WRC : 7th world championship in a row
Discussion
Who would have ever believed Schumacher would have his record equalled by a pair of filthy French garlic eaters in a f'ing Sh*troën - our local hero Sébastien Loeb has snapped his 7th world rally championship in a row, here in Alsace. The sort of thing that makes your eyes wetter than usual.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xf1xj1_loeb-champ...
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xf1xj1_loeb-champ...
Edited by Thom on Sunday 3rd October 16:33
For me: he will never be a rally hero or an inspirational figure (insert names such as: Bjorn Waltegaard, Miki Biasion, Stig Blomqvist, Henri Toivonen, Fabrizio Tabaton, Pierro Liatti, Walter Rohrl, Juhha Kankkunen, Marku Allen, Timo Salonen, Ari Vatanen, Tommi Makkinen, Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz, Richard Burns, Petter Solberg, I could keep it up all night...) mainly because of his near perfect driving technique which reflects on his life too. I mean come on... there is (almost) no weakness...
When Seb arrived to the scene he possessed raw talent and his speciality was/is driving fast on tarmac (never in doubt of his speed on the black stuff). However, it took a couple of years to develop his skill and learn from the masters (Colin and Carlos teaching him how to drift the xsara WRC on gravel and keeping it between banks on snow).
Nonetheless, I will have to concur (after all these years and based on pure statistics) that he is an exceptional rally driver and in recent years (after discovering that he is a notch or two above everyone else on the field) he offers spectacle to us mere rally fans by drifting his C4 in the odd corner. But this will be my criticism on his early days: he was too 'square' on his approach to drifting... no flamboyancy, no 'special' weight, and in many ways too predictable.
However, putting a show (I guess) is somewhat different than beating the clock/winning the stages/Rallies/championships/being the most successful rally driver in the history.
When Seb arrived to the scene he possessed raw talent and his speciality was/is driving fast on tarmac (never in doubt of his speed on the black stuff). However, it took a couple of years to develop his skill and learn from the masters (Colin and Carlos teaching him how to drift the xsara WRC on gravel and keeping it between banks on snow).
Nonetheless, I will have to concur (after all these years and based on pure statistics) that he is an exceptional rally driver and in recent years (after discovering that he is a notch or two above everyone else on the field) he offers spectacle to us mere rally fans by drifting his C4 in the odd corner. But this will be my criticism on his early days: he was too 'square' on his approach to drifting... no flamboyancy, no 'special' weight, and in many ways too predictable.
However, putting a show (I guess) is somewhat different than beating the clock/winning the stages/Rallies/championships/being the most successful rally driver in the history.
Loeb is awesome
When he retires we will miss him and rave
Any domination is irritating
Remember how we loathed the Integrale after it had dominated for years
And how we love them now (look at values in the last 5 years)and rant above how great they are (which actually, they aren't when you look beyond pace and handling, at other areas such as rigidity, gear-change, dash etc)
why oh why did I sell my Evo1 for peanuts ! sobs
anyway
Loeb, awesome IMHO
When he retires we will miss him and rave
Any domination is irritating
Remember how we loathed the Integrale after it had dominated for years
And how we love them now (look at values in the last 5 years)and rant above how great they are (which actually, they aren't when you look beyond pace and handling, at other areas such as rigidity, gear-change, dash etc)
why oh why did I sell my Evo1 for peanuts ! sobs
anyway
Loeb, awesome IMHO
It's an impressive statistic, but I can't help but feel that rallying has seriously lost its way.
When Loeb arrived on the rally scene, there were loads of competitors, loads of teams, all competing with the best car they could possibly put out there. We ended up with some great road cars too - Subaru Impreza Turbo, Mitsubishi Evo, Ford Focus RS, and you got WRC versions of the Peugeot 206 GTi, Skoda Octavia and Fabia VRS, Proton Wira TC, Renault Megane et cetera - so many competitors.
Nowadays, you only get one proper factory-backed team - Citroen - who ensure that Loeb gets the best car. Even the Focus WRC is only effectively Ford-endorsed. Everyone else is in effect in a 'B-team' car. There is no proper competition from anyone other than Mikko Hirvonen.
Hopefully Mini's entry next year should make things a tiny bit more interesting, but annoyingly the proper old-style rally competition action is over in the IRC, which due to being on Eurosport, is only seen by people staying in French hotels.
When Loeb arrived on the rally scene, there were loads of competitors, loads of teams, all competing with the best car they could possibly put out there. We ended up with some great road cars too - Subaru Impreza Turbo, Mitsubishi Evo, Ford Focus RS, and you got WRC versions of the Peugeot 206 GTi, Skoda Octavia and Fabia VRS, Proton Wira TC, Renault Megane et cetera - so many competitors.
Nowadays, you only get one proper factory-backed team - Citroen - who ensure that Loeb gets the best car. Even the Focus WRC is only effectively Ford-endorsed. Everyone else is in effect in a 'B-team' car. There is no proper competition from anyone other than Mikko Hirvonen.
Hopefully Mini's entry next year should make things a tiny bit more interesting, but annoyingly the proper old-style rally competition action is over in the IRC, which due to being on Eurosport, is only seen by people staying in French hotels.
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