SS1 - Couple of spins...bad omen
SS2 - Took it easy to get my rhythm back, clean but slow
SS3 - Ran what I thought was my fastest stage ever, did not put a single wheel wrong, caught every ditch and rut perfectly. Exited out to find I'd finished last in my group 30 seconds off the pace.
SS4 - Took it slow, wrecked 10 meters before the finish line, limped over.
SS5 - Drove out of anger. Worked alright. Finished close to the lead. Finally have this rally under control. Or do I?
SS6 - All hell breaks loose. After the hairpin about 40 meters into the stage, my vision in the so called "light fog" drops to nothing. The screen is blank. I lunge for Shift+F12 to kill the HDR mod but by the time my vision returns I'm already on my roof. CFH. My windshield is smashed by this point. I get past the big jump, to the next hairpin, slide off, get stuck perfectly between two trees. CFH #2. Keep going, suddenly a sharp stabbing pain in my right foot. A screw has come loose on my pedals and stabbed me. My right foot throbbing with pain, I go to gas with the left. About 300 meters of this and I spin off, stalling because I no longer have a clutch foot. Get going again only to slide off and roll in the series of medium lefts at the bottom of a hill. CFH #3. Get going again just trying to limp to the finish in 2nd gear. Brush up against a bush. And the engine's dead. DNF
SS7 - Car does nothing I tell it to but I limp to the finish. Also in this stage my sound went out. Engine just turned to static.
SS8 - Finally a stage going well. And then right before the K right with the boulders on the outside, my hood flies open. I wreck but not terminally. At the next K left, hood flies open again. I wreck, this time I'm finally put out of my misery.
Also, something I noticed while practicing: At one point I loaded a setup, and my suspension geometry was showing numbers that were way off. As in my camber had gone from about -2 degrees to +6. I backed out checked again and it was fine. I don't know if the actual values had changed but for what it's worth Falstone went absolutely wrong for me from the get go. Like it was missing a wheel it was so bad.