World Rallycross R1 - Barcelona, Spain

[ebby]

Well said Hickey. A slightly longer tyre wall at turn 1 too wouldn't go a miss!

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[chunder]

Dislike of IMG has nothing to do with the action on track, it never has, other than the false circuits being made.

The rest of the situation needs work though

[pettersolberg29]

Bakkerud is always moaning about how newcomers are 'ruining the history of the sport' - such nonsense. Smashing into each other is not 'the history of the sport.

Bakkerud treats World RX like bumper cars, and everyone in the paddock knows it. There's a whole group of them - Block, Hansen, Timerzyanov - who just ram into people and don't bother to take corners.

Drivers like Loeb and Ekstrom are fair, and have every reason to be frustrated when people punt them off. If they can succeed and overtake without hitting people then others should do the same!

As for Solberg hitting Bakkerud into the wall -nonsense! Bakkerud, as always, just pulled across before getting past and hit Petter on the nose. It's a racing incident, but more blame on Andreas than Petter or Ekstrom!

[crossfades]

I think Bakkerud mean that the newcomers aren't rallycross profiles. WRX isn't a championship with just rallycrossers, it is a series blended with guys well known from other disciplines. Even Mikkelsen said last year that WRX was a championship for the retired or drivers past their prime. Doing rallycross seems to be more of a fun thing to try for many motorsport stars, or for settling down.

I also think he meant that it was tougher in the past. Not a clean himself driver but still, he has a point.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by Barrie

Just watched the highlights. The drivers may like the circuit, I didn't.

Have to say I agree with this - it may be nice sitting there in person in the sun with a San Miguel in hand (not jealous ) but on the highlights the circuit looks dreadful.

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by crossfades

Bakkerud talks about the reprimand about 2:00 in, don't know exactly. Footage as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IarrqQVIvPY&t=0s

Some action from yesterday. Can't believe it is so slippery! Quite a wreckfest too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4aK...ature=youtu.be

Enjoyed that, always more fun to watch in the rain, although there were a few biggies

[chunder]

Bakkerud needs to go back to school, he is not old school in any way, he is just Norwegian which he thinks makes him old school. It an old rivalry the Swedes and the Norwegians, and goes back decades in rallycross.

I ahve not watched a second of this weekend, have little interest in doing so. But Bakkerud is a contact man, so now is Timmy Hansen, he wasn't initially but is now. Solberg isnt really, nor is Ekstrom, nor are one or two others, and they do most of the winning coz they get out of the way.

The stakes are so big now you are going to get this garbage driving, it is almost accepted.

I am happy to leave them to it, this is not realy rallycross, it is more like a jnior version of DTM or BTCC. And THAT is what IMG want you to think. Manufacturers, team racing.

Stupid as none of them are true manufacturers other than Msport, and they represent a totally different car to WRC.

[Silhuette]

I watched the live coverage and I can't really think of any particular issues of excessive contact. Some loving taps is to be expected I think.

Block made pretty heavy handed contact trying to get get back in front after being passed by Marklund(?) coming out of the joker in Q4. He might come to regret that one.

Bakkerud had a pretty solid crash in Q2 but otherwise kept his car in one piece.

Timo Scheider drove really well, fast, clean lines, confident in battle. You can tell he considers himself part of the front runners.

I suppose if Scheider, Loeb, Solberg and Ekström are old have-beens, the "retired pros" argument might make sense. I certainly don't subscribe to this though.

[Hickey]

If Timo puts a good performance in Germany and Portugal, will he reconsider dropping out of Lydden?

Solberg is not a squeaky clean driver. I'm guessing that there's som bias there. He loves a little tap and pass. I don't mind any of this, I think it's inevitable when you have tight circuits with no places to pass. It's also the essence of rallycross, how many times did Murray Walker refer to door handling when he commentated on rallycross back in the day? There was nothing too bad over the weekend that should have been punished , not even the massive RX8 accident.

Nothing is a patch on what Marklund did to Timur at Estering last year. And that wasn't punished.

Consistency is the issue, clearly.

It was a great circuit to spectate at, a great quality field with some hard driving. The circuit was a good layout but lacked overtaking opportunities. That said, there was more overtaking than the first weekend of F1. It looked a lot better than Portugal too, in terms of overtaking.

[Silhuette]

I think both Solberg and Ekström can dish it out as hard as most drivers, but they are being careful because they need an undamaged car in order to get every single point possible.

And I agree, I don't think ramming Marklund was very smart of Block - Marklund is certainly willing to trade blows and he probably is willing to do a wholly different level of damage on a bad day.

[tbtstt]

My feet are still burning from all the walking, but I really enjoyed my first trip to Barcelona!

The track really surprised me, some sections of it looked very different to what I envisaged based on watching previous TV coverage. Also some sections (particularly the last two corners) were much faster than I thought.

Overall I thought it was a very promising start to the World Championship (ditto for the Euros as well). Challenges from some unexpected quarters, a very solid debut for the PSRXVW team and a lot of close racing. Finally seeing the PSRXVW Polo was very interesting as well (well, it was to me anyway!). Would be really keen to understand why the engineers have selected that configuration over the norm!

[crossfades]

Got told that it could be because of the weight distribution, they have been working quite a lot with it.

[Silhuette]

I have been thinking of the differences between a WRX car and the conventions in RX.

I believe WRC cars are built lighter and then ballasted to weight, so a front mount cooler would save overall weight and allow more ballast to be carried in the rear. This again would allow precise tuning of mass balance and polar movement. Note how flat the Polo runs over jumps.

Also, according to an interview with the VW Motorsport development lead, the Polos are running WRC transmissions. They are probably not optimized for standing starts. We all saw Kristofferson complaining that the car was hard to launch. Looks like the car launches and then bogs, so it might need a heavier flywheel and or a clutch that allows more slip. Solberg said on Norwegian TV the old car was 0.3s faster to 100m than this one. That is a lot in a car that does 100 kph in around 2 sec and 30 meters.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by crossfades

Got told that it could be because of the weight distribution, they have been working quite a lot with it.

Interesting if this is the case. I always understood that locating the radiators in the rear of the car helped with the weight distribution, as it brings the car closer to 50:50.

The only possible advantage I think of is efficiency: without the additional pipework perhaps the size of the radiator package can be reduced?

Originally Posted by Silhuette

Note how flat the Polo runs over jumps.

Not sure I'd agree with this: I saw the PSRXVW Polos nosing in quite a few times over the weekend, more so than any other Supercar.

Originally Posted by Silhuette

We all saw Kristofferson complaining that the car was hard to launch.

That's interesting to read: Solberg and Kristofferson both had quite a few botched starts during the practice, at the time I wasn't sure if they were just playing with settings or if the car was hard to launch.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by tbtstt

Solberg and Kristofferson both had quite a few botched starts during the practice, at the time I wasn't sure if they were just playing with settings or if the car was hard to launch.

Considering how important the start is you'd have thought that would be one of the areas they concentrate on most? If they are using the WRC gearbox - is it up to the job? I know the WRC cars have more grunt now but they're still not pushing out torque anywhere near the level of the rallycross cars - so is the gearbox / drive train an issue for the Polos?

[crossfades]

F-X Demaison chief engineer talks about the Polo.

https://www.facebook.com/mwmsports/v...PAGES_TIMELINE

[Silhuette]

Originally Posted by crossfades

F-X Demaison chief engineer talks about the Polo.

https://www.facebook.com/mwmsports/v...PAGES_TIMELINE

Thanks for the link! This is the vid I was referring to. Petter commented on the poor starts in the finals by saying the car is still being developed and that "we could be sure the awful starts would be fixed until the next race and that he knew how to get things done really quickly".

Also note the air intakes over the rear wheels in this video. I am a bit surprised but it seems they tested with a rear mount cooler and decided to go with a front mount.

Funny how we seem to have such different impressions of the Polo's in flight characteristics I might just be remembering what suits me.

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by Silhuette

Funny how we seem to have such different impressions of the Polo's in flight characteristics I might just be remembering what suits me.

I think I got some pictures of the Polo landing nose first, so I'll put them up once I have sorted through them!

[juha205]

Originally Posted by Silhuette

Also note the air intakes over the rear wheels in this video. I am a bit surprised but it seems they tested with a rear mount cooler and decided to go with a front mount.

The air intakes are simulated with stickers

[Silhuette]

Really? That's awesome

[juha205]

Originally Posted by Silhuette

Really? That's awesome

In this pic you can see it:



and nothing in the boot...

[crossfades]

I hate stickers like that. Stickers that are supposed to like lamps are even worse.

[Silhuette]

Originally Posted by juha205

In this pic you can see it:



and nothing in the boot...

Good find!

Will be interesting to follow these guys through the season. How long until the next team goes front mount?

[chunder]

The moment one of them retires with a blown rad after inevitably hitting someone.

Things might change

[Silhuette]

Well, I totally see that happening. At the same time interesting to see how the influx of professional race engineers from other motorsports are changing the way these cars are built.

I think there are some very good driver - engineers in the sport, but there may also be some practices that are more traditional and might change. Rear mount cooler could easily turn out not to be one...

Memories of the Prodrive WRC-cars around 2006-07 coming to mind. What a disappointment.