2013 WRC Thread

[yhelothar]

Show some WRC lovin here. 🙂

I'll start with some wicked gravel powerslides by the best rally driver ever, Sebastian Loeb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJr3...ew-vl&list=PLODyu6T9_emxi-4VAA2tO_n9JoNQlQzQc

 

[Centauri]

Loeb is the entire reason I stopped paying attention to WRC. I hope he retires soon.

 

[yhelothar]

Why?

 

[punjabiplaya]

My two favorite motorsports are made boring by Sebastian winning everything.

 

[yhelothar]

Hmmm well I watch WRC for awesome driving more than anything, so I find Loeb more of a blessing than a curse.

 

[NutBucket]

Some competition would be nice too. I quit watching when Subaru bowed out. I miss the days of Gronholm, Makenin, McRae, Burns, etc.

 

[RiDE]

Loeb is the entire reason I stopped paying attention to WRC. I hope he retires soon.

He is semi-retired... since he's only doing 4 events this year. He won 2 of those events and a 2nd with France left as his last race.

But yes one Sebastian leaves only for another Sebastien to keep winning. :awe:

 

[yhelothar]

I just remembered why I rarely come here anymore. Here we have the world's greatest driver. But instead of enjoying his amazing motoring, people complain that he wins too much? Holy fuck. Only on anandtech forums could people turn the world's greatest driver into something negative.

 

[NutBucket]

That's my basic complaint with F1 when Schumacher was winning everything. Yes Seb is an awesome driver but what's the point of watching when you already know the outcome? I think this is basic appeal of NASCAR. Lots of passing and lots of different winners.

 

[nerp]

I just like seeing those cars shred it up. I don't really care who wins or loses. I just like watching it go down. I guess it's like enjoying watching football and not rooting for any team.

 

[yhelothar]

That's my basic complaint with F1 when Schumacher was winning everything. Yes Seb is an awesome driver but what's the point of watching when you already know the outcome? I think this is basic appeal of NASCAR. Lots of passing and lots of different winners.

NASCAR and F1 are both circuit racing where overtaking is a huge part of the appeal. There is no overtaking in WRC.

I just like seeing those cars shred it up. I don't really care who wins or loses. I just like watching it go down. I guess it's like enjoying watching football and not rooting for any team.

Agreed.

 

[NutBucket]

I'm not comparing the two. Only stating its nice when someone else has a chance of winning (barring mechanical failure for Seb 😛)

 

[punjabiplaya]

I just remembered why I rarely come here anymore. Here we have the world's greatest driver. But instead of enjoying his amazing motoring, people complain that he wins too much? Holy fuck. Only on anandtech forums could people turn the world's greatest driver into something negative.

It's not just here. What about all the people booing Seb at every race? No one denies that these guys are amazing, but you kind of get tired of watching it when the outcome is already known. I don't want to have to ignore 1st place and just watch the rest of the field in order for it to be exciting. Watching Seb pull away like 10 seconds after 4 laps in Singapore was just frustrating.

 

[RiDE]

I mostly stopped watching not because Loeb was making everybody look like noobs but because the cars started looking like little toys from happy meals...

From these:

To these:

 

[NutBucket]

As far as pro racing goes they still look a lot like road cars. The trouble is the road cars just don't look as good anymore.

 

[_Rick_]

As far as pro racing goes they still look a lot like road cars. The trouble is the road cars just don't look as good anymore.

Also, they've downsized quite a bit, with every generation.
I think it was last year, that they got down to the sub-compact class as reference cars?
I don't mind much, a WRC Polo, DS3 or Fiesta still looks pretty wicked, in some ways because it is such an extreme variation on a common theme.

I suppose in the US it's harder to see that link though, as there are no DS3s, Polos and only now a few Fiestas.