RDRC S8 Round 4 - Rally Finland (27th March - 2nd April 2017)

[tobhis]

I'll be back when restarting stages isn't a possibility.
Just too many drivers takes advantage of this!

 

[Krister Johansson]

Just finished it. I decided to do it "blind" and in one go so i couldn't see any times. I just did it at a safe and fast pace, meaning no unnecessary risks but still keeping the foot down braking before the big jumps and so on.

Might sound silly to some but not seeing any times or knowing where you are on the leaderboard keeps me calm and that means less mistakes. Not a single crash being able to repair the car to atleast 98% each time is a vital part of maintaining the speed i could keep up. I'm very happy with the result and my "blind" tactics seems to be working quite well for me.

 

[Andy Jobin]

Probly the best one yet for me.

After SS8 I was running around 18th i think in the leaderboard (out of 20ish that had completed so far) but still top 20

Then I crashed out in spectacular fassion on SS9.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5fdjV9kpjlDHXRYp-jFYWBFgCMz7b73K

I had to uninstall my AVG, so many popups interupting games, very offputting

 

[quicksilver384]

first time it happened to me

 

[svt4cam]

Done!! The Weyerbacher brewing Kadett survived the vicious stages that the RDRC rally committee concocted this year. After a false start with a video driver issue I started over from scratch and logged slightly slower times on the first three stages then my first attempt. Then on the 6th stage the car got out of control and spanked a tree head on. I was able to scrub off a fair amount of speed before impact but it still damaged the radiator, hood and windshield. Luckily the crew was able to restore full radiator engine and suspension function at the next service and the rest of the rally went cleanly so by the end the Team Fate Rally Kadett looked like an extremely dirty and abused version of it's old self. Presently sitting 4th in 2wd- I think, having pipped Mr. C on the penultimate stage by a few seconds. I'll post video of the last couple stages later.

 

[Roland]

Gotta love this league! I just finished the Finland Rally in one piece (well.. sort of.)
I decided to drive very safely thus slowly as I very much wanted to avoid DNF. That worked but made it into a rather uneventful event. ( Is that even english?) i DID have a great time though..

Oh, if only I'd given this game more of my time prior to this league and had known my way around those stages more. For sure I'd have been a lot.. naahh.. I'd probably be just as slow

Some weird observations I had:

- On my first ever practice run near the end of a stage I don't remember the name of:
I completely misjudge one of the vertical corners followed by a sharp horizontal one, and land on my roof on the middle of the track.
I forgot to do a screenshot but by the time we finally come to an upside down halt, my co-driver says "..left rear feels flat.." And.. at the end I even got the Steam achievement for that stage

- After completing Days 2 and 3 in one go on my superwidescreen setup, I suddenly really feel like going into the woods.
I think I'm gonna take the family for a long walk in the nearest forest tomorrow..

I have not much to show for myself this time, so just a pic of my view crossing the finish line of SS17. CYA in Germany!

 

[svt4cam]

As promised, because I'm sure you couldn't live without it. I give you...Jarvenkyla...

And Paskuri too....

 

[EpilepticToast]

Finished! What a great rally...so much fun with the crazy speeds and the never ending jumps. The Group B Lancia S4 was a blast to drive here, Finland is one of my favourite locations in the game with its thrilling fast stages so I was looking forward to this rally but knew it would be very hard to complete if the car didn't cooperate with the unforgiving terrain.
I managed to avoid any high speed big incidents throughout but still had a few unavoidable bouncing ditch moments that I knew would not be good for the car's overall condition. The damage became a significant issue by the halfway point, it was mainly the exhaust was taking a major beating from various jump impacts. This along with some minor damage to the main engine block, the turbo, radiator and wheels meant that a lot of power drained from the poor Lancia beast for the 2nd half of the rally... yet it soldiered on smoothly. I changed my approach to the crests & jumps from the second service point and made it all about car survival, getting to the end in one piece as well as avoiding a jump puncture (all too easy in the group B cars). This worked well as I got the car to the final stage without much additional damage while still doing reasonable times. I opened it up a little more on the last stage and the temps increased again with some more damage coming in, but the car held together and thankfully I got to the finish successfully . Hoping for a decent result

Here is my on board from SS17

 

[Andy Jobin]

Finland. Seventeen stages. What an awesome rally. Heres a couple of screenies i took, i have no idea how i lost my door but the co-pilot doesn't seem to worried

 

[PresidentSmug]

What a rally!! First 5 stages felt great, i must have been near the top after stage 5 but my confidence got the better of me and had a crash in stage 6 which cost me 20 seconds and caused a lot of damage to my exhaust and driveshaft. From then on my fight for 1st turned into a fight for top 5. During day 2 my exhaust was at 0% and lost a lot of power, i now had to fight off RacingIvasaur as he was gaining after every stage. I just hope i'm able to hold a decent position to keep my -2wd championship hopes alive. Congrats to Johansson on a well deserved Finland win

 

[Zylytruu]

After passed the finish line I want to say thank you to all of the organisation team for such a great event in Finland
For me it was the right mixture of total length and speed and strategy to keep my car alive

Without any doubt is this the hardest rally in RDRC 8 calender and I'm happy that I survived.
For my own surprise was my Manta in Finland able to follow the speed of the Kit Cars.

