tbtstt

KickUp said: tbtstt said: That was pretty damn cryptic! :D Love Ryan's car, drooled over it several times at the Festival of Speed.   Is anyone from Codemasters going to be at the World Rallycross this weekend? Half a day of work to go... I am already far too excited! Not sure if anyone else is going. I can't make it this year. :( Shame, its shaping up to be a hell of a weekend.

That was pretty damn cryptic! :D Love Ryan's car, drooled over it several times at the Festival of Speed.   Is anyone from Codemasters going to be at the World Rallycross this weekend? Half a day of work to go... I am already far too excited!

gfRally said: Maybe I am out in left field here, but isn't Liam Doran been mentioned before? As RallyDriven said I believe Liam Doran was involved with DiRT 3 (his name is certainly in the game). That leg in the video doesn't look like Liam either! Elfyn Evans is a good guess. Are we getting warm yet @JonTucker and @KickUp, or are we miles off?

MastaVonBlasta said: Another explanation is that Andrew Jordan owns more than one pair of shoes. I own more than one pair of shoes and I'm not a BTCC Champion, so I would think he owns more than one pair! :D Perhaps David Binks again?

My first thought is Andrew Jordan @MastaVonBlasta. Will head over to Twitter now and read what has been said!

Great read Lee! Its nice to see older gamers (I mean that respectfully! ;)) who remember the roots of the series at the helm. For me CMR really came at the perfect time to get me hooked. McRae's WRC title in '95 had shifted rally from a casual interest to my fave sport, McRae himself was just spectacular and Subaru's were the coolest thing ever. My introduction came to CMR after I bought a Playstation magazine driving special which came with a demo disc (ah, the good old days of cover-mounted demo discs!). After being rather disappointed with V Rally I tried the CMR demo, loved it and decided it was worth the sizeable investment (£30 was a lot when I was 16!) to get the full game. I've subsequently purchased and completed every CMR and DiRT title (with the exception of Showdown, which I don't class as part of the series). Although I have enjoyed other driving games along the way, the CMR/DiRT games are one of the few driving series that I have stuck with from day 1.

CMR 2.0 for me as well (with CMR 2005 in a very close second!).

Perhaps I've been spoilt with the level of PR we have seen for RallycrossRX/World Rallycross, but I thought the GRC did a very poor job with communication for round one.  All the heat times/positions I picked up were from drivers individual Facebook pages rather then the main GRC page, plus the live timing seems very erratic. I thought the support of Red Bull would improve the speed they fed results back, not slow it down!

Also just seen on Facebook that Pat Doran's rallycross RS200 (Rosie) is almost complete ready for next weekend: Heard some interesting numbers with regards to Group B cars in attendance: fingers crossed they all make it to the circuit!

38 Supercars now (and I've heard a rumour that there may still be more to come) I shall be there for the whole weekend: if I spot someone in Codemasters gear I shall accost them and demand information!

A livery creator would be superb but, failing that, I just hope they get as many real liveries in game as possible (and that all the "fake" liveries are kept sensible).

On the assumption that the Cat B cars are basically DTM I've voted there... however Cat C comes a VERY close second and the classic Touring Cars a very close third!

Just read the blog and the above car list. My anticipation for Autosport just jumped up several notches; virtually all the Touring Car bases I was hoping for covered by that list. Fingers crossed for Super GT and the Circuit de la Sarthe appearing in the endurance class now...

Thats a shame @RallyDriven. There will be more rallycross though, but only one shot at your exams! ;)

Haha! I just noticed the little note in the top right corner. You sods Codemasters! :D   EDIT: Zoom in on the top right: Above the McRae poster: "lol we shopped it out. nice try though"    

Looks like DiRT 1? (Though I see a CMR04 box on the desk)(and what looks like a model of McRae's Legacy at the end of the desk!)

Good spot: definately looks like turns 1 and 2 of the Hell track! Got my fingers crossed this is a hint of whats to come. Is Hell the track with the big blind jump on it? If so, that would be one cool track to race on. Höljesbanan has a couple of blind crest/jumps at corners :) Holjes is such a cool track to watch. I desperately want to get there for a round of the World Championship!

Good spot: definately looks like turns 1 and 2 of the Hell track! Got my fingers crossed this is a hint of whats to come. Is Hell the track with the big blind jump on it? If so, that would be one cool track to race on. I think Kouvola (Finland) might be where you are thinking of; big jump which leads immediately into a hairpin right. http://youtu.be/EZnMZO8okUY The jump/corner is shown briefly at 0:20 (sorry, haven't got enough to time to find a better clip right now!)

Good spot: definately looks like turns 1 and 2 of the Hell track! Got my fingers crossed this is a hint of whats to come.

Ha, no worries @MastaVonBlasta! I am always trying to increase my knowledge on rallycross, so I always like reading peoples observations on the cars or drivers: chances are someone else will know something I don't or have spotted something I haven't seen! :) The Pipo engine is a possibility. Having said that the Ford's are running well developed Mountune engines, so they are not exactly slow! The way he pulled them in could be due to gearing or even the mapping of the engine rather than the way the engine is built; even though the turbo inlet size is restricted (and there are a lot of restrictions on the construction of the engines) it always amazes me how much engine mapping can be used alter the performance (and power delivery) of an engine. I don't know specific costs, but I do know that WRC is still more expensive (for now anyway). I read a couple of interviews with Henning Solberg earlier this year where he was talking about running either in either WRC or WRX. He directly stated in those interviews that the WRC rounds were more pricey. However, if the World Rallycross Championship continues to grow (and the front running teams continue to pull bigger sponsors) then the cost of competition is likely to rise further. Perhaps then the WRC will be the cheaper option...

