Rally Ireland.
Discussion
Who has been and can tell me a little about it?
I've been to Rally GB (Wales) twice now, I'm looking for a new location earlier in the year with better weather and more day light hours!
Can you do Ireland on foot (fly over), or will I need to take a car over?
Also, in Wales I tend to sleep in a car. Is this the way in Ireland or is a cheap B&B the way to do it?
David
I've been to Rally GB (Wales) twice now, I'm looking for a new location earlier in the year with better weather and more day light hours!
Can you do Ireland on foot (fly over), or will I need to take a car over?
Also, in Wales I tend to sleep in a car. Is this the way in Ireland or is a cheap B&B the way to do it?
David
I went last year, there were a few threads on it iirc.
We flew and then drove from Belfast, the route is split between the North and the Republic and based in Sligo, we stayed somewhere almost bang on the border, can't remember the name for the life of me. A word of warning, the farmers and villagers were brilliant, but the locals on the piss in the town (not Sligo) got really funny with us as soon as they realised we were English.
Buy a detailed map of the area, work out where the stages are going (not hard if you go over on the recce days, you can just follow the rally cars and arrows! Decide where you are going to stand and then work out where the nearest you can park is, then be prepared to hike there. (We walked about 3 miles down through and ankle deep bog/river to get to one stage
).
We got to see some brilliant action and were within touching distance of cars (stood behind walls and things). We also got our hands dirty having to manhandle 2 cars out of a bridge parapet at one point, and pick the wheel up of a third car who decide to demolish the bridge parapet, he carried on and left the wheel in the middle of the road!
Brilliant experience and can be done really cheaply like we did. We went for 6 days and were absolutely knackered after but it's well worth it!
If you've got anymore questions I'll try to answer them
We flew and then drove from Belfast, the route is split between the North and the Republic and based in Sligo, we stayed somewhere almost bang on the border, can't remember the name for the life of me. A word of warning, the farmers and villagers were brilliant, but the locals on the piss in the town (not Sligo) got really funny with us as soon as they realised we were English.
Buy a detailed map of the area, work out where the stages are going (not hard if you go over on the recce days, you can just follow the rally cars and arrows! Decide where you are going to stand and then work out where the nearest you can park is, then be prepared to hike there. (We walked about 3 miles down through and ankle deep bog/river to get to one stage
).We got to see some brilliant action and were within touching distance of cars (stood behind walls and things). We also got our hands dirty having to manhandle 2 cars out of a bridge parapet at one point, and pick the wheel up of a third car who decide to demolish the bridge parapet, he carried on and left the wheel in the middle of the road!
Brilliant experience and can be done really cheaply like we did. We went for 6 days and were absolutely knackered after but it's well worth it!
If you've got anymore questions I'll try to answer them
I think you definitely need a car at a rally event, unless you go on one of those expensive rally tour things where they take you to and from stages.
I think it would be a longish drive, which isn't a problem, but we could always look into the hire car and flying option.
B&B, you gone soft?
I think it would be a longish drive, which isn't a problem, but we could always look into the hire car and flying option.
B&B, you gone soft?
Gingerbread Man said:
BigMansZetec said:
But Bigmanszetec could always look into the hire car and flying option.
Better.BigMansZetec said:
B&B, you gone soft?
I do believe that you have stayed in a B&B before hey hey?1. I don't appreciate you use of editing.
2. Errr yeah maybe, but obviously before I knew you were aloud to stay in your cars overnight.
Edit to say: I think you have to be 25 to hire a car, hence I'm not going to bother looking.
Edited by BigMansZetec on Sunday 13th July 21:31
Just a quick note but you know Ireland isn't hosting the WRC in 2008 don't you and also according to the Rally website it will be the season opener in 2009 so that'll probably be jan or feb so it'll probably rain anyway. So much for better weather then! Also theres nothing wrong with Welsh weather the rain is traditional!
fastcaterham said:
Just a quick note but you know Ireland isn't hosting the WRC in 2008 don't you and also according to the Rally website it will be the season opener in 2009 so that'll probably be jan or feb so it'll probably rain anyway. So much for better weather then! Also theres nothing wrong with Welsh weather the rain is traditional!
Aye, the Irish Rally would have been now I guess.I'm talking 2009.
Gingerbread Man said:
Who has been and can tell me a little about it?
I've been to Rally GB (Wales) twice now, I'm looking for a new location earlier in the year with better weather and more day light hours!
Can you do Ireland on foot (fly over), or will I need to take a car over?
Also, in Wales I tend to sleep in a car. Is this the way in Ireland or is a cheap B&B the way to do it?
David
Second running of the WRC over here is in February 2009, again based around Sligo with a number of stages both North and South of the boarder. You absolutely won't be able to do it on foot. I think we did about 800 miles in total the weekend of the rally last year, so either take your own car over or rent a car from the airport!I've been to Rally GB (Wales) twice now, I'm looking for a new location earlier in the year with better weather and more day light hours!
Can you do Ireland on foot (fly over), or will I need to take a car over?
Also, in Wales I tend to sleep in a car. Is this the way in Ireland or is a cheap B&B the way to do it?
