Round 1 - Monte Carlo

Alrighty folks, another exilirating season for the WRC has started! This past week the WRC had its traditional season opener at Monte Carlo for the 75th year running. Big changes however to this new season. From near Monte Carlo itself the race has been moved further back to Valence where it hasn't been held in over 20 years. In addition the night time racing has been brought back, giving the younger more inexperienced participants trouble. Also the restart rule has been modified to penalize your 1st accident moreso then last year. A 10 min penelty will be handed out for the 1st misshap, none for the 2nd and 5min for every other after that.
But this isn't the only news for the 07 season. Many manufatures are now sporting a new look and i don't mean just a new paint job. Citroen has compleated it's testing on the new C4 and will be entering it in its 1st event ever. S. Loeb, accompanied by D. Sordo, will be the 2 confirmed drivers for the 07 season. Stobart has now compleatly upgrade all it cars to the 06 model and Soleberg senior will be behind the wheel of the 1st car. Last year this promessing driver has shown plenty of courage and determination and battels with his younger brother Peter promiss to be interesting. Also Subaru has announced the unvailing of the new vehicel at the Mexico Rally, and with Pirelli dropped in favor of the BFGoodridge tire this year the team promisses to be much more competitive.
In addition both Suzuki and Mitsubishi will be participating in limited events to test the new 2008 models. Plenty of excitments packed events are lined up this year and with 3 compleatly new rounds added i'm sure that the season will bring us much more heart pounding driving then ever before! As always i will be keeping updates on the season and if any of you are interested in finding out more about the sport please visit the official web site at:

http://www.wrc.com/page/Home/0,,10111,00.html
http://www.fia.com/index_1024.html

Here's a short preview of day 1 and day 2



And here are some of the snap shots!!

 

nice thanx for the info....

 

man..i wish i had this channel at home.

 

The fact that America gets all boozed up and watches hillbillies turn left all day while nobody even knows what Rally is stuns me to no end.

I do have to say that I think I actually like Rally America a little better than WRC in that WRC is almost an all out speed fest anymore with the worst sections being smoother than some of the best in America like STPR and 100AW.

I can recall last year at 100AW folks saying that some of the sections were too fast with our car flat out running out of gears maxing out with EGTs limiting our top speed on some sections. That would seem to be the norm in WRC.

 

I hear you on the high speed stages in WRC, certainly is the case with some like Catalunya on tarmac (I remember seeing some stages where drivers were bouncing off the rev limiter in 6th speed on long straights) and also Finland on gravel which is also high speed. However, there are some events that are lower speed, like Cyprus (which is really rough). Overall I think WRC has a pretty good mix of events in terms of surfaces, average speeds, and so forth.

 

i think that the reason behind mixed styles of stages is so that the drivers are tested all around and we can truely see who the best driver is under all conditions nomater of long fast straights or small twisty slow sections!

 

Agreed. In think in the WRC they try to ensure a mix of surfaces and conditions to test comepitors and crews, which is good since for me this is the essence of rallying.

 

i just finished watch the rally. totally kick ***

 

Thank you for those 2 videos. I hate not having a U.S. broadcasting station to view WRC. Anyone know what happened to the rumor of some big company besides Speed or FOX airing WRC for the future.

 

Wow - seriously amazing write up.

For the rest of us in America who cant watch it because SpeedTv would rather show left turn racing, the thing is go to torrentspy.com, and after every rally you can download the Eurosport coverage. Typically they are all available that Monday after the rally weekend and you can find them by just going and typing in "WRC".

Completely worthwhile IMO because now I can watch my rally!

 

hell yea... i expect this from u for every rally

and wheres teh vid from montcarlo.. i wana see the cars rippin up teh streets!

 

*Thank you for that info Boomstick Been lookin' for a while*

 

rally703.com

 

Happy to help!

4 days 20 hours till Rally Sweden!

 

Great collection of pics and good info! I hope Mitsu can find some more speed to fight for a podium.