Late in a
season of hard
racing, and so far
second place in the
championship, I reach the
mountains of
Switzerland. My
Lancia Fulvia's
engine revs as it waits patiently for yet another race- though this time the
starting line looks more like the
apex of a
rollercoaster track. The
view over the
hood is of a rather
steep grade pointing down.
Thunder rumbles and
rain strikes the
tarmac. The
steering wheel shakes as I prepare to descend...
The road weaves along a cliffside, trees and rather large boulders litter the roadside - cutting on this course is not a viable option. It looks like quite a drop off of the left side. The rain doesn't seem to be affecting control too badly. Then it happens...
The navigator calmly tells me hairpin right.
HAIRPIN right???, I've been in this championship through five different countries already and never before has there been a hairpin turn. Of course I do the one thing that comes naturally, I slam on the brakes. Of course since my Lancia Fulvia is a front wheel drive car, this just means I am now ploughing forward. Some how the car stops in time. I do a hard turn and find myself driving up the mountain. For all my panicky driving, I actually ended up following the line (in so far as there can be a line in rallye racing) not too bad and then...
hairpin left
Well this time I am at least somewhat ready for it and make that turn not too badly either. The race goes on for another five or six kilometres- well actually I totally lost track of distance and there was no time to check the odometer as I was too busy avoiding boulders and trees. But in the end I won the race and went on to win the Switzerland rally. Oh sure my car's hood is smashed and the driver's side of the car is dented and scraped thanks to a friendly neighbourhood cliff side, adn the suspension and steering is a little thrashed as well from cutting a corner a bit too much and jumping a large rock, but the day was won.
This gave me just enough points to win the championship as well, covering up some of my horrifyingly bad driving way back in Russia and my dismal rally on the ice covered, snowy roads of Sweden.
This was just a little writeup inspired by Rally Trophy. It's quite the fun little game. I use my Logitech Driving Force Wheel and once you tweak your setup a little bit this game is just plain outstanding. Sometime maybe I'll write up my experiences with the rear wheel drive cars...hmmm actually that might not be too interesting as, thus far my sorties into the world of RWD basically result in curse filled races consisting mainly of my car doing donuts. Though I've been learning...backed off to the Ford Cortina and later a bulky Volvo - the more powerful Lancia Stratos that I won, is just far too powerful to be learning tricky rear wheel controls. But damn this game is fun!