We feature a lot of rally stuff here, but with most of the videos (especially the ones that don’t involve carnage), it’s not easy to understand just how difficult it is to actually do. Sliding a powerful car around on dirt is easy, so once you get the hang of drifting an all-wheel-drive car, how hard can it be? The answer is that it’s insanely difficult. Terrain changes, the composition of the surface changes, and in most places where rally racing is held, the roads are much narrower than you initially can believe. My quick jaunt through the U.K. last month showed me that an A-road, which is analogous to a state highway, is barely as wide as a typical side street…so just how narrow can the rural tracts that host these usually-sideways all-wheel-drive monsters be?
This video of the 2014 WRC Rally Deutschland, which was compiled by zeroundeersteer, is one of the best pieces I’ve seen in quite some time. By focusing on cars familiar to most people (Porsche 911, Ford Fiesta) you’ll begin to understand just how technical these stages can be. There’s a couple crashes, and there’s plenty of airtime, but where this film shines is by how easily you can understand the skill involved. There’s one turn in particular that nearly demands a bootlegger turn to make, and you’ll see the drivers slide around and hustle out of that corner like it’s nothing. This is good stuff right here.
That is a cool video. The bad part is so many of the car look alike. Are they all going to swap in an LS next and go to just black wheels for more sameness…?
….. agreed … but look forward to the new FIA Rally GT class for 2015 of which several Porsche GT3’s along with a few other makes are currently being prepared for .
With any luck and a modicum of common sense amongst the fans as well as the press [ and especially the TV media ] … the new Rally GT’s will slowly take the place of the over homogenized EconoBox based piles of boredom that Group A cars have become .
I mean … which’d you rather watch ? GT3’s 458’s Aston Martin’s etc going head to head on the worlds WRC stages ? Or Econobox based AWD dreck guaranteed to be about as exciting as watching paint dry ?
Here’s hoping [ for the future of Rally GT ] … fingers crossed !
And oh … by the way Bryan . There is one aspect of rallying that is easy peasy as pudding and pie . Crashing ! Any damn fool can do it … lol .. 😉