(Insert stupid Blog name here)

Yes, I have heard that about diesels. Even US car manufacturers make some diesels that can't be sold here.

 

The EPA sets the emissions standards, and most diesels indeed don't meet the standard (it was expanded a couple of years ago.) It's possible that some gas engine cars don't either.

 

I don't know what particular safety standards prevent some cars from being sold here but I've heard of European cars that have been excluded because of them (particularly sports cars.)

 

Here are some safety standards, which include fuel economy standards:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/rules/import/fmvss/index.html

Well the Citroëns stomped the Fords into the dirt in Mexico. I guess there's some historical precedent for the Fords not doing as well in races at higher elevations.

 

So... Citroëns would probably sell pretty well in Denver.

Although the WRC may not have a US stop, there are rallies of varying types in US/Canada, i.e. Targa Newfoundland.

The trick is finding any of them on TV.

This week the WRC was in Jordan. Or rather, the TV highlights were of Jordan. They were actually there a couple of weeks ago. Quite the contrast from the previous stages - a lot of the Jordan courses were just featureless desert roads. Since the drivers rely on their co-drivers reading off landmarks and distances in order to go at maximum speed, that sort of terrain makes it more difficult since recognizable features are few and far-between. It never ceases to amaze me how these drivers will push their cars to the limit of speed and control, while flying down a gravel road, right on the edge of a steep cliff.

 

Ford's leading driver clipped the side of the road and nearly rolled his car, taking him out of the race. So that helped Citroën win for the second time in a row. Something else that helped though was Citroën taking advantage of some of the weirder rules in rallying.

 

On each day, the car that's in the lead is the first car out on the road (remember - they're racing against the clock). This is generally a disadvantage, because at the start of the race, there's more loose gravel covering the surface, making it more difficult to get traction. The first car then ends up "sweeping" the road for the cars behind it. The further back you start, the better the road condition will be. This tends to balance out the competition, since the faster drivers are handicapped by "sweeping duty". What Citroën did, was they intentionally violated the starting order with one of their cars that was supposed to start back several places and put it out front, because they wanted another driver (who is in the run for the championship) to not have to do the sweeping. The way they got away with this was the car that they moved up front was given some nine minutes in time penalties, effectively taking it out of the standings for the weekend. But the strategy worked, because the other driver had a cleaner road, and won the rally. There's all sorts of weird shenanigans they do like this. It seems a little cheap if you ask me, but if those are the rules, I guess that's how you play the game.

Huh. I've watch a bunch of the Dakhar Rally (both when it was in Africa and now in South America), and there's often a preference for being in front so you don't have to deal with the dust clouds kicked up by the front runners. Also, if you're up front you don't have to pass anyone. (Although some drivers are polite and will move aside allow a faster vehicle to pass them, some don't, so the faster vehicle has to go off-road to pass - risking hitting an obstacle.)

 

But if enough teams complain you can bet the WRC rules organization will make changes so that strategy doesn't become commonplace.

Dust was an issue in the previous round in Mexico - it hung in the air there for a long time and definitely affected some drivers. But it didn't seem to be as much of an issue in Jordan. One thing they mentioned was they'd had an unusual amount of rain there recently, and in fact had to repair some sections of the road prior to the rally due to flooding. So maybe a lot of the normal conditions didn't apply because of that.

Mmmm... Turkey!

 

HD Theater moved the air time for the daily WRC highlights, and my DVR didn't notice it. But fortunately I did, so I managed to record and watch it anyway (6 AM - 8 AM PT, Saturday). The one-hour recaps still air Sunday evenings.

 

The last rally was held in Turkey, and although they say Turkey is usually dry, it didn't look that way to me at all. In fact, the first two stages on the final day were canceled due to heavy rains.

 

This was a really good, close rally all the way through. No rule-bending shenanigans this time either. Just flat-out racing, and insane bordering-on-the-edge-of-control driving. It's pretty incredible the abuse these cars can put up with and still run. These guys literally drive the tires off 'em. Some of the road surfaces were just loose, big, sharp, chunky rocks - not "gravel" by any stretch of the imagination. I wouldn't want to drive any car over them, at any speed.

 

The next race (which is actually running this weekend) is in New Zealand, and the highlights will be airing next weekend. There's a WRC iPhone app available now which allows you to track the stats from the cars live. Pretty cool idea, but I don't know if I want to know who's winning ahead of time, since it would make it less fun to watch on TV. So I'll pass for now.

HD Theater never ran highlights from New Zealand. What's up with that?

 

Hopefully they'll get back on track with this week's race in Portugal.

 

Oddly enough, they've been running some "best-of" WRC episodes, so it's not like they're dropping rally programming entirely. (And the "best-of" episodes do feature a lot of Subaru action, so they're fun to watch.)

Finally! The New Zealand rally highlights ran this weekend, and it was an excellent rally. Even though I'd already looked up who'd won, it was still fun to watch because it was a good, close, and very unpredictable race.

