club DRC | DiRT Rally Championship | The Forum's Club

[Janneman60]

Glad to be back. Had a decent rally Poland. Normally I could have been a bit quicker but my wrist hurts because of a small bike incident. Could have been worse so not complaining. 

[YoMrWhite]

The last two rallies were similar, Both times, I tried to do too much with worn tyres in SS3 which resulted in heavy crashes, In Poland it was an instant retirement, in Greece I was able to go on with a big time loss. The car was too heavily damaged to repair everything, so I had to nurse it home over the last stages, definitely lacking some horsepower.

[Janneman60]

The pace was not bad, but halfway ss1 I had a crash, reset to track, repair tire. 

[Janneman60]

Finland rally. Took it a bit easy, a major accident is at every corner there.

And most drivers made that mistake. This time I didn't, so first at the moment.

[YoMrWhite]

I forgot that Finland is the safari rally and simply failed to adapt my strategy and pace. Two decent stages, then instead of backing off for the long grind, I began to crash regularly. At least the car survived, somewhat to my surprise.

[UnderclassGDfan]

Heyho, anyone still interested for another season?
Or should we extend the break a little longer?

I need your votes to make another season, but not sure if @misix ist still around these forums.
Wich car class should we do next?

Last season was a little frustrating for me, lost a bit motivation towards the end.
The Kit Cars are just not my thing I guess.

[Janneman60]

So my choice is to kick Spain.

I was about to say I won't drive for a while. If more people have the same idea, maybe a fresh start early next year?

[UnderclassGDfan]

I for myself will have a few different games to play in the coming weeks with AC: NH DLC, FH5, GTA Trilogy and Halo Infinite around the corner.
And Metroid Dread is still waiting for me to play, too.

More games than time to play, like always.
If I could tell my 12 year old me at some point I will have 5 brand new awesome games to play within a month, my 12-year old mind would explode 🤣

But I still will do my club runs, if you guys wanna do a season.
I won't stop playing DR2.0 anyway. I just can't.
I have a Series X since 3 days and the game looks much better and the load times are insane now.

[YoMrWhite]

I will definitely take part in another season. I just hope there are enough competitors.

And I think I have to choose the Safari rally. First choice is Australia, if Australia is excluded (fingers crossed) then it is USA.

[Freddygore]

I will take part too !

[Frankiestail]

Ill try to jump in too, so long as the class is interesting, ie NOT R5

[YoMrWhite]

oops, I missed @Janneman60s post. So Spain is gone. Not bad, too.

And no R5 sounds great, by the way.

[somethingthing]

Im in depending how many that will attend. Can we make a list maybe? Otherwise it's fine to start a new by the start of next year if that will have more people driving.

Edited November 8, 2021 by somethingthing

[YoMrWhite]

Even if it's called "The Forum's Club", not everybody competing is active here. So I don't think making a list is making much sense. For example, we haven't heard from our last winner about the choice of car class for next season.

For my part, I'm fine with every start date for next season. And if @misix (if that's him) doesn't post here, we could make a poll or @UnderclassGDfan as the second placed driver decides.

My preferred car classes would be H3 RWD and Group A.

 

[baunau]

I agree with @YoMrWhite, a list doesn't necessarily make any sense. Just set up a new season and whoever joins, joins. Hopefully, as many as possible. 🙂
That said, I'm in, and crossing my fingers for a RWD season, either Group B or Rally GT.
As for weather forecast (5th place perk); My choice is Sweden, 3 night stages with snow, and the remaining 4 stages in clear weather.

[UnderclassGDfan]

Ok, guys'n'gurls, let's make a simple democratic vote for the car class.
And I decide at the end, if we do it or not! (just kidding 🤣)

Car Class: will be voted
Season Structure: Frostbite
Excluded Rally: Spain
Safari Rally: Australia
Weather Rally: Sweden (3 night stages with snow + 4 clear stages)

Until now I got votes for:

+2 H2 RWD
+2 H3 RWD
+3 Group B RWD
+1 Group A
+1 Up to 2000cc
+-0 Rally GT
-3 R5

I also would prefer a RWD season.
Since 2 already "voted" with 2 choices, I say everyone has two upvotes and one downvote.
Votes are not limited to the already shown classes.
My votes go to H3 RWD and Group B RWD.

