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BJosephD
The first car through on that vid looks like he almost made it. is that the infamous ditch hook maneuver i read about so often?

I think that's called "way hot in and threw it off the outside" or more commonly a "stuffed it".

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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Dazed_Driver
How is it pissing away money?

He wanted to drive a WRC car. He bought the ride. Where is the problem?

You had to buy your rally car, too... right?

You're right Timmy! Damn, you're maturing and growing up.
I'm glad you see there is no moral, philosophical, or any kind of difference at all in between a guy spending a few thousand bucks on a car to rally for fun, and somebody spending quite literally 10s of millions of dollars to satisfy a whim just to hang out with people far far superior in the basic point of the exercise and bask in their glow:

Nope, no difference at all. All exactly the same thing..

Pretty astute analysis from somebody that so often seeems well................

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

here's something interesting:

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

So you're saying that everyone should spend the same amount of money, whether they want to spend more or not?

Or are you saying that in the [obviously highly improbable] event that all rally cars, from a production Rally America car, to a brand new WRC Fiesta, were only 500 dollars to run per event, that you should have to qualify for the WRC car?

Olv Anderson, Carlos and some other blokes in VW shirts? Somewhere the sun shines in the summer?

I just download the full coverage in a torrent. Pretty easy to get. Wild to watch that kind of commitment.
Watching the X games stuff right now. Eh.

Wait. Is that Carlos Sainz?
I watched a bit of the X Games nonsense. Double Douche's passenger seat had C. Sainz embroidered on it.

Prolly late to the party, but you can listen to the race at work. WRC.com has live audio coverage of the rally. Pretty nice while I'm working in the shop.

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NoCoast
Wait. Is that Carlos Sainz?
I watched a bit of the X Games nonsense. Double Douche's passenger seat had C. Sainz embroidered on it.

The sharp eye Derek had it.
Ove ''PÃ¥ven'' Andersson ...''the Pope'' who is ex WRC driver and who ran Team Toyota Europe forever, and

''El Matador'' Sainz...
At Finland wearing VW shirts


At the debut of their VW rally car in WRC..


Just thought with all the die-hard VW guys some would be creamin their jeans at VW returning to WRC-----and at the hardest event in the calender.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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john vanlandingpam
Anybody not looking to be a smug asshole...

There you go again John, diving directly into insults instead of even trying to be involved in a discussion.

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john vanlandingham
...to use a year as a "development year" you might want to enter as many WRC events as possible to 'develop" the thing that needs developing---driving skill.

And I suspect he IS entering as many WRC events as possible. Everyone has to pay the bills some-how and the weekend of mega conflicts had an obvious choice for someone with sponsors to keep happy.

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john greeneggsandham
How does not entering WRC events lead to developing driving skills and experience at the WRC level?

By providing the budget to do the program at all?
Teams that were successfull in getting 'real' sponsorships for XGames were saying the money was enough to cover XGames and the associated carnage as well as a full RA season (when it was 9 events)

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john vanlandingsamiam
Seems "they" (the teams) somehow struggle on and develop the cars without his help.

You're the first one I've heard even remotely suggest the idea that Block is helping the teams develop their WRC cars. Only an idiot would suggest that. On the other hand, the development of Ken's latest show car would have been a matter of taking specs and a wish list to M-Sport to create a series of new tasks for the design.

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john vanspamalot
And of course neither have to claim anything, they hire staffs of people to do that.

But that's the thing. Even his own PR has said the WRC effort was a multi-year effort with as much development time as needed. Beyond that, they have never claimed their goal was to win a championship or even an event.

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seangallagher
At 43 years of age it's game over for any chance of legitimacy in the WRC.

It's funny the things people do when they don't let others determine thier self worth.
I'm honestly curious though... how would you decide someone's legitemacy in the WRC?

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seangallagher
I'm sure the amount of money Ken pissed away with
Malcolm Wilson, He might have won a US National Championship,definitely a regional championship.

With the money Ken's spent with M-Sport he probably could have contended 10 national championships.
The thing is that when he was running the RA championship he had two or three cars, at most, that had similar potential and that he would compete with. Finishing position was generally decided by attrition.
In the WRC he has probably a dozen cars of similar potential and is in a pack of drivers where small mistakes have big consequences in terms of standings. If you loose a couple people to attrition, you still have a fight on your hands.
Most importantly, Ken's not at the thin edge of the wedge of the WRC, he has room to grow and lots to learn. It is fairly well accepted that your level of competence rises (falls) to the level of those around you.
I think it says a lot that he wants to go and compete at the highest level of the sport rather than sit back at a level where he was at the highest level.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2011 01:14PM by Morison.

I noticed this:

SR. Art. 8.4 Fuel and Fuel distribution For WRC Academy drivers (new article)
WRC Academy drivers must use commercially available pump fuel, dispensed from pumps at filling stations along the route which are marked in the road book. In addition to the filling stations marked in the road book of the rally, they may use the Neste Oil Palokka station between RB page 12/box 19 and box 20 (Box 19 ÷9.39 km, total distance at the exit 46.80 km, as marked on the route map of the rally).

Racing on pump gas? *gasp*

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hoche
I noticed this:

SR. Art. 8.4 Fuel and Fuel distribution For WRC Academy drivers (new article)
WRC Academy drivers must use commercially available pump fuel, dispensed from pumps at filling stations along the route which are marked in the road book. In addition to the filling stations marked in the road book of the rally, they may use the Neste Oil Palokka station between RB page 12/box 19 and box 20 (Box 19 ÷9.39 km, total distance at the exit 46.80 km, as marked on the route map of the rally).

Racing on pump gas? *gasp*

This was the same deal at Mexico WRC this year. If you weren't in the main WRC/FIA event, all the support, Rally America and National event teams, had to fill up at noted Pemex stations in the route book w/ 92 or so octane. This is one of the main reasons we didn't run the event.

Sean Gallagher

I skipped WRC mexico also due to the 92 Octane .. my car can't run on something so damn high

/End Sarcasm

I can understand an open class, championship fighting team on race gas, but really? won't rally with out it? requiring race gas should be near the bottom of most guys lists, IMHO.

All depends on your motor, my Gp2 Golf with the 13:1 pistons would not live on 92... We found 110 to be the right stuff.

Nothing too fancy just a typical high compression motor built to fit the rules I competed under - those rules allowed bringing my own gas.

I would need to skip events with out good gas with that car. Modern cars with newer fuel infection are much less picky.