Hello from Antony Warmbold

Hey Antony...I've just had another look at your blog, realised that the earlier chapters have gone :( I think it was chapter 8 you mentioned "a young Finn", I dont think you ever told us who this was? Put me out of my misery :D

Still loving the blog....Although I must admit, I'm just waiting for some official from M sport to join the forum and argue against your claims :)

And don't listen to anyone who puts you down, you have been there and done that, got the t-shirt, your critics probably haven't driven in WRC before... ;)

Keep up the good work!

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Originally Posted by N.O.T

can you name a motorsport where the guy with biggest budget doesn't ??

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1) moto-cross from club level to World Championship
2) enduro from club level to World Championship
3) rally on gravel in powerful 2wd normal aspirated cars

In all of those branches you can buy whatever you want, but if you don't know how to hold throttle open, and how to brake hard, and have physical condition on the level of Tour de France bicycle guys or long distance cross country skiers, you will fail miserably.

From personal experience, not sitting on your comfy chair writing endless groundless ignorant negative crap 99% of the time, as you do so well.

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Originally Posted by 6789

I know this is off topic alittle, but is the F-Cup like the WRC or the Australian Rally Championship where the guy with the biggest budget wins?

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F-cup is for 2wd normal aspirated cars. Of course it takes money to build a top spec motor, but look at the times and compare them to the times of even very top Finnish GpN4 guys--which I believe was your top class in OZ. (just an example but in the latest Swedish WRC there was a concurrent National Championship event, same roads, same day, running later so likey (from my experience on snow stages ), surface both "polished" and rutted up, and there were at least 3-4 Grupp H guys in a VW and a Volvo and something else putting in stage times faster than the essentially unlimited budget WRC Fiesta of ken Block.

An excellent example of the need for knowledge, or skill in driving a fast 2wd car can be seen by looking at the Youtube vids of Colin McRae Stages 08 where you can compare the excellent driving of a fleet of guys in various spec Escorts with the antics of the 2 SRTUSA "rally super stars".

That is not budget, that's driving skill.
Grupp H is more or less the Swedish equivalent of F-cup.

Part of F-cups brilliance is that it is basically ONE BIG CLASS and engine size is balanced against weight, so a guy who chooses a rwd Corolla with a bored 4AGE can match himself against say a guy in a much larger engined Volvo with a 2.3 or 2.4 liter motor--but more weight.

Contrast that with USA for example and I really can't say how many nuanced piddly classes for the fleets of blue Subaru Imprezas but I believe there is at least 4 classes. the result is people driving what appears to me not particularly hard saying "I was driving for my class position and tactically for the season overall results" (Oh I just thought the motor was missing 2 cylinders, oh well)

Group-F is in my opinion far more impressive than the current "you'll never sit in this car ever even in 20 years" World Rally Car circus.

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Originally Posted by janvanvurpa

1) moto-cross from club level to World Championship
2) enduro from club level to World Championship
3) rally on gravel in powerful 2wd normal aspirated cars

In all of those branches you can buy whatever you want, but if you don't know how to hold throttle open, and how to brake hard, and have physical condition on the level of Tour de France bicycle guys or long distance cross country skiers, you will fail miserably.

From personal experience, not sitting on your comfy chair writing endless groundless ignorant negative crap 99% of the time, as you do so well.

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all the above you mention have 1 thing in common...

the budget is not too big no matter what. a top spec vehicle of the above along with parts i doubt it exceeds the 10k euro mark per event and the vehicles now that the s1600s are dead are not that expensive so budget is not an issue.

Although i still think that in case of motcross and enduro there is very little interest so the companies never spend much anyway...because they do not have a big return profit.

To claim that in a sport where equipment is a vital part and contributes at least 60% of the overall success, budget is not an issue i think it doesn't make sence.

I think its better to be an armchair critic and not knowing whats going on thus leading to some very limited wrong comments than to be involved and do the same.

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Originally Posted by tfp

Hey Antony...I've just had another look at your blog, realised that the earlier chapters have gone :( I think it was chapter 8 you mentioned "a young Finn", I dont think you ever told us who this was? Put me out of my misery :D

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Google is your friend

http://www.motorsportforums.com/foru...18-janvanvurpaHi Janvanvurpa,

Thanks for the deailed reply, F-cup ffrom the videos I've seen look awesome, guys driving hard. Plus being Finland, the roads are fast and yo get some guys ending up in a ditch :)

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Originally Posted by jonas_mcrae

Hello Antony,

I want to ask your opinion about the 2005 season and specially about Dani Sola. I was lookign at some results from the 2005 season, and in the rallyes he was entered, you outperformed him in ALL but australia, where he finnished 7th and you retired. In the other rallies he competed in, he reitred and you got to the finnish (mexico 7th, japan 9th, France 13th, Spain 7th). For me, it sounds a little bit strange that a national and JWRC champion (just after Loeb and BEFORE Sordo and Andersson) like Dani could retire in so many rallyes in a FACTORY car. was he trying too hard? or maybe he was not given the same car as Gardemeister and was trying to catch up? what did it feel to see Dani not finishing in a factory car and you outperforming him? Did you ever think you had a better shot than him on that season?

thanks in advance

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I can't respond to all your questions because I have no idea how competitive his car was in comparison to Toni's. What I know is that he went faster than me on tarmac.

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Originally Posted by tfp

Hey Antony...I've just had another look at your blog, realised that the earlier chapters have gone :( I think it was chapter 8 you mentioned "a young Finn", I dont think you ever told us who this was? Put me out of my misery :D

Still loving the blog....Although I must admit, I'm just waiting for some official from M sport to join the forum and argue against your claims :)

And don't listen to anyone who puts you down, you have been there and done that, got the t-shirt, your critics probably haven't driven in WRC before... ;)

Keep up the good work!

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That's because I put all three parts into one and made the thing shorter cause it was sooo long. You can find the earlier version in google cache, as I understand. Somebody already answered the first part of your question.... ;)
thanks for your interest in the blog. It's really nice to see that many people are interested in what I have to tell about my experience.
Thanks!

You should put adsense on it with 40000+ clicks. ;)

Chapter 15 : Differential Extravaganza

3 differentials, at least 5 parameters, infinite combinations...
So the drivers work is not only driving then. With limited testing I would have never had the confidence.

Then, if you are lucky you have a car as it runs on rails. I'm glad they've banned the active diffs.