RDRC S8 Round 6 - Rally Wales (8th May - 14th May 2017)

[karik134]

"Strictly speaking there is not much tech in our 2011 Ford Fiesta compared to the 2004 car. In that season the car had ABS, clutch control, paddle shift, traction control, active differentials, ride height control with GPS, electronic dampers and active suspension. Having all that tech was fabulous but the cost was high and it was making it too easy for drivers"
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer...-director-explains-low-tech-approach-wrc-cars

Also, I believe that the Xsara and 306 Kit Car had TC.

Okay thanks for info. Imo those kind of assists should've never been allowed in rally cars. That 2004 is around time period when a lot of manufacturers left rally(mitsubishi,seat,hyundai,peugeot,skoda,subaru). I can understand that between 2000-2008 F1 cars had all kinds of assists but hey they're rwd and have much greater power-to-weigh ratio.

 

[Arunas]

I've done it! Survived
My biggest friends was "Engine check" and smashed windscreen from SS3 until the finish. Pfffuuu that was hard and fun, too much Eco driving for me, but fun

 

[Haris82]

Amazing! I did manage to cross the finish line!
Temperature and engine warning lights where haunting me since SS12! And radiator with "sssshhhh" noise was making me nervous from SS14!

Day 1 was full of mistakes like spins and crashes trying to find rythm...

Radiator didn`t liked this part...

Second day felt much better - no major mistakes, just some light spins without loosing much time! Not sure if bug, but on SS 12 my time was shown as fastest... Naah, probably bug!

Service before last day! Not so bad, but I still remember Finland - there also didn`t looked so bad, but engine failed on last stage!

Day 3 : Polo was leaving white smoke trail behind... I knew that any major crash gonna take away my hope to finish this event...

Luckily i managed to avoid more engine damage, mostly hitting everything with backside!

50 meters before finish line!

Great rally!
Thank you to all RaceDepartment staff who made this season to happen!
Hope to see you all on next season!

 

[Fabian Jiron]

I just finished Day 2.

Second Stage (SS10) i smashed into a tree and my Engine and Turbo took a hit and slowed me down for the rest of Day 2. As a Result my car was slower and i lost some valuable time stage after stage. But i was lucky and could hold my second place.

Driving Day 3 Saturday. I just want to finish...

 

[Evilsmurf]

Are you going to stream this , Jamie ? If so , What time .. roughly ?

I'll probably not stream as I'm going to have to do this during the day on Saturday. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I can stream it!
I'm not sure if the problem that was causing my PS4 to stream like it was on a 56k modem connection has fixed its self yet or not :/
Regardless, my driving will have gone greatly down hill as I've had little to no time in DR for a month or so now.

I will however, try my best to stream D4 once it drops

 

[Neilski]

"Strictly speaking there is not much tech in our 2011 Ford Fiesta compared to the 2004 car. In that season the car had ABS, clutch control, paddle shift, traction control, active differentials, ride height control with GPS, electronic dampers and active suspension.

Wow, I can't recall ever knowing that WRC cars had quite that much by way of tech. TC seems like a really weird one to have though - maybe it's only useful on tarmac??

As for DR, I used to drive with ABS cos of the near-total lack of brake feel (G27, unmodified brake pedal), but then I switched it off to see if I could manage without any assists (I guess I felt bad about using 'em! ) and after a little bit of adjustment in style I was more or less back to the same speed. I forgot to ever turn it back on again but on some surfaces it's probably quite helpful. (On loose surfaces I got the feeling that ABS was making me slower but I could never quantify it.)

 

[RaptorInMotion]

Oh dear, just looked and I am the ONLY one using a controller I usually only use my wheel with my Oculus Rift but now I've seen this, its only wheel/pedals from now on.

