Distance of competitive stages

[ShiftingGears]

Why is it so short? I'm looking at Rallybase, telling me that the rally with the shortest amount of competitive stages in 1984 was the 1000 Lakes, with 457 km!

So why is the current maximum around 100km shorter, with presumably more stage reruns?

[bowler]

The limits are set by the FIA, after consultation with the manufacturers.

The current limit is 3 days and 350km.

[janvanvurpa]

Why is it so short? I'm looking at Rallybase, telling me that the rally with the shortest amount of competitive stages in 1984 was the 1000 Lakes, with 457 km!

So why is the current maximum around 100km shorter, with presumably more stage reruns?

Whatever the "Oafish-al" party line, some slightly cynical people might say the since the main purpose is to be a on TV spectacle, mere 350 km and stacks of repeat stage is good enough to make a TV show, and the driving force behind the TV-ization of WRC is who?.......

[bowler]

i wouldn't argue with you

[janvanvurpa]

i wouldn't argue with you

I did say a cynical person might say.
I do recall way back in the last century BR (Before Richards) that one "reason" pulled out of the hat was EU regulations governing Commercial Drivers which they chose to read as applicable to WRC drivers because some are paid, and these rules, written for HGV (poid lourdes) driver stated max permissable time behind the wheel as 8 hours per day. It was deemed that that rule could not be violated or OR!! OOOORR!??
Who knows?
A cynical person might suggest that the entire event runs under short term dispensations from the normal traffic laws and codes from the cars motors, emissions, tires, and obviously the SPEEDS we drive on erstwhile public roads.

Surely I couldn't comment...

[bowler]

hadn't heard that one.

Those rules tend to apply to commercial vehicles being operated for hire and reward.

The only cargo recently carried, to my knowledge, was some stones carried by Ford a year or two ago, and they paid for that!!

[jonkka]

So why is the current maximum around 100km shorter, with presumably more stage reruns?

For the sake of some brain exercise, can you come up with any reasons why?

[AndyRAC]

They were just using the EU rules to cut the amount of mileage, and of course the manufacturers were only too happy to agree. While of course we need the manufacturers, they have far too much say in the running of the sport. What if they decided that 100 miles was the max using only 2 stages??
Get it back to 350-400 miles over 3.5 days.

[cosmicpanda]

Rally NZ turned me off long stages from a spectator's point of view, though I'm sure from a driver's point of view they're good. At Rally NZ I got to see the WRC cars more on leg three (which was shorter in terms of stage length than leg two), purely because leg three was more compact and had more stages than leg two.

[Erki]

Rally NZ turned me off long stages from a spectator's point of view, though I'm sure from a driver's point of view they're good. At Rally NZ I got to see the WRC cars more on leg three (which was shorter in terms of stage length than leg two), purely because leg three was more compact and had more stages than leg two.

It seems that in NZRC, they normally have quite long stages, and long stage mileage - around 200+km if I recall correctly. Long stages too - I think at a recent rally(not the WRC rally), one was more than 40kms long.

One thing is also that if there was 20 separate 20+km long stages, could they also need three days for recce then?