Going slightly Mads
Entry posted by Nathan Strum
8,312 views
So, remember this?
No?
Well, I didn't expect you to.
Anyway, so here's the entry.
And sorry Dave... it's not about "Top Gear".
However, it is about cars driving really fast. Just without the wacky British humor.
It's about rallying.
Oops... okay, before you leave - those of you in the United States - stick with me a minute. Yes, rallying is pretty-much a non-entity in the U.S., but unlike say... soccer... rallying is actually interesting.
(And before soccer football fans start sending me hate e-mail... I loved soccer as a kid. Played it all the time. That is until "the man" started making us play using "rules". What's the fun in that?)
I'm not really sure how long ago I first heard about rallying. I do remember seeing insane videos of insane drivers driving at insane speeds right through the middle of crowds of what could only be described as insane spectators - parting out of the way of onrushing cars like the Red Sea getting out of the way of Charlton Heston, but a whole lot faster.
I did watch racing when I was a kid, what little of it there was on TV (this was well before cable stations like EPSN or Speed) - mostly NHRA or NASCAR events - with the likes of Don Prudhomme, Tom McEwen (I had their Hot Wheels funny cars) or Richard Petty. Them was the good old days.
Somewhere in the late 70's to early 80's though, I stopped watching racing on TV. Part of that was due to other interests occupying my time (i.e. video games); part of it was the dreadful car designs of that era; and part of it was the fact that once I got my own driver's license, I didn't need to experience driving vicariously by watching it on TV. (Not that I ever exceeded the speed limit or anything, mind you.)
Of course that didn't stop me from playing a lot of racing video games. Turbo, Pole Position, Spy Hunter (hey, it counts), and later games like Out-Run, Hang-On and Hard Drivin', which was one of the last arcade racing games I remember really playing much. After that, arcades pretty-much died and only rarely did I sit down for a game of Cruis'n USA, San Francisco Rush, or Sega Rally.
Ah yes... rally. Back to the very topic of this rambling blog entry.
With the arrival of my first PlayStation came Gran Turismo. (Obviously, I didn't buy one for a few years.) I'm not sure if it was Gran Turismo or GT2 that first included rally driving in it, but I do remember that it did include a Subaru Impreza. I had already been looking for a new car around this time, and had noted that Subarus were pretty reliable and affordable, so I was glad to be able finally test drive one... in Gran Turismo. (Hey, it counts.)
Eventually, I test drove a real one (along with numerous other cars) and finally ended up buying an Impreza in 2002. I'll admit part of the appeal of it was the fact that there were cars that didn't look all that dissimilar to it, tearing up rally courses around the world... and in video games. Unlike NASCAR or NHRA, the rally race cars still resemble their real-world counterparts. It's not hard to imagine a not-so-distant cousin of my car flying down some road in Europe at 120 MPH, narrowly avoiding wrapping itself around a tree (or a herd of insane spectators).
I also picked up a couple of Colin McRae rally games for the PlayStation, and kept an eye out for other games featuring "my car". It's always fun getting to the point in a game where I get to unlock, modify, and drive around in my own car like, well, an insane person.
So last year, I saw that Discovery HD Theater was carrying highlights from the World Rally Championship. Now when I say "World Rally Championship", I don't mean "World" like the MLB "World" Series or NFL "World" Champions. Nope. The WRC literally spans the world. This year they're racing in Sweden, Mexico, Jordan, Turkey, New Zealand, Portugal, Bulgaria, Finland, Germany, Japan, France, Spain and Great Britain. And some of the countries change from year to year, so this is a truly global event.
Except, of course, in the U.S.
Which I haven't quite figured out.
After all, we're car-obsessed over here. NASCAR is big business. The NHRA is big business. Cars in general are big business (well... Chrysler and GM notwithstanding). And rallying is, in my opinion, more fun to watch. First, as I already mentioned, the cars look like regular cars. They haven't been streamlined and modified beyond recognition. Also, rallies take place on just plain-old roads. Mostly dirt (or gravel, or snow...), with hills, mud, debris, rocks, and trees. Lots of trees. Zipping past mere feet (or inches) from the cars at over 100 MPH. (That's... um... something... in KPH. Not sure. Like... 180. Anyway, it's really fast.) The control these guys have over their cars is astonishing, and very exciting to watch. And the crashes are spectacular. None of this padded barricade nonsense. You can't pad a tree, bucko.
Not that I watch it for the crashes. That would be wrong.
The only thing I can figure, is that the U.S. audience can't wrap its collective noggin around the fact that rally cars race against the clock - not directly against each other. Although this hasn't really stopped people from watching downhill skiing. Maybe we need a hot blonde rally driver in the sport.
Either that, or because rallies take place in the countryside, U.S. race fans would miss the opportunity to gather as a communal group of racing fans, and all get drunk together.
Anyway, this week on HDT will be highlights from last week's Mexico rally. They run a half-hour coverage per day of the rally (usually three days), plus an overview of the rally beforehand, and an hour-long recap the following Sunday, so there's plenty to watch.
The one bummer about this, is that prior to last year, Subaru dropped out of the WRC, citing the economic downturn. However, thanks in part to Toyota's little problem of getting their cars to actually come to a stop, Subaru's sales have been on the uptake. So maybe they'll get back into it again.
Consequently, Subaru's not sponsoring anyone right now, so any Subarus are few and far-between, being privately campaigned without factory support.
Mads Ostberg deftly turns his Impreza left, to go right. Or is he turning right, to go left?
Right now, the Manufacturers' Championship portion of the WRC is just down to Ford and Citroën. Citroën?! A French company?! Who am I supposed to root for now? Ford? Well, I guess they did copy Subaru's blue oval, so they'll do for now. Personally, I think Subaru is just embarrassed that the current Impreza is so ugly*, that they're waiting for the next redesign to get back to racing. I hope so.
I'd hate to have to buy a Citroën next time...
* See? I managed to stick a Top Gear reference in there anyway. Aren't you glad you stuck around?
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