YoMrWhite

Had to do Poland today, because I'm away for a few days, but my mind was already elsewhere. Crashes, 2 punctures, one roll, not a single stage without either a crash, a punctured tyre or a severely damaged car. One to forget, really.

Decent start in SS1, then I rolled in SS2 when the Peugeot reacted quite strangely after touching the concrete gravel at the side of the road. After that, a few more near crashes in SS3. Took a break, had dinner and a glass of wine and that obviously worked. The second half of the rally was much smoother and my times not too far off. Hmmm...

A good event for me, too. I wasn't sure about the grip level in the rain, so I held back too much in SS1. SS2 and SS3 were better, but it really started to click after service. I managed to reduce the gap to @Dytut to 5 seconds, then lost 2 again in SS6. I pushed hard in SS7, although I knew I was probably too far back. Gained 2 seconds in the first two sectors, then I was too optimistic in a fast righthander and left the road. I managed to get the car sideways before I hit a rock, so I just lost a few seconds and didn't even get a puncture. Finally some good luck and a very inspiring fight till the end. That's the way it should be!

For me, it was SS1, SS4 and SS7. SS5 and SS6 were awful too, but mostly because of the SS4 crash. Oh well...

I definitely have to work on my concentration, New England being a new low. After two thirds of the first stage (not brilliant, but solid), I had to take a short break to tend to the first of two family requests of - let's say varying - importance. Shortly after the first break, I had a crash, of course with the obligatory puncture. Here we go again! The second break completely destroyed what was left of my concentration. I reached service with a badly damaged car, did some repairs and promptly crashed again in SS4. This one was worse, as you can tell by a look at my stage times in SS4 to SS6. I was surprised I even reached service, but I didn't want to give up. It's endurance after all, isn't it? Some repairs later, I started SS7 and instantly made a major mistake, crashing heavily into a fence. Another tyre was gone and the game suggested retirement. No way! I was able to nurse the car home, crawling over the finish line in second gear, as the car wouldn't go any faster. Quite the painful experience, I have to say.

Started decent in SS1, in SS2 I had one of those annoying automatic resets when I hit a wooden barrier with the left rear. 8 seconds gone, plus the loss of speed. In SS3 I somehow completely lost my rhythm and picked up a puncture halfway through the stage. SS4 to SS7 went much better, roughly matching @Dytut. Too little too late but better than Spain. Now I really hope to avoid punctures in the next few events.

Spain is one of my least favourite locations in DR2. Kind of boring, but nevertheless I often crash. SS1 was quite good, in SS2 I left the road for a few seconds, in SS3 I crashed heavily. As in Australia, two tyres were gone and in the service I couldn't repair everything and had to drive SS4 to 6 seriously underpowered. At least I was so slow I was literally unable to have another accident. Did repairs, but had to leave the game, and when I continued I didn't check - repairs were gone and I had to start SS7 with a badly damaged car and worn tyres. Of course then I finally managed to have another crash, puncturing another tyre and dropping another place. Very stupid.

I never even try to really set up the car. Sometimes I change the gear ratios and adjust the brake balance, but that's it. In most cases, it's just the stock setup and go. Greece (stock setup and soft tyres) was quite good. After the two rocky events down under I really wanted a clean rally, so I tried to be precise and avoid any big risks in the first three stages. In the second part I tried to open up a bit more, but had one roll in SS4 and a spin in SS5, so I reverted to my initial tactic. Beating @Snaky115was out of the question. A really dominant performance. About the tyres: I had the feeling they were already losing some grip in the second half of the second stages, but maybe that was just my imagination. In the third stage, the loss of grip was obvious, but manageable.

Ouch.

Issues, indeed. In my case a crash, a blown tyre and a badly damaged engine. Australia is one of my least favourite rallies and I crash regularly, so I started out a bit tentative in SS1. SS2 was better and just as I began to feel comfortable, I crashed in SS3. Limped home without changing the tyre, but the engine (and turbo and radiator and wheel geometry... you get the picture) was so badly damaged I couldn't repair it without penalty. So I just fixed the radiator and a few other parts. SS 4 to 6 were a lesson in patience, the engine sounding awful and the car getting slower and slower. At least I avoided terminal damage and made it to the end.

That was over quickly. After being quite fast in the first two sectors, I had a innocent looking contact with a barrier and got a puncture warning. The problem was, I actually punctured both tyres on the right side of the car and had only one spare. I changed one wheel and carried on for another sector, but figured out it would make no sense continuing with two and a half long stages still to come. So there's my first DNF of the season. Unlucky.

