[WRC] News & Rumours (part V) 2017

[denkimi]

what some seem to forget, is that not every competitor drives a super safe wrc car.

further back in the order there can be amateurs that drive a home build group N car that will do 230km/h or more if the straight is long enough. cars that are nowhere near as safe, nowhere near as well maintained en nowhere near as well driven, but with a driver that still keeps his right foot down.


i can tell you from my personal experience that driving an old homemade clio at a local rallysprint at 210km/h through a corner that is "maybe flatout", is scary.

[Fast Eddie WRC]

Neuville won all 8 stages on today's Legend Boucles de Bastogne...

[N.O.T]

what some seem to forget, is that not every competitor drives a super safe wrc car.

further back in the order there can be amateurs that drive a home build group N car that will do 230km/h or more if the straight is long enough. cars that are nowhere near as safe, nowhere near as well maintained en nowhere near as well driven, but with a driver that still keeps his right food down.


i can tell you from my personal experience that driving an old homemade clio at a local rallysprint at 210km/h through a corner that is "maybe flatout", is scary.

what makes a WRC car supersafe ?

[Lousada]

what some seem to forget, is that not every competitor drives a super safe wrc car.

further back in the order there can be amateurs that drive a home build group N car that will do 230km/h or more if the straight is long enough. cars that are nowhere near as safe, nowhere near as well maintained en nowhere near as well driven, but with a driver that still keeps his right food down.


i can tell you from my personal experience that driving an old homemade clio at a local rallysprint at 210km/h through a corner that is "maybe flatout", is scary.

Every safety feature from rollcage, belts, helmet to fire extinguisher has to be FIA certified. So every car is supposed to have the same basic safety standards as the WRC.

[MrJan]

what some seem to forget, is that not every competitor drives a super safe wrc car.

further back in the order there can be amateurs that drive a home build group N car that will do 230km/h or more if the straight is long enough. cars that are nowhere near as safe, nowhere near as well maintained en nowhere near as well driven, but with a driver that still keeps his right food down.

The 'home built' stuff will still have homologated roll cages...although a bit of a moot point seeing as anything entering a WRC round isn't going to be home built anyway...in fact a good portion of the field comes from exactly the same place as the car that Ogier is driving.

[sollitt]

I wonder how many of you slagging the FIA over this issue have ever driven a stage at over 130kph average. Or listened to competitors views on the matter.
Like others, I had read that Ogier voiced his concerns. No doubt others did also.
It's nothing new. In 1993 Rally NZ a stage in the Waikato was cancelled as the WRC teams (incl. McRae, Auriol, Kankunnen, Sainz, Delecour etc...) all complained that it was too fast. Not a 're-run' stage so they hadn't driven it at all at rally speed but instinctively knew that it would be too fast.
In '95 the return of the mighty Motu stage was cancelled when the WRC teams (many of the same as '93) complained it would be too rough having already been run once in the opposite direction.

At the end of the day this is a matter of stage/road selection and that's the responsibility of the organisers. The FIA just issue the guidelines.

[raybak]

I agree with Sollitt about the road selection by organisers. I have been road director for quite a few events and will be for many more in the future, picking the roads if you are not a knowledgeable competitor as well can be quite hard. I'm lucky enough that I have run at the top level in Australia in both gravel and tarmac events, this gives me enough background to write a good roadbook I believe. I have been to rallies written by people who don't understand how fast the cars can go now, these events I just don't attend now. About 10 years ago at Targa Tasmania tarmac rally we competed on a stage where we found out the M3R still had the speed limiter on it at 255kmh. The stage was dangerous and all the competitors voted for it not to be included again, it hasn't been back in it's full length since.

Currently setting a rally through farmland with some forests, first part of one stage cars will be quite fast up to 210kmh and then at the final forest part there are tight twisty sections down to 40kmh. The fast area I believe is less dangerous than the forest area with less to hit and fast flowing corners with no fences. Only problem will be Kangaroos as there are thousands out there.

Ray

[janvanvurpa]

I was flat wrong? Boy, you are real american pro. Good lack fining many 40km turns on a stages with avg speed above 120km.

You are seemingly like the worst sort of pure troll..
I've asked which stages you have done--at which events, to TRY to understanf where you formed your opinions..
Dodging that 3 times, lack of name..

I have no idea who you are, where you come from, what you have done--or NOT..
And while were at it no I'm not an American pro---not at this motorsport. And only 1/2 American at that so bite me.

But I don't bob and weave and hide about where I did my motorsport and what my name is..

3 times..

[MrJan]

I wonder how many of you slagging the FIA over this issue have ever driven a stage at over 130kph average. Or listened to competitors views on the matter.
Like others, I had read that Ogier voiced his concerns. No doubt others did also.

The only comments I saw in regard to it was a driver (forget who, possibly Paddon or Meeke) saying that they didn't think the stage was dangerous, just boring.

And the FIA are bound to take a bit of negativity on this, they've introduced faster cars with more aero but are now looking to limit them.

[Mariusz]

And the FIA are bound to take a bit of negativity on this, they've introduced faster cars with more aero but are now looking to limit them.

Actually they don't want to directly limit them, they want to limit the time when they are at their max speed. I think it's more a message to rally organizers to find more interesting roads. Unfortunately some of them will probably just use hay bales. Or big tractors or whatever they have at hand.