I will create the new season by friday evening starting this weekend.

Edited November 12, 2021 by UnderclassGDfan

[Frankiestail]

My two upvotes are h2 rwd and h3 rwd

downvote R5

[UnderclassGDfan]

Votes from @Frankiestail, @YoMrWhite and myself are made.
@baunau has a downvote left.

Edited November 10, 2021 by UnderclassGDfan

[somethingthing]

h3 rwd, 2000cc "modern"

rally gt

Edited November 10, 2021 by somethingthing

[UnderclassGDfan]

52 minutes ago, somethingthing said:

h3 rwd, 2000cc "modern"

rally gt

Is Rally GT the downvote here?

[Janneman60]

H2 rwd and gp.B rwd

My downvote goes to H3 as the difference in that class is to big.

[baunau]

My downvote goes to H3 RWD. I agree with regards to the differences in the class + I believe it was chosen a few seasons ago.

[somethingthing]

2 hours ago, UnderclassGDfan said:

Is Rally GT the downvote here?

Yes, downvote for rally gt 🙂

[YoMrWhite]

1 hour ago, baunau said:

My downvote goes to H3 RWD. I agree with regards to the differences in the class + I believe it was chosen a few seasons ago.

I would think Group B RWD is less balanced, with the 037 clearly fastest and the Porsche slowest.

The Datsun in H3 is too slow for that class (belongs in H2 anyway), and the Ascona, too, but which one do you think is the frontrunner?

[misix]

Hi guys
sry hadn't looked in the forum for a long time, the next season won't have that much time. I don't care about class. try to drive as much as I can, have fun

[baunau]

On 11/10/2021 at 7:01 PM, YoMrWhite said:

I would think Group B RWD is less balanced, with the 037 clearly fastest and the Porsche slowest.

The Datsun in H3 is too slow for that class (belongs in H2 anyway), and the Ascona, too, but which one do you think is the frontrunner?

Actually, you got me there. I guess my personal preference shone through when compared with the performance differences between H3 and Group B (I prefer the latter). As you mentioned, the Datsun and Opel is too slow. I guess the remaining four are competitive in the right hands, it's just not my cup of tea. 🙂

I'll stand by my downvote/upvote, though, as I prefer the high-powered RWD classes.

[UnderclassGDfan]

On 11/10/2021 at 7:01 PM, YoMrWhite said:

I would think Group B RWD is less balanced, with the 037 clearly fastest and the Porsche slowest.

The Datsun in H3 is too slow for that class (belongs in H2 anyway), and the Ascona, too, but which one do you think is the frontrunner?

Nah, the Opel Manta 400 is clearly the slowest in that class, Porsche 911 SC RS is faster, but much harder to drive.
The BMW M1 Procar is not much slower than the Lancia 037 Evo 2, on asphalt it's competitive.

The overall best in H3 RWD is probably the Renault 5 Turbo, but very hard to maximise the potential.
Lancia Stratos is also very competitive.
The BMW M3 Evo Rally is the easiest car to drive and a good allrounder.


Looks like a win for Group B RWD.
I let the vote open for a few more hours, but I will create the season today.
Will start tomorrow I think.

If it will be that class, I will run the Porsche 911 SC RS.

Edited November 12, 2021 by UnderclassGDfan

[Frankiestail]

If that’s the class I think I’ll go for the manta, def not the fastest but will give me a better chance to finish and hopefully will be consistent over the season. I’ll try to do the whole season this time if it’s gonna be rwd.

[YoMrWhite]

5 hours ago, UnderclassGDfan said:

Nah, the Opel Manta 400 is clearly the slowest in that class, Porsche 911 SC RS is faster, but much harder to drive.
The BMW M1 Procar is not much slower than the Lancia 037 Evo 2, on asphalt it's competitive.

The overall best in H3 RWD is probably the Renault 5 Turbo, but very hard to maximise the potential.
Lancia Stratos is also very competitive.
The BMW M3 Evo Rally is the easiest car to drive and a good allrounder.


Looks like a win for Group B RWD.
I let the vote open for a few more hours, but I will create the season today.
Will start tomorrow I think.

