http://classic.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/124619
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Reading this i just cant wait when Capito leaves....
Or we can just take the best two result of the three...
By the way, someone tell Jost Capito that he does not need to give an opinion on everything everytime.
Jesus Christ, when the hell does he will go away and never come back?
I've been saying this for ages. It seems so blindingly obvious to me. But I would not cap it at age, I'd cap it at WRC experience.
Because at say 28 you'd have a guy like Mikkelsen in the third car for 5+ years. We need to bring more drivers through quicker than that I think. Maybe Andreas is an exception because he came through so young. But for me it's not the age that's the issue (e.g. look at relative late bloomers like Meeke and Paddon). To put it into perspective, Camilli is already 28.
I'd mandate a third driver must have done no more than say 26 WRC car outings at WRC level before the start of the current season. That way you're effectively giving talent two years at the top level and then you either move them up or move on. It would stop people getting complacent and it would mean teams need to keep giving young drivers a chance. 26 is just a number I've picked - they would need to apply a bit more thinking to it. But you get the idea.
Even before I started driving rally 30 years ago I was dimly aware of it (cause all the magazines we're genral motorsport magazines so while i'm reading about moto-cross events that my freiends were doing in World Championship 250 in where ever the same issue would have rally coverage...and once you read the MX reports 3 or 4 times you'd drift over and read about these odd fellows who'd drive CARS down skinny forest roads......
And the most intriguing thing was the HUGE!!! variety of terrains and climates and FORMATS....The RAC, Swedish, 1000 Lakes. Safari! Monte was one kind of epic adventure (who has has driven all across Europe in Winter?)..
Now everybody says "there's no way you could do that now'..
Yeah. With so much better roads and petrol stations and better tires and better cars and better PR, there's no way we could do what they did in the 1960s and 70s and 80s
Yeah, right..
300 km SS a WORLD championship event?
Fawk me I've done 300 km in a rally myself. (CRC Rocky Mountain 1987) That's nothing.
I've done 300km in deep woods on a enduro bike in one day--bloody long day and at the end did another 16km on a mx "special test"...
300 km SS.. (shakes head)..
Sorry Jan, the reason why You can't do Monte across the whole Europe is that there is completely different level of traffic and You simply can't close the international public roads without creating a complete traffic collapse everywhere around. In those days they drove on opened roads which is complete nonsense for today as somebody would be killed probably already in first few hours of the event.
Also, where is any sporting value (today) of driving for example from Poland to Monte Carlo when You can theoretically do nearly the whole route on rpm limiter?
Another point... How can You realisitically cope with different law, different bunch of bureaucrats, different local authorities and different languages in every single state You would go through?
OK slow down and look at one element at a time..
The Concentration run yes was done on open roads.. and the route was "FREE" except you must pass thru and be stamped at certain Passage Controls....and if the Passage Control is situated in an how shall we say "interesting" location, that means when you start from Warsava or Smolensk you will have to eventually PASS down this or that road--you have to get there.
And depending on how the Passage Controls are situated, the route can be pretty "interesting" to do in the middle of winter..
So technical challenge, no.."Sporting" maybe, but mental adventure for the driver/co-driver and fans following the progress for a week..potentially very good.
Really all excitement takes place in the brain, and the imagination is a big part of excitement---including the anticipation of action (just look at every thread here about good WRC or EM events, lots of anticipatory discussion)
So anticipatory build up could be some spice---the thing which has faded as the events become predictable sprints every single one.
The actual SS of course same as now--closed roads, marshaled, uzw
As for traffic regs---well on concentration run the cars are ---oh. wait..The cars are not road legal in any way now..
ooops..
Whatever the case, the main point is the cookie-cutter format, schedule, execution of events..
The locales, the different countries are now, with the sameness of the aspects of events, mainly just different backdrop....different often very pretty but mainly scenery..
They could do it CGI and Blue Screen
So You want to organize a gigantic route section over the whole Europe with some special stages here and there. What is that good for? Why shall anybody want to drive it with modern rallycar? Those who want to drive something like that can do it anyway as the format of Monte Carlo historic hasn't changed.
And by the way I have driven four times from CZ to Monte Carlo and back and there is absolutely no reason why I shall do that in a rally car. I did one of those trips in a recce car (Somewhat modified Impreza GT) and it was pretty annoying experience. 1300 km over boring motorways in heavy traffic with a noisy, uncomfortable car. What is it good for?