David
Sleeping in car v B&B .. .. .. get a B&B. February in the North West of Ireland is a cold, wet, muddy place to be. Absolutely not a place to be spending three nights in a car! We slept in a car for the first night last year and had a room sorted in a house for the remaining nights.
I personally felt that Rally Ireland was a huge let down compared to the the action usually seen on the rounds of the ITC. There's a huge emphasis on safety at the WRC and it's difficult to get any way close to the action. When you have to stand quite a bit back some of the spectacle is lost and you end up just looking at cars traveling quickly down a road. Unlike Rally GB, all corners are free, no tickets are needed etc. Just turn up, park and hike in!
Ianeire said:
I personally felt that Rally Ireland was a huge let down compared to the the action usually seen on the rounds of the ITC. There's a huge emphasis on safety at the WRC and it's difficult to get any way close to the action. When you have to stand quite a bit back some of the spectacle is lost and you end up just looking at cars traveling quickly down a road. Unlike Rally GB, all corners are free, no tickets are needed etc. Just turn up, park and hike in!
You must have been watching a different event to us then!On the first day we were stood behind a wall on a 3 ply (tarmac, grass, tarmac) lane approaching a first gear hairpin. We coul have reached out to touch the cars. We then moved to another place and saw Andreas Aigner roll his Evo and had a poke around Xavier Pons broken Subaru.
Second day we stood on the inside immediately before a very narrow bridge, the first car clipped the bridge, the second clipped it, the third ploughed straight into the end of the parapet! After manhandling it out of the way we stood and watched as another car demolished the opposite parapet and ripped a wheel off.
Then later on the same stage one of the latter cars hit the parapet again and had to be moved off it, then an evo rolled into someones garden about 100 yds away!
We could see the cars for nearly 30 seconds in total there.
On the final day we stood behind a wall on a very fast section again almost within touching distance.
You could get extremely close (safely) as long as you were prepared to walk from the spectator pens, and to be able to do that you had to get there mega early!
I think you'll find most WRC events are the same, turn up an hour before the stage starts follow the crowds and you'll be put in a pen about a mile away from the cars. Turn up really early before the marshalls are out and about prepared to walk with a map and you'll find some cracking spots. Also a bit strange but from years of spectating on rally gb have found the marshalls in spectator areas to overly officious but once you wander as long as you don't stand somewhere really stupid the ones out in the sticks seem to realise you know what your doing and permit you to stand in great viewing areas. I friendly with a fair few wrc marshalls and although they say it doesn't happen I'm sure the officous, wannabe traffic warden types all get put in the spectaotr areas while the nice and sensible blokes get sent out in the sticks. Hope i don't upset any marshalls saying that and please don't take it the wrong way!
Well, it's that time of the year again.
I'm still umming and ahhing about whether to head up North for this event.
The entry list is pretty poor, a real shame to lose Subaru, especially as Petter would usually stop and have a quick chat with me at one of the starts. I see his brother is out in a Ford for this round. Atkinson in a C4 - I wonder how that will pan out.
Does seem though that it's a two horse manufacturer race, which is a real shame.
Gosh, looking at it all now, it seems so saddening how far this sport has declined over the last four years. I'm missing the likes of McCrae, Saintz, Gronholm, Solberg, Burns, Galli, Martin, Rovenpara, Stohl, Gardemeister et al.... is it really worth the effort?
My little lad (aged 2.5) has been primed with countless hours of video footage from the last few years of WRC, he's even seen Daddy on the footage, but how can I take him to an event where there is only one Subaru that isn't driven by Solberg or Atkinson, and how's he going to feel when a ford goes past and he shout's out 'Marcus Gone-Home' only to be wrong....
Well I guess he can see Loeb and shout 'It's Citroen... two dots above the E - Loeb drive Citroen....'
Ahhhh maybe it will be worth it?
(A saddened boy who worked with the WRC for a few years and is really missing the old 'new' days)
I'm still umming and ahhing about whether to head up North for this event.
The entry list is pretty poor, a real shame to lose Subaru, especially as Petter would usually stop and have a quick chat with me at one of the starts. I see his brother is out in a Ford for this round. Atkinson in a C4 - I wonder how that will pan out.
Does seem though that it's a two horse manufacturer race, which is a real shame.
Gosh, looking at it all now, it seems so saddening how far this sport has declined over the last four years. I'm missing the likes of McCrae, Saintz, Gronholm, Solberg, Burns, Galli, Martin, Rovenpara, Stohl, Gardemeister et al.... is it really worth the effort?
My little lad (aged 2.5) has been primed with countless hours of video footage from the last few years of WRC, he's even seen Daddy on the footage, but how can I take him to an event where there is only one Subaru that isn't driven by Solberg or Atkinson, and how's he going to feel when a ford goes past and he shout's out 'Marcus Gone-Home' only to be wrong....
Well I guess he can see Loeb and shout 'It's Citroen... two dots above the E - Loeb drive Citroen....'
Ahhhh maybe it will be worth it?
(A saddened boy who worked with the WRC for a few years and is really missing the old 'new' days)
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