Sunday, June 12, 2011

BMW

Apart for the latest Mini test, I did drive a rally car once, since Australia 2005 with the Focus: 



This happened in Finland, near Hämeenlinna, in 2009. It happened to be with a rear wheel drive car: BMW. 

I had never driven a rear wheel drive rally car before.

I tell you what:

I was glad the first touch happened on a big wide rallycross circuit because I spun twice on my first lap! My passenger, who was the car's previous owner, must have thought: "OMG who is this guy?" The track was wide and there was no danger to hit anything, so at least like this I managed to figure out what the car could do.

Why did it spin?

Simply because I was used to 4 wheel drive, where you can come into corners with blazing guns and brake so late a priest would lose his faith over it.

I had to rethink my approach, have a coffee break, a bit of a chat with my friends, then it was ok. 

Unlike WRC cars, where the rear is super stable, in this car I had to brake much earlier. Then I had to turn into corners very smoothly, off the brakes. I waited and applied throttle gently as I got closer to the apex. Then I gunned it and hoped for the best!



After that we took the car on a forest road, it was cool to drive in Finland again!

You can find more pics of this adventure on the BMW page.

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