What was H.O.T and what was N.O.T in 2011

[mousti]

SX4 Huge fail. Focus and 206 had very good debuts. Skoda and Hyundai also a fail. But about the Focus u can say they were always in rallying from Mini-BMW it's really out of the box although Prodrive had the Subaru program 2 years ago still.

[Juha_Koo]

2011 WRC

HOT:
Hänninen winning SWRC
New cars proved to be both spectacular and fast
Mini's tarmac pace
Citroen's internal tensions, racing not only in stages, some politics involved
Latvala's speed - especially on tarmac
Paddon winning PWRC
Many nice fights in many rallies
Polo R WRC

NOT
Jordan logistical problems
Mikko's lack of speed
Rally Argentina roadbook page 55
Rally Argentina magic rock (moving all by itself to the middle of the road)
Citroen's actions towards Petter
To some extent Rally Finland's route, nice in some aspects but proved to be little too much, time running out on very long liasion sections (from spectator's point of view)
The clear slowing of customer cars after rally Sweden

[bluuford]

Hot:
New tracking service by NOKIA :-)

[Juha_Koo]

Hot:
New tracking service by NOKIA :-)

Ah, true, forgot that one!

I wish they could release as a web-version too... Proved to be totally incredible during NORF, my cousin had it on his Nokia, splits were updating extremely fast and the tracking map was also excellent, it brought a totally new aspect to the rally while watching it live. On SS8, two minutes had passed and no sign of Ketomaa. Then looking the map, he was stopped. Thanks to very extensive data networks in Finland, it worked like a dream all the way through the rally. Like a small rally studio in the middle of the forest, accompanied by YLE's rally radio.

[Hartusvuori]

After quite a few lists already things starts get repeated, but here's my list anyway:

H.O.T.
- VW Polo R WRC - very good to have a serious contender coming into the mix
- Latvala's pace and all the time improving reliabilty. Had it not been for the unfortunate middle third of the season he would've achieved something he would've deserved.
- The next generation finally coming to prove themselves with actual results: Mikkelsen's IRC title, Neuville's two victories in classic rallies and of course Tänak attack! And there is more to come!
- New WRC cars bringing in more interest.
- Hänninen's SWRC title
- Mini's tarmac pace especially in France - hopefully we'll see more in the future
- Joonas Lindroos' getting the VW Fabia seat for Finland. Unfortunately it didn't work out at all.
- Many tights rallies in WRC and IRC.
- IRC Zlín was literally HOT! Nothing beats the atmosphere at "autobusak"!
- Meeting new friendly fans at stages.
- And not to forget this forum and its members - it's informative, active - and annoying - almost like it would be real.

N.O.T.
- Tactics and team orders, too much of them. Whole Hirvonen for the championship was so fundamentally paradoxal that it didn't stop amazing and amusing me, though of course I understood the point. Also, Latvala and Ogier falling to play with tactics in Finland, and Loeb bite them back and won. After that I've appreciated Loeb far more (as opposed to before when Loeb "just was" for me).
- 0,2 seconds in Jordan.
- Overall shadow of doubt for the future of sport that keeps hanging around. Of course it's little the teams (and manufactures) can do in this current economical climate, but I want more. Also it must said that WRC's current media exposure isn't at 2011 standards. At least they should put some power on their website, give us more live picture, tracking systems, etc. Though WRR I like!

There must be more hots and nots, but I can't squeeze out anything more at the moment.

[Rallyper]

HOT:
This topic (credits to you N.O.T. - I might put you off the ignore list soon)
NORF
NORF
NORF
WRC is slowly coming back as a worthy world motorsport serie.
VW in
The new fast youngsters
Live powerstages

N.O.T:
Some tourist drivers
Starting system and tactics

[Gregor-y]

H.O.T.
1 - IRC's live coverage of Monte Carlo. I had to watch the cached versions on EuroSport's website, but what a great nine or so hours of broadcasting!
2 - Closest season in a long time; if it takes infighting and team orders to happen I don't think that's a bad thing. Rally's about strategy as well as driving.
3 - MINI. After Prodrive's struggles with the Impreza I didn't have much hope for the Countryman to be any better than Suzuki's foray into the WRC.
3.5 - Sordo's pace with the MINI.
4 - All the attention VW is getting with their plans to enter the WRC. Along with MINI it would be nice to see more competitive makers.
5 - iRally's coverage at WRC and IRC events. Consistent coverage, good previews and I can listen at work the headphones on.
6 - Driver swap rumors. Like wife swapping minus the 'eew' fator.
N.O.T.
1 - Monte Carlo moving back to the WRC. Next year we get a daylight schedule with one or two runs after sundown. At least one is over Turini.
2 - Having an expired passport and not enough time to leave the country to attend an event. And only two local events within 500 miles to drive to.
3 - Complaints about Matt Wilson. They're years old and not clever enough to be worth repeating (other than that one about M Sport's new Finnish talent Matti Vilsainamoinen).
4 - Some flame-baiting by the eponymous poster. All in fun, I guess.

[N.O.T]

[quote="Gregor-y"]H.O.T.

2 - Closest season in a long time; if it takes infighting and team orders to happen I don't think that's a bad thing. Rally's about strategy as well as driving.
[quote]

you were not around in 2009 were you ???

[N.O.T]

HOT:
This topic (credits to you N.O.T. - I might put you off the ignore list soon)

do not please...

[Rallyper]

Of course not. My mistake.