If it will be that class, I will run the Porsche 911 SC RS.

Hmm... I always found the Manta surprisingly competitive. Maybe because it is easy to drive and quite predictable, so you're not as prone to throw it away as the Lancia or BMW.

In H3 I agree. The R5 is the fastest car, but not by much and much harder to drive than the Lancia or BMW.

Still undecided which car I will use - in either class.

 

[Janneman60]

This time I take the, rhey say, fastest car, the Lancia. If I get the setup right it will be 7 stages of pure fun. If I don't get it right it will be frustrating. And there is not much between right and wrong.

[UnderclassGDfan]

Ok, as a few of you probably already noticed, the season is up since saturday.

Unfortunately I made a mistake when creating it by replacing spain for Scotland for the season opener.
I saw too late in the frostbite calender, that Scotland has it's own place in the calendar.
Hope it's ok this way, I would have needed to edit 6 rallies from scratch to put it in the right place and...I was too lazy to do it 😄 

I also noticed, you can edit a championship when it's already set up, as long it is "upcoming".
But I only edited Scotland, the rest of the season has it's generated weather, except for the last stage of every rally and the weather rally of course.
In future seasons I will edit everything again now I know you can avoid this st***d time-out problem.

Everything else (degradation, service areas etc.) is set up as usual.

Sooo...my run was terrible!
Had several critical situations with spins, trees and ditches.
But the car was my friend, never got a puncture or serious damage.
Still lost quite much time due to these mistakes, so should be easy to beat.

But it was really fun to drive, although I never had the feeling of absolute control I must say.


@somethingthing Awesome pace in the Manta 400! I'm really impressed. Keep it up! 👍

@Janneman60 What the f happened in SS2?

@YoMrWhite, @baunau, @Dytut, @denim398, @Frankiestail and all other regular drivers I didn't mention, hope to see you running!
I also would like to see, if @misix can be as fast as @somethingthing! *throwing a handglove right in his face*

[somethingthing]

54 minutes ago, UnderclassGDfan said:

Ok, as a few of you probably already noticed, the season is up since saturday.

Unfortunately I made a mistake when creating it by replacing spain for Scotland for the season opener.
I saw too late in the frostbite calender, that Scotland has it's own place in the calendar.
Hope it's ok this way, I would have needed to edit 6 rallies from scratch to put it in the right place and...I was too lazy to do it 😄 

I also noticed, you can edit a championship when it's already set up, as long it is "upcoming".
But I only edited Scotland, the rest of the season has it's generated weather, except for the last stage of every rally and the weather rally of course.
In future seasons I will edit everything again now I know you can avoid this st***d time-out problem.

Everything else (degradation, service areas etc.) is set up as usual.

Sooo...my run was terrible!
Had several critical situations with spins, trees and ditches.
But the car was my friend, never got a puncture or serious damage.
Still lost quite much time due to these mistakes, so should be easy to beat.

But it was really fun to drive, although I never had the feeling of absolute control I must say.


@somethingthing Awesome pace in the Manta 400! I'm really impressed. Keep it up! 👍

@Janneman60 What the f happened in SS2?

@YoMrWhite, @baunau, @Dytut, @denim398, @Frankiestail and all other regular drivers I didn't mention, hope to see you running!
I also would like to see, if @misix can be as fast as @somethingthing! *throwing a handglove right in his face*

Thanks! On the first stage of the 2nd stint i hit one of those damn concrete saplings but I got away without a puncture but i gave me some damage. No huge mistakes other than that though.

It's brave to take the Porsche for 3 long stages between services!

[Janneman60]

After the finish of ss2 my PC or my VR crashed, not sure. Anyway I started ss3 to notice at the end of it I got a scratchtime on ss2.

So now I was 22 minutes behind and quit.

I had trouble to keep up with the pace of @somethingthing, very fast wirh the Manta.

Edited November 17, 2021 by Janneman60

[YoMrWhite]

Only 3 stages done so far, but this is a wild ride for sure. Had 3 or 4 spins so far and some hits, but luckily no punctures. Apparently the Porsche is a quite sturdy car. Unfortunately, like @UnderclassGDfan I had the experience of being a passenger more often than I would have liked. I really have to cut down on mistakes or my luck will run out in the stages still to come.