Sorry guys/gals

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Sorry guys/gals

Sorry for what? The biggest aim I've had, and continue to have with RDRC is to have a championship where every "type" of driver can participate. No matter if you are a filthy rich person, who have built a 40 square meter room, with a hydraulic motion rig, and the most expensive equipment possible. Or a student who just got some money for Christmas and could buy the game to play on a 14" screen while chilling in the sofa, using an old xBox controller

Fun is the most important thing, and I think it's better to have 180 guys having fun, than 50 guys locked with H-shift, no clutch, cockpit view only

Then we can discuss realism until we all puke, but that's the aim for RDRC at least (fun, not discussing until we puke that is)

 

[pigloaf]

Jono has a 7s lead - but there are still 5 stages to go mate

Will challenge day 3 on Saturday evening (GMT) - stay tuned...

Nice update man - I played it pretty safe on day 3 so you're in with a good chance of beating me!

 

[LuMue]

Nice update man - I played it pretty safe on day 3 so you're in with a good chance of beating me!

Well, as Alex Chainho has joined our group it won't be easier for me now...as I have to keep it safe, too

 

[quicksilver384]

Well the first 10 stages went ok. I was prety much running last and had no front right door but i was still running then on on ss 11 (i think but may have been 12) all was going great then suddenly it went into the outside slowmo and i thought what the hell (last word replaced for cencorship reasons )

 

[Thomas Lambaerts]

@Thomas: pity about that mistake costing you dearly, management says: stay calm and don't push too much, bring it home safe and sound

Who cares what management wants. I GUNNED IT! I have to admit, i did some warmup stages before i started the final day.
The rain stages went superb. But on stage 18 i brushed against a gate, and a corner later i kept bumping in to the rock wall. Unable to get away from it until i slowed down to 2nd gear. Stage 19 was lightning fast again. Nervous as hell for that final stage because i managed to gain 2 places in class. Gaining every stage from 5 to 10 seconds on my nearest competitors.
Stage 20 everything was going fine, a hairy moment here and there but no real timeloss. Until that hairpin before the watersplashes, with the bumpy braking zone. Front end a little over the rocky surface on the inside. A little timeloss there. But then the final watersplash with the gate behind it, i completely clipped that one. Doing almost a 360. Another place gained might have been in the cards but i lost some time there.
The leader in class is 44 points behind me in the drivers champ. Did i do enough? We shall see next week. At least i did the drive of my life the final day of rally wales. Dear god i'm sweating.

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Who cares what management wants. I GUNNED IT! ... i did the drive of my life the final day of rally wales. Dear god i'm sweating.

That's the spirit, very proud of you, get into the trailer and you'll see management have baked a nice big Welsh cake for you with a dragon on top

Like this:

 

[dbracedesign]

Well that was an interesting Day 1...

SS1 - Very messy in the wet. Trying to find the rhythm
SS2 - Pace was found despite a small delay on a hairpin
SS3 - An excursion costs 5 seconds
SS4 - Clean run without rain
SS5 - Roll but soon back on the road
SS6 - Engine and Radiator issues (I swear I only get in Wales)
SS7 & SS8 - Slowly picking up pace

See you all again for Day 2 and 3!

 

[Eckhart von Glan]

Wales done, but man that radiator was hissing like a Welsh draggon the last 4 stages. Glad I don't use any displays in driving view other than the dashboard, any blinking warning lights would have driven me to distraction. Managed to hit one of those bizarre rugby goals head on on stage 17 and kissed two trees on stages 16 and 20, all of which led to the Lancia not wanting to be screenshot straight from the front. Parts of stages 18-20 were nice and fluid but with the motor slowly dying i lost for instance 30 secs as compared to my first run of Sweet Lamb.
Well, tournament over, a massive big thanks to all the admins and everyone lending a helping hand and of course three cheers to all competitors, it's been a pleasure and an honour doing this together with you lot! Bring on rdrc#09!

nickname for this final day: "Dented Dave"

keeping the ribbon all intact

everyone's favourite hairpin, one last time ...

almost there!

