Seven 9s and 10s

How It’s Made - Rally Cars (by PanosDCC)

Combining two of my favorite things: How It’s Made and rally!

The first advice most aspiring rally racers receive is to never build your first car; instead, buy a used rally car - it’s cheaper and it teaches you a good lesson: it’s definitely going to break and it’s probably going to be your fault.

You’re less likely to be emotionally attached to a used car than to something you spent weeks designing and building - emotional attachment has no place in rallying, because…

  • If you’re focused on not breaking your car, then you’re not focused on winning.
  • If you’re not focused on winning then you’re not focused on driving.
  • If you’re not focused on driving then you’ll think you heard your codriver say “keep left over crest into short 4 right plus” when he actually said “keep left over crest into short 4 left plus” and then you’ll find yourself crying because you wrapped your car around a tree.

Anyway. Rallying is a serious goal of mine - even if it’s just a 5-day class at Team O’Neil Rally School.

High-res It’s a rare occasion that you’ll find me cheering a Ford team, but for the next three days I’ll be doing just that. After 7 consecutive championships, it’s time for Citroën and Sebastien Loeb to finally experience the bitter taste of defeat. Loeb has been so dominant for so long that it’s been extremely rare that the WRC Championship would be decided on the last rally of the year, but thanks to a few new improvements to the series (the power stage) and another driver capable of winning rallies (Loeb’s teammate: Sebastien Ogier), the WRC season can finally culminate in a thrilling finish in the year’s last event, Wales Rally GB. There’s a little corner of my heart that’s reserved for all former drivers for the Subaru World Rally Team, and this weekend Mikko Hirvonen will get his chance to win the championship. For his whole career, he’s had the misfortune of competing in the WRC at the same time as the best driver the sport has ever seen - take Loeb out of the equation and Mikko might well have a few championships on his resume by now - but hopefully by Sunday evening he’ll finally have his first.

It’s a rare occasion that you’ll find me cheering a Ford team, but for the next three days I’ll be doing just that. After 7 consecutive championships, it’s time for Citroën and Sebastien Loeb to finally experience the bitter taste of defeat. Loeb has been so dominant for so long that it’s been extremely rare that the WRC Championship would be decided on the last rally of the year, but thanks to a few new improvements to the series (the power stage) and another driver capable of winning rallies (Loeb’s teammate: Sebastien Ogier), the WRC season can finally culminate in a thrilling finish in the year’s last event, Wales Rally GB.

There’s a little corner of my heart that’s reserved for all former drivers for the Subaru World Rally Team, and this weekend Mikko Hirvonen will get his chance to win the championship. For his whole career, he’s had the misfortune of competing in the WRC at the same time as the best driver the sport has ever seen - take Loeb out of the equation and Mikko might well have a few championships on his resume by now - but hopefully by Sunday evening he’ll finally have his first.

Watch Ken Block scare the crap out of a few fellow DC athletes at the Team O’Neil Rally School. It’s only 3 minutes and it’s worth it just to see the terrified look on the faces of athletes who are themselves experts in some downright frightening sports (motocross, bmx, snowboarding).

Participating in the 5-Day Rally School program at Team O’Neil is high on my list of near-term life goals. Affording the $5,750 tuition is the only thing holding me back.

steelopus: (by Steelopus) I’d appreciate it if any of you could take a minute to click-through and rate my picture a 5 in this contest. It’s 3 clicks from here to being done. Also… rating other photos as 1’s wouldn’t hurt me… Thanks! So, I’ve dropped down to 4th place in this photo competition, despite having what is clearly the best photograph (modesty not needed here). If you didn’t take a chance to click through and vote my photo with a 5 and vote the surrounding pictures with a 1, I’d appreciate it if you would do so now. Technically I only need to place in the top-10 to move on to the next round that will be judged by a private panel, but I’ll be dammed if I don’t move on as the #1 seed.

steelopus:

(by Steelopus)

I’d appreciate it if any of you could take a minute to click-through and rate my picture a 5 in this contest. It’s 3 clicks from here to being done.

Also… rating other photos as 1’s wouldn’t hurt me…

Thanks!

So, I’ve dropped down to 4th place in this photo competition, despite having what is clearly the best photograph (modesty not needed here). If you didn’t take a chance to click through and vote my photo with a 5 and vote the surrounding pictures with a 1, I’d appreciate it if you would do so now.

Technically I only need to place in the top-10 to move on to the next round that will be judged by a private panel, but I’ll be dammed if I don’t move on as the #1 seed.

(by steelopus) Help! I’ll be entering one photo from last weekend’s rally to the Rally America photo-contest for that event. Please take a minute to click through and let me know which of the 8 photos in that set you like the best, because I can’t decide for myself. I’ll be submitting on Thursday night, so I’d really appreciate it if you could let me know sometime soon. Thank you!

(by steelopus)

Help!

I’ll be entering one photo from last weekend’s rally to the Rally America photo-contest for that event.

Please take a minute to click through and let me know which of the 8 photos in that set you like the best, because I can’t decide for myself.

I’ll be submitting on Thursday night, so I’d really appreciate it if you could let me know sometime soon.

Thank you!