[Frankiestail]

Was going ok till night stage, clipped bank, rolled, puncture. Then clipped a twig and got another puncture stage 5 and rage quit! First time my fault, 2nd time too much for my temper!

[YoMrWhite]

Scotland part deux was, let's say, demanding. Only one spin in SS4, but two mighty crashes in SS5, so I had to drive nearly the half stage with a blown rear tyre. Not so easy. In SS6, I just couldn't keep the car straight, each corner was a struggle. Maybe something was bent?

To my surprise, I could easily repair most of the damage. This car can take some beating. Good to know...

SS7 was good. Ha!

Definitely not the easiest car class, but the driving is lots of fun.

Now I'm really interested how @denim398will fare. I considered taking the M1, but changed my mind after a short tryout. If taking the Porsche is brave, like @somethingthingsaid, then taking the BMW seems utterly fearless.

[denim398]

I did 3 stages with the M1 ,first stage I lost some seconds off track. Second stage was great. Then thirth stage was very difficult in the dark with high speeds so I did hit a wall and got a puncture  ,but the car feels good.  Set-up is default.

 

[baunau]

Had to split my rally into two stints due to time constraints.
Found a really good pace on SS1 (no mistakes), but nice things cannot be had and I suffered a puncture early in SS2. Followed that up with numerous spins on that stage and the next.
Today was a mixed bag. As soon as I found a decent pace, my confidence dropped as I started thinking about what could go wrong; and sure enough, that's when I started making mistakes. Luckily none too severe, at least no punctures, so I made it through to the end.
Currently at 3rd place and real pleased with that result.

[YoMrWhite]

I think I know now what @somethingthing was hinting at...

On 11/17/2021 at 10:57 AM, somethingthing said:

It's brave to take the Porsche for 3 long stages between services!

Had an excellent SS1 in Greece, which was pure fun. That was followed by a very time consuming spin in a tight place in SS2 and another short off. My mistake. In SS3 though, the car was all over the place. With worn soft tyres, the Porsche is a real beast, going sideways everywhere with no traction at all, it seems. I have to try to adapt my driving style to it. SS6 is going to be tough.

[YoMrWhite]

SS4 to 7 were not really faster, but without major mistakes, just a few half-spins. So I was able to reel in and pass @denim398 and took extra care in SS6. Quite pleased with the effort. Beating @somethingthingwas out of the question, of course.

Conclusion after 2 rallies: The Porsche doesn't eat tyres, it devours them. On the other hand, it is very sturdy and above all, fun to drive.

Now on to Australia. I know I voted it to be the Safari rally, my own fault. The long second part will be painful. Medium tyres maybe? 

[Janneman60]

I had some troubles in the first leg and after ss3 it was close. Rhen I changed the setup a bit and won the next 4 stages.

Wirh the dnf at the first round I'm far behind and not sure if I drive all rounds.

[YoMrWhite]

That was maybe the best Rally Australia I ever did. I chose medium tyres and tried to drive at maybe 90% to preserve the car, as @UnderclassGDfanplayed a nice trick on us by starting with 6 long stages without service. Just a small mistake or pure sadism?

Anyway, I was able to stay on the road most of the time and avoid punctures, so I'm quite pleased with the result. Usually Australia is one of my weakest ralies.

I'm interested: What tyres did everybody else choose?

[Mjarr]

2 hours ago, YoMrWhite said:

That was maybe the best Rally Australia I ever did. I chose medium tyres and tried to drive at maybe 90% to preserve the car, as @UnderclassGDfanplayed a nice trick on us by starting with 6 long stages without service. Just a small mistake or pure sadism?

Shouldn't the true spirit of Safari rally be something along the lines of 8-12 long stages without services? That being said, I tried to clean up redundant setups before my run shortly after the refresh and forgot to resave everything so the order of setups would be correct, thus I ended up running most of it with wrong setup. Not that it mattered too much to my slowrun, merely contributed to stage 1 puncture and some spinouts, and even with the "correct" setup I still ended up rolling the car before finish in the final stage due clipping one of the gates.

