The 2009 China Rally Championship

patpending wrote:I don't know where the mike is, but it's subjected to a constant barrage of rocks!

Maybe it's the co-pilots mike? He is the only one we can hear above the noise?

I'm sure it will be inside the cabin, that is why they need mikes and headphones to talk to each other, I wonder if there was any floor left for the copilot to put his feet on by the end

The engine doesn't seem to be getting a chance to go flat out very often

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:I don't know where the mike is, but it's subjected to a constant barrage of rocks!

Maybe it's the co-pilots mike? He is the only one we can hear above the noise?

I'm sure it will be inside the cabin, that is why they need mikes and headphones to talk to each other, I wonder if there was any floor left for the copilot to put his feet on by the end

The engine doesn't seem to be getting a chance to go flat out very often

It's not the one Marko is using to read the pace notes to Jussi. You hear him counting down to zero at the beginning of the stage ..."viisi (5)...neljä...kolme...kaksi...yksi (1)..." and Jussi giving the motor bananas at about kolme, but otherwise the pace notes are an occasional murmur.

I remember from one of the summer rallies (post 26) that the sound from Marko's mike has perfectly-clear pace notes which he appears to deliver around 4 seconds before they get there, so it's not that one.

patpending wrote:

mce wrote:Stages 4 & 5 incar are now live in välimäki website (check average speed.....):
http://www.jussivalimaki.com/jussicam.php

Thank you!

We know pace notes are read out in advance, and I see that Marko is reading the notes maybe four seconds ahead - he says "silta" (bridge) at 2:22 on one stage and they cross it at 2:26.

If he needed to say "Watch out for that squirrel/mouse/spider/mosquito" at any point, I'm sure I'd understand immediately.

Until then, I'll leave the rally driving to the experts.

What a great tip, mce!

Kiitos jussicamista! (? - I don't mean to be rude!)

The engine is not that loud either. Is this mike in the rear of the cabin near the floor (while it's still there)?

Much of the rally seems to be spent going sideways round gravelly corners with a sheer drop behind you and rock and a deep ditch in front. I agree the gear used must never be too high. Again I recall from the audible pace notes hearing only low numbers like 3 and 2 and they turned out to be the gears used four seconds later...

patpending wrote:The engine is not that loud either. Is this mike in the rear of the cabin near the floor (while it's still there)?

It's probably on the camera and you you should be able to work out where that is from the view!

The engines are not that loud these days, partly because of noise requlations and partly because the exhaust and induction are blocked by a great big turbo or two. If you want a proper engine sound you need an MG3, or the MG ZR S2000 above which don't have turbos and sound almost as good as rally cars did back in the days of Escorts! There is no sound insulation so the stone noise will get everywhere in the cabin - doesn't matter where the mike is.

patpending wrote:Do we have a scoreboard for 2009 pre- or post-Suzuki?

Suzuki won the championship again by quite a big margin with MG in second, I haven't actually seen the final scores though, somehow the normal coverage got lost amoungst a mixture of the Asia Pacific Rally which finished its year at the same time and a tire war between Maxxis and their competitors, who weren't very interested in the points as they were competing in several classes.

Windy wrote:

patpending wrote:Do we have a scoreboard for 2009 pre- or post-Suzuki?

Suzuki won the championship again by quite a big margin with MG in second

who were the other competitors in the class?