Why 'special stage'?
Discussion
My understanding is that the 'race' part of any rally is the special stage and the bits of driving on public roads to get from one to the other are the transit stages. When on the road, all rules and regs have to be obeyed - although driving with 3 wheels and the co-driver hanging out of the boot to balance the car seems OK as long as you have plenty of the local currency handy and an understanding law enforcement agent 
Whilst the transit stages aren't timed, cars do have to be at the start of the next special stage at a certain time or they incur a penalty so I suppose you could say that they are still part of the overall competition.
Whilst the transit stages aren't timed, cars do have to be at the start of the next special stage at a certain time or they incur a penalty so I suppose you could say that they are still part of the overall competition.
Disclaimer - this is probably a load of old rubbish
Edited by dougc on Thursday 17th August 15:52
Once upon a time, the bulk of any rally was spent on public roads, either on timed or untimed stages. The exception was Great Britain where competition on public roads is banned. In these circumtsances, the rally mainly took place on private land on "special stages".
Over the last two decades or so, "Special Stages" have come to predominate and a lot of the old fashioned classic rallies have been axed or downgraded (Monte Carlo, East African Safari etc etc).
Over the last two decades or so, "Special Stages" have come to predominate and a lot of the old fashioned classic rallies have been axed or downgraded (Monte Carlo, East African Safari etc etc).
That's what it used to mean. Now, with rallying having evolved into such a different animal to what it was 30 or 40 yrears ago, I don't think that the original notion of what Special Stage meant really applies any more.
In fact, most rallies are almost entirely made up of "Special Stages" rhese days.
In fact, most rallies are almost entirely made up of "Special Stages" rhese days.
)fozzi said:
Driving on three wheels with co-driver hanging out the boot is to be banned under the new regulations.
A shame really. It happens every now and again (Loeab and Elena; Atkinson and MacNeall), without causing an accident (AFAIK), why why ban it now? Edited by Jungles on Friday 18th August 02:48
SamHH said:
So 'special stage' simply denotes that the stage is held on private roads rather than closed public roads?
Not quite, think Manx Rally.
A 'Special Stage' is the Competitive part. A rally being made of Special and Road stages. The drivers tend to go 'quickly' between stages and then park up, there is a penalty for being early as well as being late.
Have been on many a rally and seen the competitors parked in a lay-by waiting for the 'correct' time to enter service or the next stage
Jungles said:
fozzi said:
Driving on three wheels with co-driver hanging out the boot is to be banned under the new regulations.
A shame really. It happens every now and again (Loeab and Elena; Atkinson and MacNeall), without causing an accident (AFAIK), why why ban it now? Edited by Jungles on Friday 18th August 02:48
In some countries they get away with it still, but others take a very dim view of rally drivers breaking the law on public highways and are likely to pull the car over to issue the driver with a ticket. The governing body have now decided that cars should be road legal (well sort of, at least four wheels) on public highways and that it should be a level playing field across all the events, which is fair enough in my opinion.
www.paddocktalk.com said:
Summary of 2007 WRC Rules and Regulation Changes
As a cost saving measure, a limit on the number of engines, with a single specification per year, will be introduced from 1 January 2007. The number of engines, with detailed regulations, will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
Applicable from 1 January 2007, the existing Super Rally rules will be replaced by a system of bonus points applied for each leg of a rally (1st = 3 points, 2nd = 2 points and 3rd = 1 point), to ensure the final classification applies only to competitors who complete the entire route. Detailed regulations will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
From 1 January 2007, Priority 1 drivers can only test for the manufacturer for which they are designated and, as part of a long-term objective, the number of test days will be reduced by means of technical measures.
Remote servicing, under restricted conditions, will be permitted from 1 January 2007. Detailed regulations will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
Drivers of Super 2000 cars taking part in the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship can score points for the Championship classification, as of 1 January 2007. Detailed regulations will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
From the beginning of the 2008 season, all World Rally Car entrants will use tyres from a single supplier. Run-flat ‘foam’ will not be permitted. Tenders will be invited from tyre companies.
The introduction of Biofuel, at the earliest opportunity, is being studied by the FIA Technical Department.
From 1 January 2007, it will be forbidden for competition cars running on less than four wheels to be driven on liaison sections. Detailed regulations will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
The World Motor Sport Council approved the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship calendar, which will continue to run to the existing January-December format.