Derek Tohill, from what I remember, is driving Liam's last year's car and his wing resembles WRC car designs:  The wing on Petter's car seems to have undergone quite a bit of development: In this gallery the differences between rear wings can be clearly noticed and Petter's team have more longitudinal winglets whem compared with their competition. From what I know from following some F1 tech guys, having such strakes may decrease overall downforce when going straight but they make the wing produce more consistent downforce when the car is in yaw, going sideways as Petter does. Also in one of the slow-mo shots I've noticed that PS 110% team cars have VERY flexible front bumpers which deflect when hitting a deep rut and come back to original shape once the contact is over. By doing that they'll keep on having the design bodywork shape for as long as possible = better airflow. If Petter's team did indeed take on rear wing development by themselves and perfected the engine package by making it reliable (not on Hvaal's car...) and powerful they are looking serious :) Derek Tohill is driving the ex-Andreas Bakkerud DS3, Kristof Skorupski is in the ex-Pat Doran DS3. As far as I know Liam is running a modified version of his 2013 car. There was talk of a fourth DS3, but neither it (nor a fourth driver) seems to have materialised. I suspect the departure of Bakkerud threw a spanner in the works for LD Motorsport. Petter was running that wing last year, this was taken in France mid-season: I haven't got a clear picture of the wing in my photos from Round 1, but I think he had the same wing on for the entirety of 2013. It an interesting design though; it seems to take some influence from the Subaru/later WRCar wings (plus it looks cool! :D). Would be interesting to know the exact reason for the addition of the winglets; if it has some benefit for when the car is travelling sideways then it definately needs to be on Solbergs car! :D As far as I'm aware both PS RX cars are running the same engine. Petter was using Julian Godfrey engines in 2013, but he had a lot of problems; he actually left Sweden with minus Championship points last year as he had to change engine three times! (and it was -15 points every time they swapped the engine). He has switched to Pipo engines for 2014: Block is the only other driver running a Pipo engine in a rallycross car. Like I said, no expense spared... ;)

PS3 controller, manual transmission. Have never actually played a DiRT game with a wheel... :\">

I think for a first event the Montalegre round turned out quite well. I was quite angry at the start of coverage, because commentary was missing! Luckily it came back once they were live for the semis. Petter's pace was hugely impressive all through the weekend. He completely dominated Sunday. His start in the final was rather interesting as once they got off the line he caught up! Wonder why that is? Better gearing, more torque or power? How could he catch up to the Ford next to him? I got an impression that Montalegre track is not the easiest one for overtaking. The gravel section has pretty much only one line and is very difficult to barge through. Then on the approach to the first hairpin covering the inside pretty much guarantees that the attacker won't get past. I also loved how enthusiastic the drivers were. The press conference with Petter and BabyBlue Bakkerud was good fun and it showed how hard Petter has worked for this. I wonder if the ratings were good for Eurosport on this as I hope this series will keep on growing. Hansen-Peugeot have good pace in their car - I think they will be strong contenders all year long.  Yeah Jacques V. has got a steep learning curve ahead of him. I was also disappointed with Liam Doran's team - while I'm not a fan of him being 'stoked' all the time I hoped that they'll put up a fight. Hopefully, they'll be in a better shape for Lydden Hill. Liam's got a Polish teammate Skorupski and I'm hoping he'll be in the mix too. There's one more Polish competitor and he's a bit of a joke. I think it's mostly down to his very out-dated Fiesta but still... Onto the next one! And just like you @tbtstt I really hope the next game will have an official licence for World RX I ended up watching the highlight programme immediately after the livestream (so I heard the full commentary), but I had read there were problems during the livestream. Fingers crossed they get that sorted for the rest of the coverage. The livestreams were really good last year, so they should be even better in 2014, not worse! I daresay Solbergs start was a combination of those factors, helped some very late braking! Solberg was holding the inside line and the Ford didn't really have enough of a lead to shut the door on Solberg. As an aside though Solbergs cars are arguably the most advanced in the paddock: he threw money at the car last year and has done more spending over the Winter, so they should be quick! Bakkerud is bonkers: he always looks happy! Part of the reason I'm such a big Solberg fan is that he is always enthusiastic. Villenueve looked well off the pace. Obviously the car issues weren't his fault but even so, when the car was working, his times were well off. Perhaps he'll fare better on the faster, less technical, circuits. The LD Motorsport situtation was a bit odd. They have done loads of testing, then both cars failed for heat 1 and 2? Very strange. I'm not a big fan of Liam, but he was fast last year and should be a front runner in 2014, so hopefully the cars will be sorted for next time out. Kristof Skorupski looked to be getting to be grips with the DS3 when he ran at Lydden earlier in the year, so he could be one to watch... when the car is working anyway! Ah, you mean Bohdan Ludwiczak? "Joke" is a bit harsh! :D The only problem with the bigger World Championship is that the financial divide between the bigger teams and privateers is rapidly increasing, so its harder for the privateers to be competitive. As I said though, Pauwels proved its still possible to be competitive and I hope the privateers continue to fight the bigger teams. Roll on Round 2 at Lydden: I shall be there! :)

I would LOVE for Codies to get the license to this! I too have been seriously looking forward to this years Championship and I was very pleased to see Solberg finally take his first rallycross win over the weekend. Not a brilliant start from Solberg in the final (perhaps a hint of caution after last years jump start in Portugal) but a clear win. Great drive from the Fords, especially Nitiss and good work from Pauwels to make the final. Not a brilliant weekend for the Hansen team, but at least they faired better than the Albatec Peugeots. From the little snippets they showed in the hour highlight program Villeneuve didn't look anywhere near competitive.

DiRT had my fave stages/circuits, but compared to DiRT 2 and 3 the handling and (to a lesser extent) the audio was inferior. DiRT 3 had far better content than DiRT 2 in my opinion, so thats my clear winner!