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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ed 1:04AM (1/31/2009)
Looks cool.
http://hghzonecenter.com
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Rod 4:26AM (12/09/2006)
Unbelievable. Ever since I first learned about Rallying I have firmly believed that Rally drivers are the best drivers in the world.
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Reuven 3:32AM (12/09/2006)
*bows head* The man is a driving legand. Isn't or wasn't he head of Porshe's testing program?
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Car videos & Motorcycle videos 3:33AM (12/09/2006)
Those people watching the race are just crazy standing on the sidelines, all they need is a little shove and they will end up in front of the car that's going super fast on a unpredictable dirt road. But I do agree Walter Röhrl is a machine.
http://www.dpccars.com
DPC cars
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Jono 4:36AM (12/09/2006)
I'm not too familiar with rallying, can someone explain to me what the guy in the passenger seat is doing? Is he reading off turns that are coming up?
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leon0911 5:45AM (12/09/2006)
It's the co-pilot. He reads what turns are coming up, because the pilot doesn't know the track by heart. Often these rally pilots are just solely relying on the co-pilots' notes...
These cars are from the infamous group B rally cars in the eighties. No power restrictions whatsoever. Utter madness.
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cars driving 6:08AM (12/09/2006)
Jono, the copilot read what are coming up, how dificult it's a curve, for example, left 1 means curve to left with 180 degrees, rigt 2 means curve to right by 90 degrees.
left 2 X right 3 means curve to left with 90 degrees follved immediately by a curve to right not so difficile as 90 degrees.... and so on. It's very very hard to be a good copilot, trust me
http://www.auto-power-girl.com/
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Andrew 7:21AM (12/09/2006)
Amazing. Those spectators have an awful lot of faith in the drivers. I bet they stand back just a little for the rookies... No wonder rally isn't more popular here in the US - the damn lawyers would kill all the fun and not let anybody near enough to get dusted by the cars flying by.
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ckm 3:23PM (1/06/2009)
Audi pulled out of Group B when a bunch of spectators were kill when a driver lost control in Portugal. The car was a brand new Ford RS200 and the driver was a local hero... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_B#1986
The Grp.B cars were getting out of control and, by the end, they were almost too fast for drivers to control. A number of drivers die in accidents before the spectator disaster.
But, as Michele Mouton said in an interview years later, it was one of the few sports where people could get really close to the action and where the passion of the fans was so palpable for the athletes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdsuBIyCU5E
BTW, she blew away the the Pikes Peak record in 1985 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKKfzR7dX-c
COWBOY BOB 8:46AM (12/09/2006)
Commentators uterlly miss the point of the video. The spectators location alongside the race track is beyond stupidity, beyond reckless, and beyond belief. I used to race and would have stopped my car on the spot under these circumstances, and so would most of those I raced with. You have no idea of the stress placed on a driver with the responsibility of spectator safety in this situation. Some twenty-five years ago I, and the entire field, was red flagged until a small section of retaining fence was replaced on a track, where spectators were still behind a four foot tall, one foot thick concrete wall. This footage is criminal. Period.
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ckm 3:33PM (1/06/2009)
Hmm, you basically have no idea what you are talking about. This is not a race track, these are open roads across the countryside. I've been in those crowds, it looks much worse on video than it is on the ground.
People come days before the race and camp out all along the stage to watch the cars. There is no way to put a fence up for the hundreds of miles that make up a stage, the best you can do is have corner marshals. And that only works if there are a few people. At one rally in Portugal, 100k people showed up, try controlling that over a stage course that is 100 miles long....
Finally, despite the numbers, people rarely got hurt. Over the 7 or so years that rallies had these sorts of crowds, there was only one spectator accident (see my post above).
The trend of putting motorsport 50 ft away behind double rows of concrete and steel fencing is, I think, killing live motorsport. It's just not that fun or easy to watch. At least rally series bring the sport closer, if it's a little more risky. In the end, driving to the rally is statistically way more dangerous that spectating.
Alex Renner 9:11AM (12/09/2006)
The good old days of Group B rally.
You can see him left-foot braking in turns to keep the turbo spoiled and diminish lag, I think that technique was actually invented or widespread by him.
Rohrl is an awesome driver. Niki Lauda called him "genius on wheels". He not only won 2 world rally titles with, but he´s also very good in road racing. There´s a story he was driving in the 24h of Nurburgring, there was so much rain and fog that everyone was slapping way off the normal pace, but Rohrl barely slowed down: he couldn´t see much but, he drove by timing.
Living legend.
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Alex Renner 9:17AM (12/09/2006)
Sorry for the spelling mistakes in that post :S
I recommend you this Pikes Peak video with Rohrl driving the same Audi S1:
http://video.google.es/videoplay?docid=5474150257597559945&q=pikes+peak+audi
Or you can download it here:
http://www.roehrl-walter.de/videos/pikes3.mpg
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Dman 9:35AM (12/09/2006)
The Man was DANCING!! Look at his feet move, just freaking awesome!!!
Sadly, much like F1, people did die before they finally pulled the plug on this awesome madness.
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MCS05 11:38AM (12/09/2006)
He was quite a trans-am racer in the 80's as well. I remember in Detroit in '88 when he would pass on the outside of corners in his Audi 100.
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Gooch 11:44AM (12/09/2006)
Walter was the man that developed the Porsche Carrera GT. He is something else, and can probably outdrive at least half the field in F1 today.
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Dragomir Prodanovic 12:39PM (12/09/2006)
Another one is Miki Biasion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Biasion
He drove Lancia Delta HF Integrale to victory Watched some of those races myself (unfortunately not the best ones)
I agree that rally drivers are the best
Amazing thig to watch
The most interesting thing is that cars are street legal and between stages, cars can be seen driven on the street (they are not transported by trucks)
Greatest automotive sport
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MTBooks 2:26PM (12/09/2006)
That's a clip from "Too fast to Race" It's a documentary about Group B Rally. Lots more great footage like that. Highly recommended.
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Mike Warner 5:11PM (12/09/2006)
If you like that, you have to watch Climb Dance - truly amazing stuff.
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-6604540639943123451&q=climb+dance
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ckm 3:37PM (1/06/2009)
You beat me to it. That is one of the most amazing car videos made in that period.