Rally Discussion and Bar Talk Thread

[Fast Eddie WRC]

For those that dont follow World RX news, this year they are having both ICE and EV cars competing against each other. It's called the Battle of Technologies and they are supposed to be 'equalised'.

But in the first tests the ICE cars are 1-2, but only the WDC Kristofferson has a decent lead (0.4s).

The EV cars have more power but more weight and the ICE are lighter & have better braking.

Should be an interesting battle.

[becher]

I probably failed in communicating my thoughts clearly and exhaustively in the initial post.

By now, I would have imagined one or two drivers would have adopted a measured strategy on Friday/Saturday, preserving softs, for example, then going on a full Sunday attack! Targeting, for instance, 10-12 pts on Saturday before going for a full complement on Sunday.

Or a driver with a road disadvantage on the first proper day settling for a limited risk Friday, hoping to pick places from those retiring or dropping down the order through problems, with an eye on a big Saturday push when a better road position allows.

Obviously this may go against their natural instincts, but with the current points system not favouring outright winners it may be only a matter of time before we see someone in the title hunt without a single win.

The problem with this is that the Saturday points are tied to the Sunday points, so as a result the Sunday is your banker and Friday/Saturday is your risk day, unless you have issues on Friday/Saturday.

[saco0o]

stellantis is my new favorite car brand after reading that interview haha. he is 100% spot on on everything (at least I agreed with all he said). we need brands like that in WRC right now.
and jeezz I hate hybrids. Indycars are starting to use them next race. heavy parts that adds some HP 'just to equal the power' to the car without all that weight.
they have 27 entries right now, this number will only decline, just like with BTCC, going from +30 to 24 this season. "Ahh not hybrids fault, its the economy!" yes, because hybrids are more expensive! durr haha anyway

[Franky]

But why should the hybrid system be the parallel hybrid and not the series hybrid system, basically a BEV with ICE as generator?

From a personal preference would like screaming engines over everything silent as nothing attracts attention more than noise. From one offs both Burton's 306 Cosworth and the NZ 207 Formula Renault come to mind. And of course the S1600/2000 sounded great but I am aware it wasn't exactly cheap.

[Steve Boyd]

By now, I would have imagined one or two drivers would have adopted a measured strategy on Friday/Saturday, preserving softs, for example, then going on a full Sunday attack! Targeting, for instance, 10-12 pts on Saturday before going for a full complement on Sunday.

Or a driver with a road disadvantage on the first proper day settling for a limited risk Friday, hoping to pick places from those retiring or dropping down the order through problems, with an eye on a big Saturday push when a better road position allows.

Obviously this may go against their natural instincts, but with the current points system not favouring outright winners it may be only a matter of time before we see someone in the title hunt without a single win.

Now I see your thinking.
On the road position issue you can't go too slowly on the Friday in case there are no retirements & you finish up with a bad road position on Saturday. Same for your pace on Saturday, if you've saved two sets of good tyres for Sunday but you still have a bad road position on Sunday they might not give you the places you need. It will be interesting to see on gravel events with less cleaning, or wet weather that reduces the cleaning effect, whether anyone adopts your tactics as that may be better than roads with a big cleaning effect.

[Mirek]

But why should the hybrid system be the parallel hybrid and not the series hybrid system, basically a BEV with ICE as generator?

From a personal preference would like screaming engines over everything silent as nothing attracts attention more than noise. From one offs both Burton's 306 Cosworth and the NZ 207 Formula Renault come to mind. And of course the S1600/2000 sounded great but I am aware it wasn't exactly cheap.

Serial hybrid is the only way an EV can do a WRC event on the current technological level but nobody seems to be interested in it.

[Mirek]

For those that dont follow World RX news, this year they are having both ICE and EV cars competing against each other. It's called the Battle of Technologies and they are supposed to be 'equalised'.

But in the first tests the ICE cars are 1-2, but only the WDC Kristofferson has a decent lead (0.4s).

The EV cars have more power but more weight and the ICE are lighter & have better braking.

Should be an interesting battle.

Equalizing of different technologies is always tricky and sadly most of the time it ends with the rules being the thing to determine the winner.

I am all for freedom of technological rules but sadly it rarely works.

[saco0o]

hyundai talking about wec, now toyota talking about F1 (potential partnership with Haas and Dallara)

[mknight]

Serial hybrid is the only way an EV can do a WRC event on the current technological level but nobody seems to be interested in it.

Why do you keep repeating this when it is clearly wrong?

Current technology EVs can do the current WRC stages just fine. Refueling zones are set up completely arbitrary and have no effect on spectator experience.

At the extreme you could do 10 min charges at the end of each stage. With current gaps that would mean 4 cars charging at the same time. Lets say they charge at 360 kw which is mainstream tech today and you get 60 kwh charged. That is enough for 150 km road section minimum or a normal stage and some 50 km road section.

If you have 10 cars total in top class the charging station would need some 700 kwh capacity total, should be roughly 2-3t. So the charging station could be on a small truck, no need for trailer.

I say again why do you keep repeating that this is impossible?

[Eli]

https://youtu.be/Cae2haI-zmY?feature=shared

Could you guys imagine something like this rallying before the end of this decade?