 

The Portugal highlights are supposed to run next weekend.

 

A couple of interesting notes from the rally:

• Subaru was one of the sponsors. They had banners everywhere. Might they be thinking about returning next year with a team?
  
• Also, reportedly Toyota is thinking about getting back into rallying. Although I have kind of a hard time picturing a Prius on the rally circuit.

More rally goodness, this time from Portugal. Mads Ostberg was back representin' Subaru, yo. Pulled in a respectable 7th place.

 

They showed clips of some of the older rallies held in Portugal, and the shots of the crowds lining the roads with cars racing through them mere inches away were insane. Makes me wonder how many spectators actually got clobbered doing that. They don't permit that now though.

 

This was another good, close race. However, instead of a French Citroën driver named Sebastien winning, a French Citroën driver named Sebastien won instead.

 

Next up is a new venue - Bulgaria. But that won't be until mid-July.

Last week - Bulgaria! And the first race of the season completely on tarmac (or pavement, as we say over here). Very different sort of driving than the other rallies, because the road conditions don't change much from car to car. Therefore there's none of the road-order shuffling shenanigans that happen elsewhere. Here, it's get out in front, and stay out in front. Not a very exciting weekend as far as the lead was concerned, but a good battle between 2nd and 3rd. Petter Solberg seems well on his way to getting a win soon, but it will still probably take a mistake by Sebastien Loeb to make it happen. Still, Petter had a new co-driver for the first time in something like 150 races, and he was still right near the top all weekend. So things are looking good for the former Subaru driver.

 

This weekend they're running in Finland - which is a veritable hotbed of rallying. They're running the highlights next weekend, but unfortunately I already saw who won (stupid internet). Even so, it'll still be fun to watch. Great roads in Finland, and some of the top drivers are from there, so they should have a home field advantage.

Rally Finland was excellent!

 

They had moved the races into a two-day schedule instead of three, but there was still a lot of good racing. Ford's Mikko Hirvonen (a Finnish native) was leading on the first day, but then lost control and rolled his car a half-dozen times. He was unharmed, but ironically, didn't finish.

 

Ford's #2 driver, Jari-Matti Latvala (another Finn), took up the slack though and not only finished, but won. This was good for Ford who have been soundly thrashed by Citroën all season long.

 

There were some spectacular crashes (including one Subaru that rolled some eight times - looking not unlike

), a lot of impressive jumps, and some crazy high-speed. The Sunday night one-hour wrap-up featured some other nice, gratuitous Subaru shots as well, which the individual days' coverage lacked. Mads Ostberg managed another decent showing in seventh place, although was only briefly shown on TV. Since he hasn't been in a number of rallies this year (he doesn't have a factory-sponsored team), I've taken to rooting for Petter Solberg whenever Mads isn't around. Petter got dropped when Subaru bailed on rallying, but he's assembled his own team and is managing to post some impressive results. No wins yet, but he's getting closer. Gotta admire that independent spirit.

 

This weekend, they're in Germany. Not sure if they're running near any AtariAgers, but if you happen to be out watching them, snap some pics and post them here!

Almost forgot to mention (because let's face it - it was completely forgettable), that there was a "rally" during the recent X-Games in Los Angeles.

 

However, this was no more a real "rally" than Nicholas Cage is a real "actor".

 

They drove around a little dirt track that was inside the LA Coliseum, zipped outside, did a donut in the parking lot, and went back inside. And that was about it. Now, they used actual rally cars, so it might have still been cool to see them zipping around, except the track was so badly laid out, that several drivers lost their races because they couldn't figure out which way the course turned.

 

They actually got lost.

 

Inside of the stadium.

 

It was, in every definition of the word: stupid. The "organizers" should be embarrassed. Then fired. Then banned from human contact.

 

So "rally"? No.

 

But one driver at least had a cool paint job on his Subaru...

 

 

Tron, meet Subaru. Subaru, meet Tron.

Well, that's disappointing. The Stig has been revealed.

Well, that's disappointing. The Stig has been revealed.

I'm surprised it lasted this long. I love this quote,

 

"The broadcaster said that the judgment does not prevent them from taking the issue further in the courts.

 

'The BBC will not be deterred from protecting such information from attack no matter when or by whom it should arise," the broadcaster said in a statement."

 

LOL, a bit late for that now..

 

..Al

I vaguely recall a cartoon about racers in bizarre cars. I think they were rally races, but don't know for sure.

 

You mean the Wacky Races?

 

 

I find that cartoon about as watchable as the real races.

 

Speaking of big posters with cartoon characters on them... someone has waaaaay too much time on their hands:

 

 

(Note: the original Flickr account has been blocked. But you can check out the full-sized JPEG here (7.2 MB).)

'The BBC will not be deterred from protecting such information from attack no matter when or by whom it should arise," the broadcaster said in a statement."

