Rally New Zealand 2012

[sollitt]

Any road with a rally car on it is the best road in the world ... no matter where it is.

[makinen_fan]

Any road with a rally car on it is the best road in the world ... no matter where it is.

as far as it is gravel. few tarmac road are forgiven, corsica and some in monte are the exception for me

[Hartusvuori]

as far as it is gravel. few tarmac road are forgiven, corsica and some in monte are the exception for me

You have so many tarmac roads to learn about, lucky you :-)

But sollitt is right, no point comparing who likes what roads the best. Even if NZ and Finland share similarity is their roads, they are still different and has their own characteristics.

[Mirek]

The car pulled 6g during the accident.

Just out of curiosity... where was this value coming from? You know I studied vehicle safety and such a value like 6g You can do just by shaking Your head in a metal concert For example a value which is considered a non-lethal for a pedestrians head hitting the bonnet is 100g (similar to a situation when You fall on Your head in a bathroom). Of course such high accelerations are "safe" for just a fraction of time. Even a millisecond of such load can kill.

The problem with these values generally is that the peaks are sooo short that only very accurate and pretty expensive accelerometers can measure them. Most of commercial devices are simply way too slow to even notice something which takes 1/10000 second.

[Mintexmemory]

Which leads me to think if the best roads, gravel or tarmac, should be WRC events then a slightly enlarged Ypres would be a fantastic WRC round. Not to mention, very media friendly.

[Carlo]

I have all ways thought that the best rally road was the one that I was on at the time

[Mirek]

Which leads me to think if the best roads, gravel or tarmac, should be WRC events then a slightly enlarged Ypres would be a fantastic WRC round. Not to mention, very media friendly.

Even I really like Ypres the roads are far from being one of the best in the world. They are very difficult, yes, but that's mostly because they are completely strange and unlogic surrounded by deep ditches. Some stages are really nice but some are boring and rather useless like the Heuvelland in its last edition. But sure the beauty of an event is not only in stages even though they are really important.

[N.O.T]

Any road with a rally car on it is the best road in the world ... no matter where it is.

No.

[janvanvurpa]

Rally NZ DOES have the best roads on the Planet, don't get me wrong the jumps in Finland are mega, but the roads do rut up and you have the trees to contend with. If you think I'm wrong ask mikko hirvonen

I know the roads, I lived for years just next door and drove quite literally 10s of thousands of km on gravel and snow there---in fact, it is where the seed was planted to " Wull, laddies. when I get all old an' stove-in and cannaught see or walk anymore like when I'm just past 30, it seems might be a laff to try this madness of drivin down these here fine road, real fast like meybbe "

Oddly enough I thought that thechanging nature of the roads--in the broad and narrow sense, was part of the attraction.
The surface changes, the CROWN of the road changes left to rignt, there are every type of bump from big wallow-y bumps to sharp potholes, there is of course ruts--especially for later start numbers, (don't know if you care about the pooor sods starting at minute 75 or 135, or if you were expressing concern for just the elite heroes and rich touristos ), and wha's this about trees, I love trees, I love 'em so much I've embraced many a tree rather vigourously (and I don't blame the trees for braking all my fingers like L pinkie at least 5 times, arms, legs, kneees, it wan't their fault...I hit them, they didn't hit me), and the trees are at least 10-15 cm off the edge of the road, so you'll never hit 'em unless you drive off the road.....
oh dear, your man in the video would have piled into the trees a few times on that one stage oh dear oh dear I see what you mean.

Anyway the trees have two sides like everything else: the hurt, they make CHANGING shadows, but they also can speak to me in advance and tell me to some degree where the road is going.

But, as I always say "whaddya I know?"
I thought the variability of everything on gravel was the challenge.

[sillyseat]

No.

I agree not all Rally roads are created equal. It is a individual thing though, personally sollitt I think the wairarapa roads are awful based on my experiences, but no doubt most people tell you they are fine.
I think though if we want the WRC to come back here we need to emphasize the positives, for which the roads are a big factor.