 

[Thomas Lambaerts]

@Eckhart von Glan Join me in the trailer buddy. And have some welsh cakes with me. Great to see you finishing all rally's! Let's celebrate this great championship.

 

[Ole Marius Myrvold]

Day 1 is done for me, and I am overly careful. I mean, I'm very happy with the position so far and all that, but I am often 7-15 seconds slower than my PB in similar conditions on each stage. Hopefully that will pay off near the end with a car that are much more healthy than others, but I have no idea.

First proper corner of the rally

SS2

SS4

Finish on SS8 - Not a scratch on the car!

 

[EpilepticToast]

Man... what a tough rally! A fitting event to finish the season for sure. It was so difficult to keep this monster on the road for all 20 stages without a big crash. The rough gravel of Wales was really testing the old suspension components and trying to throw the car all over the place. Limited services made it very important to stay out of trouble, which I mostly did aside from a couple of low speed spins in the slippery rainy conditions.
Although I avoided any major contact, the internal damage became quite severe by the final service. The Lancia's suspension, driveshaft and turbo were taking the biggest hits from the rough terrain, and it had me worried something might terminally fail in the final stretch. Thankfully it held on alright and made it to the end despite making some awful strange sounds on the last stage . I suppose it could've gone a bit better but I'm pretty happy with my overall time given the circumstances.

This has been a very fun championship to experience in the Lancia Delta S4, and the victory in Germany really just put the cherry on top of a thrilling ride. Thank you so much to the entire RDRC crew for organizing everything and also for finding a way to incorporate the other platforms so any Dirt player can join in here . I'm really looking forward to the next season and hopefully Dirt 4 is a massive success!

 

[Andy Jobin]

Ole, those short vids you made are awesome

 

[Gaudin]

Oh wow, what a rally it was! Wales is a really strange one, it's more physical than any other in DR, it gets me real sweaty and there is hardly any moment to relax - think you're save and have everything under control, bam - next tree or ditch welcomes you gladly

As always, saturday morning - Rally Time! I was well prepared, confident in my training, had a good setup (thanks Ivy for your damper und suspension settings, they worked very well, even smoother and easier to handle with a bit of damage to them), good nights rest, a shower and on we got!

Started with great caution and care, no damaged windscreen as goal for the first service. Made it without any big mistakes to service one, and had to take a break - wasn't planned though, but my playseat decided to get a bit loose after all the training, and the main screw untightend itself during stage 8 in the last fast sector - so my pedals keept moving further and further away from my feet, this was tricky, lucky it happend at the end of the stage.

So, tightend up the screw, had another coffee and with no further incidents made it through to the last one - Sweet Lamb, and sweet it was - although quite a bit of internal damage, the engine light was not on, the radiator sounded as ever, after 19 stages, but not the tractor noise and not the air-vent noise. Had one of those moments where you're totally into the stage, came out of the forest on to the more open area, asking myself, how the hell did I get here, and why does everything feels so smooth and easy?!? With a big smile finished the rest of this beautiful stage in under 6 minutes - which is always pleasing for me, meant no errors, as I wasnt quite sure at the end if there where any - love this feeling!

The itineray of this event was just expectional, I love long strechtes without service, keeps me flowing and concentrated, for me just the right amount of repairs available - my Subaru felt sometimes really easy and smooth to handle, not quite the speed rocket, but steady and stable, and lovely to drive. The setup of the stages with the perfect matching of conditions made it a real pleasure to drive - the 5 long ones in the middle, followed by the rainy night stages, a real challenge but gladly accepted hrr - and some sun at the end to enjoy, couldnt be any better.

A big THANKS to all involved organizing this amazing Event, it brought the fun and competition back for me in DR, a goal to reach, lots a good drivers to compete against, loved my trainings, fiddling with the setups etc. - it was REAL fun to participate here! Sadly, thats it now

My hopes that DR4 will get VR arent lost yet, so maybe, if possible, surely Saison 9 will be even better!

And this time, I managed to get some pictures taken - last stage pictures, car looks almost as new