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No, you didn't, but most of the germans thought he would be... :D :DQuote:
Originally Posted by mousti
In my opinion a "gentleman driver" is a driver who is just driving for fun, is not looking for achievements, is spending his own money, is not a youngster anymore...
Yes, he is the owner of Wallenborn logistics...Quote:
Originally Posted by tommeke_B
My point is that the current obsession about the number of top cars in the entrylist does not make any sense. It seems to me a long entrylist does not make a better rally.
It's not understandable to say the rally is less interesting because now it's in WRC and there's fewer cars. Your experience on a rally can be totally different depending on the places you see, etc.... The fact that there are fewer entry's isn't going to change overnight, but I'd much rather see Loeb, Hirvonnen, Ogier, Latvala and Sordo fighting it out than a platoon of 30 S2000's.
How you would like to choose who is looking for achievements and who not? I think it is very difficult to find real definition of "gentleman driver".Quote:
Originally Posted by pucky54
I'd much rather see platoon of 30 S2000s with few top drivers that Loeb, Ogier, Hirvonen, Latvala and others in WRC. Especially on tarmac...Quote:
Originally Posted by Francis44
OMG with those lists of gentleman drivers. In the end everyone except factory guys will be gentleman driver...
Vigion, Wallenwein, Maurin, Betti etc. are still relatively young. Only Maurin is "professional son" driving for family money I think.
Vigion isn't old at all. He is also champion of Trophé Michelin from few years back. That was French championship without WRC cars. If I remember a year before he almost won it with ancient Clio Maxi! In DS3 R3 he is comparable with Arzeno, Chardonnet, S. Consani etc. Are they too gentleman drivers??? Maybe Bluuford just saw few times from RMC but forgot that Vigion did a lot of stages with broken transmission. Sometimes he was passing us in a speed of tractor...
Walenwein is German champion. Of curse German championship isn't really great but still. He is young, he has very tiny foreign experience and therefore is quite slow abroad. But that doesn't make him gentleman driver - especially in his age...
I don't want to continue but I would be careful about splitting like Vigion - gentleman / Prokop not gentleman. Only one of them has strong family backing and it's... Prokop. And I'm quite sure Vigion would be at least a challenge for Prokop in RMC or Alsace if he had same car and testing. However he has money barely to drive at home with R3 car in Citroën Trophy and that is what make him gentleman driver???
For me true gentleman drivers are guys like René Kuipers, Eamon Bolland, Laszlo Vizin etc.
Where is the Hungarian called (I think) Turan who drove 307wrc few years ago? Very good gentleman driver.
In Freistadt preparing notes for Jänner Rally.
Frederic Dor was what I call a Gentleman driver. Sportscars even has a class for the Gentleman driver GT-Am.
I think the defining feature of a 'Gentleman Driver' if we go back to the roots of the term, when aristocrats and wealthy industrialists competed in motor racing against the factory drivers, is someone who is an amateur. They pay with their own money and have sufficient time (not constrained by a job) to compete against professionals (full employment by a team) and semi-professionals (money provided directly by sponsors and normally motorsport -related employment). The difference nowdays is that you can no longer obtain identical machinery to the factory and no amount of talent will bridge the gap.