WRC Deutschland 2004

[oversteer]

Folks,
Here's the lowdown on WRC Deutschland 2004, courtesy AXN's TV coverage:
-Citroen's Sebastien Loeb n. Daniel Elena, winner of this event since it appeared on the WRC calendar in 2002, kept his cool in the treacherously changing conditions to come out on top with a 29.1s lead over Ford's Francois Duval n. Stephan Prevot, followed by Citroen's Carlos Sainz n. Marc Marti at +1:09.5s.
-Duval pulled it of rather clean this time despite a broken clutch on SS5, which meant manual gearshift and no handbrake.
-Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm n. Timo Rautiainen crashed out due to misjudging the rally's *very first* corner.
-Roman Kresta n. Jan Tomanek was a bright ray of hope for Skoda until he crashed out @ 7th in SS9...
-...which was canelled after the very scary crash of Mitsubishi's Gilles Panizzi n. Herve Panizzi @ 6th. No known major injuries.
-Sainz lost time on SS10 with engine management problems.
-Subaru's Petter Solberg n. Phil Mills had by far the worst crash @ 4th at the beginning of SS12... even the codriver's side of the rollcage collapsed! (Again, thankfully, no major injuries). Stage cancelled. See pic.
-Ford's Markko Martin n. Michael Park seems to have recovered well from his horrible Argentina crash, finishing 4th overall with some very impressive stage times.
-Peugeot and Skoda both had good runs with two 307s in 5th & 6th and Toni Gardemeister's Fabia @ 7th overall.
-Drivers' standings: Loeb (76), Martin (47), Sainz (46).
-Mfgr's standings: Citroen (125), Ford (96), Subaru (67).
-Next up: Japan 3-5 Sept.

--oversteer--

[Tom]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (oversteer @ Aug. 28 2004,00:27)]-Duval pulled it of rather clean this time despite a broken clutch on SS5, which meant manual gearshift and no handbrake.

no handbrake? care to explain

[Rehaan]

aha...

so thats a good question - as you had told us in the WRC Cars thread, that what is normally the handbrake lever becomes a manual gearshift in a case when the electronic shift conks...... so then....how is the handbrake controlled?

Tell us!

cya
R

[oversteer]

From the WRC Cars thread:

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (killjoy @ July 12 2004,10:10)]hey tom, stop pulling other's legs
this is this to educate the other members on the forum. cause i know that you know all the answers to the questions that you are asking.

Tom, you're a Markko fan, aren't you?
Anyway, this is from an article about the Ford Focus RS WRC03:

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]In the weight saving endeavour many pieces have been repositioned. [...] As many unnecessary pieces have been removed as possible, notably the aluminium plate traditionally used to attach the seats to the shell.
"This alone saves four bolts and pieces, time, weight and money!" Now the seats are bolted directly on to a lug attached to the floor.
One of the most imaginative innovations is the hand brake with no evident reserve gear lever. In fact the handbrake serves as both. With the withdrawal of a retaining pin it can double up as a manual sequential gearshift lever in case of failure of the semi-automatic systems.

Cheers
--oversteer--