 

Oh, and I went with mediums. As fun as it is to skate around with bald softs after few stages, it tends to result into very messy cars sooner or later.

Edited December 3, 2021 by Mjarr

[Frankiestail]

I didn’t even think to check service details and had fitted softs!

somehow managed to keep everything pointed in right direction but had to knock back pace accordingly, so overall happy how rally went for me.

made it more interesting 

[UnderclassGDfan]

On 12/2/2021 at 11:06 PM, YoMrWhite said:

That was maybe the best Rally Australia I ever did. I chose medium tyres and tried to drive at maybe 90% to preserve the car, as @UnderclassGDfanplayed a nice trick on us by starting with 6 long stages without service. Just a small mistake or pure sadism?

Anyway, I was able to stay on the road most of the time and avoid punctures, so I'm quite pleased with the result. Usually Australia is one of my weakest ralies.

I'm interested: What tyres did everybody else choose?

😧
Pure Sadism.

And since I have a memory like a 80-year-old I forgot about it and run with soft tyres.
When I realised it after SS3 I settled down a bit, because tyres were dead at this point already.
But since the tyres don't get worse (or even puncture) after that "dead" point I just got used to it.
Actually handled the 911 much better this time.
The first 2 rallies were a disaster in terms of having the car under control, but this time it was quite nice.
Though I was just driving at 80-90% pace to what was possible for me, though.
I'm quite sure mediums were the better option.

[YoMrWhite]

9 hours ago, UnderclassGDfan said:

When I realised it after SS3 I settled down a bit, because tyres were dead at this point already.
But since the tyres don't get worse (or even puncture) after that "dead" point I just got used to it.
Actually handled the 911 much better this time.
The first 2 rallies were a disaster in terms of having the car under control, but this time it was quite nice.
Though I was just driving at 80-90% pace to what was possible for me, though.
I'm quite sure mediums were the better option.

I did a short comparison, as we are both using the Porsche: I lost 19 seconds on you in SS1. I did a test with both tyres in shakedown and calculated that the softs would be about 15 seconds faster for me. So that's about what I expected.

From SS2 to SS5, we traded only some seconds and I trailed by 22 seconds. Then I lost more than 10 seconds in SS6. Strange, as that was without any big crashes, just the occasional spin. Of course softs are faster at the beginning, after that they lose grip quite fast, at least on the 911. Mediums lose grip slower, but I definitely had the feeling they got worse with every stage. In SS6 it was like driving on ice for me, with wheels spinning heavily under acceleration, even in third gear.

Conclusion: Dunno. I think the gap would be about the same if I had chosen softs and managed to stay on the road, as I expect to be slower than you in Australia.

[Janneman60]

Not driven yet...

In my opinion both softs and mediums last 2 stages, in which the softs are offcourse faster. 3th stage they are about the same, after 3 stages both are bad in the same way.

So I always use softs, nomatter how many stages to drive.

[Janneman60]

No real problems with driving, no spins or crashes. But not fastest though I won 2 stages. As expected the Manta is rhe better car for 6 stages wirhout service, better than the Porsche or Lancia with the engine in rhe back.

[baunau]

Poland was really fun, until it wasn't.
Got into a nice pace from the start — except for a stupid Austin Powers-esque stop at the first chicane — and maintained it for a while, but lost it somewhere in SS3.
Then I lost my confidence somewhere between SS4-6, including more chicane tomfoolery and the engine power on SS6, and everything unraveled from there.
Barely held it together till the end; not my cleanest rally by a long shot, but it was fun nonetheless.

[Mjarr]

2 hours ago, baunau said:

Poland was really fun, until it wasn't.
Got into a nice pace from the start — except for a stupid Austin Powers-esque stop at the first chicane — and maintained it for a while, but lost it somewhere in SS3.
Then I lost my confidence somewhere between SS4-6, including more chicane tomfoolery and the engine power on SS6, and everything unraveled from there.
Barely held it together till the end; not my cleanest rally by a long shot, but it was fun nonetheless.

If it is any consolation, throughout the event I managed to hit couple of spectators, rolled the car couple of times though it landed on wheels, and had a puncture after bit too diagonal jump landing which meant surfing on the side of narrow road and touching a tree.