Here some impressions :

Mud covered

Looking forward to see you next time in Germany

 

[Thomas Lambaerts]

Wops i finished the event. I did the first stretch of stages on wednesday. After sleeping in the morning for like 4 hours, night shifts ugh. I totally went into this with saving the car in mind. But after 2 services, it was already clear i was still doing more damage than the mechanics could handle in 30 minutes. Yet except the exhaust i am keeping the dmg after repairs above 95% up to this point. No major incidents, which after sleeping so little, i was okay with! I took a little risk with saving and quitting at Service D. I had no gas left in me.
Today i did a warm up, and went for it. I was pretty high up in the standings, 5th 4wd- i think. Emuga in front of me within 30 seconds. But first i had to survive the night stages. Managed to do it pretty well, Even though i lost left front lights from slamming into the ground somewhere. Hard to turn left without seeing the corner entry! ( no high brightness for me! no lights = pitch black ) At the last service i had 20sec behind emuga so i was pretty happy with myself. But i knew on 4 short stages, it was going to be hard. With pushing myself so hard, i left a tree sized dent in the passenger door. My first big mistake in finland with consequences. So i lost 10 seconds on emuga. No hope left on passing him. Last 2 stages i could have saved myself and just drive carefully but i didn't want to. Just floored it. Managed some pretty nice times there. Ended 5th in class, 22th overall with 10 hours to go.
Absolutely loved every minute of it. Thx guys for yet another amazing event!( Sorry, i forgot to take screenies this round.)

To bad that with all the dnf's some people still think loads of people are bug abusing and restarting stages.

 

[TTupsi]

No Rally Finland for me. I'm still feeling the 12h of Interlagos and can't gather the strength or concentration to do rallying. I'll be back in Germany though

 

[RS200WRX Trev]

Happy to have got to the "Finnish" Looking like my best result so far of the RDRC, By ss10 I was thinking the car was going to let me down, in nearly 2 years of playing DiRT I was hearing sounds from the engine I'd never heard before, whistling, rattling popping and banging. Careful repairs in service kept me starting with 75% life on the engine and radiator but the jumps were taking their toll, suspension was taking a battering too, probably due to my setup which is harsh but more controllable for me. Biggest improvement for me over my last attempts on Finland was a new Loadcell brake mod making LFB way more controllable and my PB's have improved by up to 7-8 seconds.

Still, I managed to kill some speccys on the first leg and dropped some time with a few scenic excursions on various stages. I wish my pc could run a decent recording software so I could save some of the more spectacular moments. Hoping I'll remain in the top 6 with 9 hours left to go.

 

[Jonatan Åcerclinth]

I have been busy and thought there were another few days to go of this rally so sadly I won't be completing the rally

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

No Rally Finland for me. I'm still feeling the 12h of Interlagos and can't gather the strength or concentration to do rallying. I'll be back in Germany though

Ye. The whole RMI squad is feeling that as well, as shown by Jonatan in the previous post.

 

[TTupsi]

Ye. The whole RMI squad is feeling that as well, as shown by Jonatan in the previous post.

I can imagine you are feeling that even more after driving most of the race with a broken car

 

[Norbert Leitner]

After passed the finish line I want to say thank you to all of the organisation team for such a great event in Finland
For me it was the right mixture of total length and speed and strategy to keep my car alive

Without any doubt is this the hardest rally in RDRC 8 calender and I'm happy that I survived.
For my own surprise was my Manta in Finland able to follow the speed of the Kit Cars.

Man, you are crazy! I was checking the result when I finished and I was like: good I'm 4th, best RWD in category.
But than I went further into the results and I saw your name I was like: No way anybody beat those Kit-cars!
You did it and in the hardest rally, congrats man!

I tried to make it clean so I was braking before every hill, but I finished in top 5 I think, so I'm satisfied with the result.

 

[Jonatan Åcerclinth]

I realized I had time so I did the event in one sitting, that was very unpleasent...

But had a nice fight with Steve (svt4cam) and Caramidaru (Mr.C) and I, to my amazement, came out on top with 3 seconds to spare to Steve after 80 or so minutes of Rallying and a bit more, like 12 seconds or so, to Mr.C.

But bare in mind, I was a good 5+ minutes behind Kieran and Kent Johansson (sorry if I've got your 1st name wrong...) so it was very frustrating in that regard...

 

[Joonas Raivio]

Ugh, I haven't completed a single stage yet, and had a bit wild weekend (so wild that I had to skip rdlms lol) so not sure if I can complete it in time. :S
E: About 10 mins later: