ApexAzimuth

I honestly didn't expect to do that well in Group A. RWD seems to be where my strength is but maybe some of that throttle discipline is helping my AWD game. I still feel like I'm a mere student of the four wheels. SS1-SS3 went very well. I seem to manage understeer in wet conditions pretty well, despite understeer being my kryptonite. I was just behind Yabby through the first leg. The shock of going from worn tires on mud to fresh tires on dry gravel really jarred me in SS4 though, and I struggled to keep up with Yabby after losing a bit of confidence from biting the inside walls of a few corners, underestimating my grip. Still did decently on SS4-SS6. Then I once again got jarred by the sudden grip in SS7, and rolled the car by mounting the inside of a corner, again underestimating my grip. Managed to recover though SS7 was my weakest time overall by far. I'm really enjoying the Legacy, curious how well it competes with the Delta overall. Time will tell!

I struggle with 4WD cars after driving RWD cars for a long time, and I've found that the "secret sauce" for all wheel drive is left foot braking, as @Mike Dee and others have said. Fight your habit of completely releasing the throttle when you brake for a corner, and completely releasing the brake when you exit a corner. Instead of totally letting go, back off to about 1/4th or 1/2 throttle/brake, and otherwise steer as you normally would out of a corner. When you get more used to that, you can start to apply throttle and braking modulation mid-corner to help the car rotate how you want it to. When you're noticing just a little understeer and you want the car to rotate more without tossing it, experiment by just touching the brakes without lifting off the throttle. It's very counter intuitive to driving styles apart from rallying, but it's amazing what your car can do when you can put that drive on all 4 wheels to work. The other thing that helps me also is being less liberal about counter steering, and more liberal about steering HARD mid corner. I've always had a tendency to steer too little with AWD cars, and once I start cranking that wheel more, the car responds pretty well.

My first car was a first generation Legacy sport, and they nailed the feeling of the Legacy. The sound of the engine and turbo, the turbo lag, and the interior of it in VR actually gives me a strange nostalgia. Granted this thing drives like my Legacy if it were brand new and perfectly tuned, but the feeling is real. Gave me chills up my spine.

I'd hate to see Finland get the boot for the next championship as there's nothing like it, but I'll support however @SkyRex chooses to decide. I think we're fairly confident that the Legacy will fall under Group A, so if that holds true, I say we go Group A for next round.

I'd have to agree with @SkyRex about Germany for the same reasons. We don't know what the Scotland stages will play like, so it's not really fair to put Wales on the cutting block just because it's on the same landmass. Wales is such an international icon of rally. In terms of personality, there's nothing even similar to Finland, so I would definitely hate to see it go. Dirt Rally 2.0's simulation is pretty on-point except in the tarmac department, so if any stages have to go, I'd vote for the Tarmac ones.

@SkyRex Since my first car was a first generation Subaru Legacy turbo, I'm gonna wanna drive the Legacy in the next championship. Since we don't know what class the Legacy will be in (though I suspect Group A), I'd prefer to wait until we know what class it's in. Thanks again for hosting these championships! These really invigorate my excitement for rallying.

Apparently my Spain run wasn't as bad as it felt. In hindsight that makes my post look arrogant. I suppose that's a risk when I drive before anyone else. Regardless of whether the next championship starts before or after Flatout comes out, I won't pick R5 or Group B (4WD) since it feels like every other club does both those classes only. I'm considering maybe RallyGT, Group B (RWD), or 2000cc. 🤷‍♂️

Edit: Le Spam is gone! Thanks PJ!

You all shouldn't have any trouble overtaking me in Spain. My run just emphasized how bad I am at tarmac rallying. 😂 Aside from what felt like sluggish and clumsy driving, I had 3 spins and 2 crashes which I was lucky to get away from. Tarmac in DR2.0 just doesn't click with me at all, and it's especially worse with fresh, soft tyres. I have the hardest time estimating my grip because I can't feel when I'm losing it. I do better on tarmac on worn tyres or in the rain because at least then I can feel where the limits are. But the acceleration and braking grip you gain from soft tyres is too good for me to just go with mediums. Even though I drive more smoothly on tyres with less grip, and I'm less likely to crash, I'm still slower than someone that's on softs regardless. (Softs are OP af)

🤔

VR has become far more mainstream even just a year after DR2.0's launch. During the holidays, the flagship HMDs (Vive, Index, Rift) completely sold out. To say not so many players use it is probably misinformed. The other important thing to note is that a large slice of the VR userbase are simracers who care passionately about VR support in their racing games. Soon enough, if not already, VR support in sim racing is almost as important as wheel support, as there are probably a comparable number of users that have racing wheels to the number of users with VR.

I really didn't expect to come out ahead in Germany, as it's my 2nd weakest rally, only just a little better than the Monte for me. Given that I usually misjudge corners after those straights, and that I'm generally embarassingly slow in Germany, I opted for a safe and conservative strategy, just hoping to finish cleanly and I'd have been happy with 4th. I know I wasn't particularly fast because my driving is clumsy on the panzerplatte; usually braking way too much and too early, because of my fear of braking too late and ending my rally (this has happened too often..) In the end though, the only mistake I had was a half spin on a hairpin in SS4 which probably only cost me a second or two. I think my safety-over-speed strategy just happened to pay off here due to the misfortune of everyone else. 😞

I'm horrible on Tarmac typically, so you probably won't have to worry about me here 🤣

After the event reset yesterday, as well as Racenet being really hit-and-miss, I noticed the setups I saved last weekend were completely missing, as if my save had been reverted to a backup. This has happened once before to me, but I wonder if anyone else is having this problem and maybe any insight as to what causes it?

This might seem a bit nuts but it would be cool to experiment with. Doing your own Recce and Pacenotes. It might be tedious and awkward but we know it's possible as there's a mod out there that lets you do this. If a system like that were refined and put in the game, it could be a cool way to communicate that aspect of rallying in a game. Multiplayer ride-along/Co-Drive. This would also be nuts, but it would be really fun to have the game support a co-driver that rides along with you in the stage. There could be an in-game UI for a co-driver to show pacenotes on screen and check them off as you go. This would definitely be unusual, but it'd be an awesome option for players to experience being a co-driver. Clubs that required real co-drivers (AI Co-Driver disabled) could be made that could have a really authentic experience. At the least, it would be cool to have the option to join someone in the co-driver's seat just to ride along, even if they're not doing pacenotes.