March 2011 - Portugal WRC (some photos and story)
Discussion
Unsure if this is suitable for here, or general motorsport, but someone will probably move it for me 
So March of this year i found myself with some holiday to use up...as did a friend, had a good look around for various things to in the UK, then realised that the World Rally Championship was being held in Portugal. Rather fortunately i've got access to the family holiday home and it all became a plan.
Tickets booked - Easyjet (Gatwick to Faro if anyones that interested)and we picked up our beautiful hire car, now to put this in perspective i've normally got lucky with hirecars so this time i guess i didnt.
Meet our 80k Clio estate thing diesel... a dent in every panel, and stunk of cigarette smoke (this was from a mainstream rental agent i should add, but off season i guess this was all they had left)
Managed prior to leaving the UK to find a rallymap guide which gave some GPS co-ordinates for stage viewing points, i also rather sadly stuck the stages into googlemaps and found my own.
Set off the first day of competition and managed to put my own googlemapped co-ordinates to good use and found a brilliant view point. Very noisy, very dusty, and very very dedicated Portugese/Spanish fans (some had been up a couple of days prior and cut back scrub bushes, driven off road to get to high ground, and then built a camp)
Over the next couple of days we managed to get hold of an Offical WRC stage guide, which turned out to be complete dross - we drove 3 hours one day and ended up on the driveway of a peasant house. All very odd, and even some of the official press were hopelessly lost.When we did find a viewpoint parking was shall we say interesting....
On the plus side we did manage to find some brilliant view points, meet some interesting folk, and smoke around the algarve hillsides in our mighty hire car.
Some more photos...
Also had a mooch around the Portimao race track, had the clio sideways around varying tarmac hairpins, and also managed (as a result of getting lost) get onto a WRC stage prior to setup.
It should be mentioned for anyone considering doing this that the Portugese dont do directions, dont signpost things well, and generally dont do organisation! For example you will see a sign staked into the ground saying WRC and pointing down a gravel track... and thats it, when the road splits into 2/3/4/5 routes no further sign post. On the plus side the locals are all very very hospitable and the roads are in the whole very very quiet.
We also found a chocolate beer (which i've not been able to find since!)
As for the hire car.. it managed 1400miles in 6 days, about 600 of which were on gravel tracks, front bumper needed re-fixing after some after a zealous jump and handed back as below (the chap in the hire company said it looked like we'd had a good time, shook our hands and waved us on our way)
Would recommend a similar trip to anyone
So March of this year i found myself with some holiday to use up...as did a friend, had a good look around for various things to in the UK, then realised that the World Rally Championship was being held in Portugal. Rather fortunately i've got access to the family holiday home and it all became a plan.
Tickets booked - Easyjet (Gatwick to Faro if anyones that interested)and we picked up our beautiful hire car, now to put this in perspective i've normally got lucky with hirecars so this time i guess i didnt.
Meet our 80k Clio estate thing diesel... a dent in every panel, and stunk of cigarette smoke (this was from a mainstream rental agent i should add, but off season i guess this was all they had left)
Managed prior to leaving the UK to find a rallymap guide which gave some GPS co-ordinates for stage viewing points, i also rather sadly stuck the stages into googlemaps and found my own.
Set off the first day of competition and managed to put my own googlemapped co-ordinates to good use and found a brilliant view point. Very noisy, very dusty, and very very dedicated Portugese/Spanish fans (some had been up a couple of days prior and cut back scrub bushes, driven off road to get to high ground, and then built a camp)
Over the next couple of days we managed to get hold of an Offical WRC stage guide, which turned out to be complete dross - we drove 3 hours one day and ended up on the driveway of a peasant house. All very odd, and even some of the official press were hopelessly lost.When we did find a viewpoint parking was shall we say interesting....
On the plus side we did manage to find some brilliant view points, meet some interesting folk, and smoke around the algarve hillsides in our mighty hire car.
Some more photos...
Also had a mooch around the Portimao race track, had the clio sideways around varying tarmac hairpins, and also managed (as a result of getting lost) get onto a WRC stage prior to setup.
It should be mentioned for anyone considering doing this that the Portugese dont do directions, dont signpost things well, and generally dont do organisation! For example you will see a sign staked into the ground saying WRC and pointing down a gravel track... and thats it, when the road splits into 2/3/4/5 routes no further sign post. On the plus side the locals are all very very hospitable and the roads are in the whole very very quiet.
We also found a chocolate beer (which i've not been able to find since!)
As for the hire car.. it managed 1400miles in 6 days, about 600 of which were on gravel tracks, front bumper needed re-fixing after some after a zealous jump and handed back as below (the chap in the hire company said it looked like we'd had a good time, shook our hands and waved us on our way)
Would recommend a similar trip to anyone
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