I would greatly appreciate it if one of the podium guys in the -4wd category posted a replay vid of a stage. By no means I am a fast guy, but i cant comprehend how when i have a decent stage, i still am over a minute slower in the R4 class. So looking to see what i am doing wrong...
I'm sorry, I have no replay saved, playing with HTC Vive, and with no recording software experience, too much to do hehe
What I can say is, that I prepared a lot. I needed to, more steering angle, changed FFB, new rim than in Sweden, the changes where all to the better, but I had to get used to them in the first place.
Unlike in Sweden, I had no Setup ready for competition. Trial and error brought me to a setup I felt really comfortable with in my 1995 Subaru - the trick for me was, to shorten the final drive a lot, gives the Subi a lot more grunt I felt, I finally got the hairpins most of the time as I wanted to, the top speed lacked a bit, but there's hardly any longer stretch you could power through flat out for quite a while.
(I based my setup on this one:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=606853521, with adaptations in the gears and suspension department - don't know why this one works so well for me, felt just right rom the start)
I really enjoy the training and preparation for this events - I'm still learning a lot concerning setups, gearing, raceline, technique, etc. Only three months driving with the Vive, I set quite a few PB's during training - VR helps me to get to the apex much better, the FOV is just perfect I feel, never went back to my three screens. It has it's downsides, but the driving and immersion is what matters most for me.
I did all 12 SS in one go, like Sweden - I had no real clue if i was fast or not. Never took a look at the leaderboards, helps me to concentrate on my driving, and the things I have under control, and the next stage loads pretty much instantly, keeping the flow going.
I tried to keep the car as healthy as possible, had a cautious first two stages, got into a good flow afterwards, main goal: NO major mistakes if possible. I just had a slowspeed barrel role in the 2nd SS I think, cracked my side-window, but that was it more or less on the errorfront. (the sidewindow never got repaired till the end, lazy mechanics
)
The end of the first, and the start of the second day must have been quite fast, but the happiest part were the five sunny midday stages at the end - I really enjoyed that!
The Subaru was badly bruised from the regular damage, but it was still very fast and smooth to control - with some cars or setups, the later SS of an event can feel very different to the start, this time, it was more or less the same all the way through, which helped.
Now on to Finland, this will be even harder than Greece, the stages literally eat your car up bit by bit, even with the personal service park crew, they hardly any manage to repair it back to 100% after lets say a long and a short one without any major crashes. Servicepark performance and cautious driving will be key, to have some speed left at the end (no clue how many SS are planned, but I guess more then 12, this will be very interessting!) Bring it on!
Thanks again to all involved organizing all the stuff it needs, appreciated very much!