As a cost saving measure, a limit on the number of engines, with a single specification per year, will be introduced from 1 January 2007. The number of engines, with detailed regulations, will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
Applicable from 1 January 2007, the existing Super Rally rules will be replaced by a system of bonus points applied for each leg of a rally (1st = 3 points, 2nd = 2 points and 3rd = 1 point), to ensure the final classification applies only to competitors who complete the entire route. Detailed regulations will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
From 1 January 2007, Priority 1 drivers can only test for the manufacturer for which they are designated and, as part of a long-term objective, the number of test days will be reduced by means of technical measures.
Remote servicing, under restricted conditions, will be permitted from 1 January 2007. Detailed regulations will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
Drivers of Super 2000 cars taking part in the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship can score points for the Championship classification, as of 1 January 2007. Detailed regulations will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
From the beginning of the 2008 season, all World Rally Car entrants will use tyres from a single supplier. Run-flat ‘foam’ will not be permitted. Tenders will be invited from tyre companies.
The introduction of Biofuel, at the earliest opportunity, is being studied by the FIA Technical Department.
From 1 January 2007, it will be forbidden for competition cars running on less than four wheels to be driven on liaison sections. Detailed regulations will be proposed at the next World Council meeting.
The World Motor Sport Council approved the 2007 FIA World Rally Championship calendar, which will continue to run to the existing January-December format.
Edited by fozzi on Friday 18th August 12:52
Edited by fozzi on Friday 18th August 12:54
Eric Mc said:
Once upon a time, the bulk of any rally was spent on public roads, either on timed or untimed stages. The exception was Great Britain where competition on public roads is banned. In these circumtsances, the rally mainly took place on private land on "special stages".
Over the last two decades or so, "Special Stages" have come to predominate and a lot of the old fashioned classic rallies have been axed or downgraded (Monte Carlo, East African Safari etc etc).
Over the last two decades or so, "Special Stages" have come to predominate and a lot of the old fashioned classic rallies have been axed or downgraded (Monte Carlo, East African Safari etc etc).
Not quite.
Competition on UK public roads has, for a long time, and still is held under The Motor Vehicles (Competitions and Trials) Regulations 1969 (amended 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982 and 1993).
Situation today is very different and competitive road rallying is nothing as it was back in my hey day, so I'll talk about that as it explains why special stages are so named.
Events could and still do have timed sections, indeed when I was in the thick of pre-plot road rallying (eg Motoring News events) the road sections split into competitive and non-competitive. The competitive were mainly of two types, errr competitives timed to the minute, and selectives, timed to the second.
The non-competitives were link sections between the competitive sections and were split into relaxed and neutrals. Relaxed sections you could make up time providing you did npt exceed 40mph average, neutrals you could not make up time. If the target tine was 8 minutes, then 8 minutes or longer you took (up to going OTL) and if you took less then you got a heavy penalty @ 1 fail per minute.
However the rule within the laws of the sport was that all sections had to have a scheduled time for the section no faster than 30 mph. I'll not comment on what used to happen but these events were in effect 'legalised' road races and the rules have been changed to stop the more obvious tweaks.
Now 30 mph is not that difficult to achieve, and there was the need to have sections with higher set average speeds.
These were called special stages and in UK had to be on roads closed to the public, eg forestry roads, private estates, airfields, MoD land and so on. It is legally possible to close public roads, as they do on the continent and IoM, but the hassle in UK has always been so great that very few have succeeded, though it still happens today. Cycle races have less problem in obtaining road closure orders, but likewise they have to obtain permission to hold competition on the public road under a different set of regs.
Again the rules have changed regarding special stages over the years re equipment, clothing, set speeds and so on.
Even today on the road sections of a stage rally there is an element of timing, albeit to very low average speeds, mainly to keep the rally together.
Thus special stages are "competitive sections timed to a high accuracy of a second or less, usually held on roads closed to the public"
Seeing as Eric mentions the Safari, for many years this was effectively run as a giant pre-plot road rally timed to the minute.
Ah them were t'days.
Edited by Flat in Fifth on Tuesday 22 August 16:19
pwig said:
With regards to the safari, it still is, isn't it?
Do you know pwig maybe it has gone back to that format. I'll have to check. I thought it had shifted from the only timing to the whole minute concept during the era when it was struggling to keep World Championship status.
With the current WRC rubbish format the Safari was never going to survive in the championship. Which is a shame as it is what rallying is about in my opinion, a bit of an adventure, coupled with fast driving over rough roads, with a fair hint of preservation of car and crew required.
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