide on a steady corner and over cut the next and took a face full of granite. I think it was the one which we’ve all hit before, but at 98mph, game over.

Onto the R5’s… these felt a lot lighter and less like hard work, I’m getting better in these, but still tend to overcook it. Second stage I ran wide and hit the back end on a tree bursting a tyre. The AWD’s don’t like to be unstable, so hung on and limped home. I’ll try and finish this up before the end to see how it goes.

I do like New England and the dark stages spiced things up a bit.

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1221

Oof, quite a punch in the gut to crash out in the last stage. It sounds like you were falling into the same trap I was, where you make one mistake, then try and go faster to compensate, make more mistakes, etc. What I’ve started doing the last couple of rallies is mostly ignoring the time splits and errors and just going at my fastest comfortable pace. Obviously I’m aware of my errors and the time splits, I just don’t change my pace as much because of them. Worth a try.

I ran through the first 6 stages with the 2000cc last night, and had an absolute blast. I love the Group B Pug to bits, but these 2000cc are something else. The Group Bs are more terrifying, and give you a great thrill, but usually it’s a relief at the end of a stage. With the 2000cc, I had a huge grin on my face at the end of almost every stage. They’re just so chuckable, and you really have to grab them by the scruff of the neck and throw them around to get the best out of them. Even tossing them in at unbelievable angles, they’ll claw their way back and scrabble out the other side. I was absolutely flying last night, and loving every minute. Awesome fun, and can’t wait to run the full season with them.

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1222

Just finished up the last 6 stages for the 2000cc rally. I’d set myself a personal goal of trying to run the entire 12 stage rally in less than 50 minutes. Looking at the NR4 times I figured it would be a challenge, but just about doable. I was running some calculations after the first 6 stages and it looked like it was a bridge too far. Afterwards I realized that the first 6 stages were all “short” stages, and that the two “short” stages together are actually slightly longer than the equivalent “long” stage because of some overlap, but even then I thought I would be lucky to get sub-51 minutes.

Got through 8 stages (all of the “short” ones) and it looked like I wasn’t going to make it. That was the supposed half-way distance if you looked at stage lengths, but I was already at 25:35.698, over 30 seconds slower than I needed to be. I took another look after Stage 10, and the news was better, 37:41.193 against a theoretically needed 37:15. Given that, I needed to average around 6:10 for the last two stages.

Stage 11 comes around, and it’s raining. Looked like one of the longer “long” stages so I figured I might loose a bit of time, but the resulting 6:21.888 was disheartening. Sitting at a total time of 44:03.081, I would need a sub-5:57 run.

Roll on Stage 12 and it’s nighttime. I made a couple of minor mistakes early on, had a fairly clean middle, and another couple of minor errors around 2/3 distance. Looking up at the timing, I had almost a minute left for the final two splits, so I was definitely in the running.

Crossed the line with my eyes glued to the clock, which just stopped at 5:53.930, for a total time of 49:57.011. :champagne: :fireworks: :parrot: :sparkler: I don’t think I’ve grinned so wide after finishing a rally. :grin:

I had an absolutely awesome time running this rally. The only sad part I see is that I was the only finisher on the road in both the NR4s and 2000ccs. Hopefully everyone else had some fun too.

And once again, a huge thanks to @Mudcat for setting this up and running the rallies. I look forward to them every week. :clap:

6 Likes