 

LOL, a bit late for that now..

Yep. It seems a bit pointless now. If the guy wasn't under a specific contract requiring his secrecy, they might as well just let it drop.

 

As much as I'm disappointed though, I think the book would be a fascinating read. Driving all of those cars, teaching all of those celebrities to drive the test track. He's got to have some pretty cool stories.

Well, I've tried typing this up a couple of times before, but Flash (in another browser tab) killed Safari twice while I was midway through typing it.

 

So, I'm opening YouTube in FireFox instead, while I type this up in Safari.

 

(I'm sure I've probably mentioned my hatred for Flash somewhere.)

 

Anyway, so the previous rally was in Germany, and was run completely on tarmac. The interesting thing though, was that even though you'd expect it to be easier than driving on gravel, the tarmac surfaces vary wildly throughout the different stages, so the traction is always changing. Plus with tarmac, once you lose grip - that's it. You've completely lost it, and you ain't getting it back. With gravel, you're always grabbing onto something, even if you're swinging out wider on a curve than you should.

 

Sebastian Loeb completely dominated the rally, so it was more about watching other cars jockeying for the lower positions, than about who might win. Loeb's got an amazing ability to instantly judge and react to changing grip conditions. He's pretty-much unbeatable on tarmac, having won in Germany something like eight times in a row now.

 

There were a few rather impressive crashes, although nothing approaching the mayhem that Petter Solberg went through in 2004 when barrel-rolling over a bunch of hinkelsteins...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRVshT38kyo

 

Check out the in-car shot of the roll cage being crushed (starting at about 26 seconds)...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-_PyovawYQ#t=0m26s

 

Somehow, I don't think my Impreza would fare nearly as well.

 

 

In general WRC news, it was announced that Mini will be returning to rallying next season. That's very cool, in part because of Mini's rallying heritage, but more in that it finally brings back another manufacturer into the sport. Reportedly Volkswagen and Toyota are considering getting into the WRC as well, although probably not until 2012. Here's hoping Subaru takes notice and decides to get back into it.

 

Once they build a decent-looking Impreza again, that is. The current one? Yuck.

 

This weekend they'll be airing the highlights from the rally in Japan. I'm looking forward to that, since I haven't seen any rally events run over there yet. And if any of the Japanese manufacturers are considering getting back into the sport... that would seem to be the place to do it.

In the second video at 0:56 on the second bounce you can see the front bar of the roll cage buckle then collapse on the third bounce.

In the second video at 0:56 on the second bounce you can see the front bar of the roll cage buckle then collapse on the third bounce.

It's amazing footage. Incredible that they got out of that without serious injury.

 

 

So this past weekend they showed the highlights from Rally Japan. Excellent race! Very close, and Petter Solberg nearly won, despite having the flu, a 10-second penalty and steering problems. But he couldn't quite overcome all of that, so Sebastien Ogier took it this week. But the lead changed hands quite a few times, and it was a good, close rally all weekend.

 

Part of that might have been due to Sebastien Loeb (who has dominated all season) sandbagging in order to not win the driver's championship while in Japan. Why? So he can win it at the next rally in France (which happens to pass right through his hometown). There wasn't much speculation about that during the broadcast this week, but they had brought it up several times during the previous rally's coverage.

 

Back to Japan - the scenery they were racing through was quite stunning, and had a very different look from other locations. The roads were the narrowest I'd seen, and they actually had set up a decent indoor stage (X-Games organizers take note). The fans were out in full force (and costumes)...

 

 

(Wait a minute... is Godzilla eating Santa??)

 

Petter Solberg was a favorite due to his earlier years with Subaru. There was at least one local driver this year in an Impreza, since they showed him wrapping his car around a tree. Probably not the best way to get on television.

 

 

 

Plus they also showed highlights from previous years, so there were plenty of other gratuitous Subaru shots, which is always fun for us Subaru fans.

 

They also mentioned a little bit more about Mini and VW getting back into rallying. Mini is already in testing, so they appear to be on track for next year. There's also word that Saab may be coming back to rallying.

 

Saab?

 

Do they still make cars?

 

They never struck me as being particularly sporty.

 

Oh well, the more, the merrier.

 

Next up - France, and then only two more events to go before the season wraps up.

This is pretty sweet. An Impreza STI going around the Nürburgring in 7:55, topping out at 253 km/h (157 mph)!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hyATjjajPg

 

I wonder if I can beat that on my PSP?

That was nice, I'm moving to Germany.

 

..Al

You can drive on it for a mere €22 per lap.

 

I think the operative word here would be "terrified".

You can drive on it for a mere €22 per lap.

 

I think the operative word here would be "terrified".

Yeah, I wouldn't be so terrified for myself (as I surely wouldn't be driving fast enough to kill myself, not without being intimately familiar with the course), but I'd be terrified of all the other drivers out there.

 

..Al