Aaaaaand without the forced cockpit camera. Very nice!

I would definitely love to come back and have a shot at you guys if the forced cockpit camera is waived.

Played most of those games, too. CMR and CMR2 were great fun and still give me fond memories. An early favourite was Mobil 1 Rally Championship with some of those incredibly long stages, longer than in any other game to date. Up to 20/25 minutes, if I remember correctly. On the tougher rallies, you really had to look after your car and couldn't go flat out all the time. Rally Trophy was great, too, although a bit shallow in content. A few more cars and tracks - or longer ones - would have been great. But driving the Volvo Amazon, Ford Cortina or Saab 96 was magic. If only DR2 had more of those 60's gems. (I really like the addition of the DS21 and Datsun 240Z, though) RBR was, well RBR. Hardcore, but at times extremely satisfying, especially in Japan and Wales (England?). More cars would have been great, of course. The perfect game? Take the handling of RBR or DR2, the stage length of Mobil 1 Rally Championship, the nostalgia of Rally Trophy and the cars of all of those games plus some classic challenges like the Safari. Let's see what DR3 does, whenever it appears. In my opinion, not having the WRC license is definitely no disadvantage, because it encourages bringing a wider range of classics into the game.

Let's put it this way: No

Great. So I took not only one of the slower cars, but also one with bad visibility… I should have compared before. Concerning track knowledge: For me it's always a mixture between copilot and visuals, as you can't completely trust the notes in some places (hello Australia and USA). And this visual Impression of course changes a lot if you switch to cockpit view.

Well, it ended quickly. Lost the car in a fast corner, found myself between some trees, losing orientation and quit. Apart from not enjoying cockpit view, the most difficult part (for me) is that you have to adjust your visuals. The stages just look different, so I had to guess about braking points and so on. I'm afraid I won't invest the time needed to adjust or learn the tracks again.

So I indeed started the first event under protest - or call it an experiment. I did two test runs of the first stage. In chase cam, I did a clean run in 6.20, in cockpit view, a not so clean 6.31, both without spare tyres, I think (time trial). In competition, I was able to do a 6.28, with a spare tyre of course. As this was only the second attempt with this view, I think I would be able to shave off some more seconds with more practice. So I definitely think cockpit cam is not much of a disadvantage. Unfortunately, I don't enjoy driving with it, so I don't know if I will continue. Certainly not the whole season, maybe the odd rally here and there.

Any chance you will waive the forced cockpit camera option? I know the current score is 31 to 23 in favour, but looking at the results, only 10 to 12 drivers competed regularly. Go figure...

I will be sitting out next season. First, I'm on vacation, second, there's no way I will use cockpit or dash cam. I sincerely hope the poll swings back again.

This whole season has been a most humiliating experience for me. I don't know where to push, I miss corners and end up at the wrong side of fences or guard rails, I correct too much or not enough, hit banks regularly and night stages are completely killing me. It will take some time until I'm only remotely competitive.

Wow, is this really hardcore damage? I never thought the Peugeot could survive such a beating. It started with a strange bug in SS1, as the car was missing some body parts right from the start und got more and more "naked". At the end of the stage it looked as if driver and codriver were floating in between four tires, with nearly everything else gone. Of course this was quite irritating and might have contributed to the numerous crashes I had in this stage. From then on, the car was more or less done. I reached service with a severely bent steering and an engine that sounded terrible and was dramatically low on power. Quick fixed everything (more than 2 minutes penalty) and carried on, picking up more crashes and three punctures on the way to a most lowly finish. By the way, the visual bug didn't show up again after SS1. Verrrry strange.

Hello everyone! As clubs are now in and steams summer sale is on, I decided to finally jump aboard and buy. Since I enjoyed this league so much in DR it was a no-brainer to take part. And hey, I'm still one of the managers... Argentina went as expected. Without any experience, i was miles behind in SS1 and missed a bridge in SS2. Terminal damage. It will take some time to get accustomed to the game, so this first season will be just learning the tracks. Good to be back!

They use the standings before the super special stages to determine road position for the next day. At that time, Latvala hadn't retired yet. Tidemand didn't retire.

I agree Meeke has made the most of an underwhelming performance of the car. Nice to see. But in terms of speed, it doesn't look too good for Citroen. Until the last day, Meeke placed mostly between 6th and 10th in the stages. Not good. On the other hand, this was Monte Carlo, and we all know it's a unique event.