Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs.! Did you get the wrist watch you wanted?by Ferdinand - Community Forum
B4 - Egan Creek 2 After forgetting to turn off the camera until about halfway through the 45-minute transit to this stage, Martin and Max then forgot to restart the camera. So, we have no in-car video of this final stage. Martin tells me that parts of this stage went really well for them, other parts not so well. That sounds a lot like how Ryan Huber and John Vanos experienced it too. Yoby Ferdinand - Community Forum
B3 - Lower Old Hastings 2: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6dIlD95SdY With one stage done, Martin and Max head into this next one with more confidence and Martin is charging right off the start. Then there's a small hitch. At 0:53 it's, "keep right over jump 180... Care keep left Crest L5+ into R4+sh..." But there are several other small crests not mentioned along tby Ferdinand - Community Forum
B2 - Middle Old Hastings 2: - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiivPoRp95E Here's the first video with Maxime Vadeboncoeur co-driving for Martin. There are lots of interesting things to note in this video. It's not at all easy swapping co-drivers. We didn't have a lot of time to make the switch. It would have been much easier to do this during the service break, but I hadby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Golton Spectator Stage Before we get to videos of Martin and Max, because we have no video of our own from the Golton Spectator Stage, here's one from Ryan Huber and John Vanos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hpeoc4kVXM Note John isn't calling any notes in this short stage either. But, unlike me, John wasn't nauseous at this point. Ryan didn't need notes to find hisby Ferdinand - Community Forum
I'm having fun with my new GoPro camera. It can do time lapse photos. To try it out, I stuck it to my office window and set it to snap a photo every two seconds. An hour and a half later, this is what I got. I get much more work done now. No longer do I need to stare out the window all day to keep track of what's happening outside. Now I can reduce it all down to fast-forwardby Ferdinand - Community Forum
After all the drama of the frantic repairs needed during the first three service stops, service stop #4 was leisurely with nothing to do. A quick check revealed no issues with the car. Maybe a little smelly, but it's still good to go for more punishment. I however am very rapidly approaching expiration. Meanwhile, with nothing else to do during the service break, Martin had enough sparby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteJose PintoReading notes in a fast moving car is the worst thing to do when your sick... I know that was sure thing to make me sick, i couldn't read notes even if it was to save my life! I imagine a cup of tea and an headache pill is not easy to get over there in the woods. Hope it turned out all right, Ferdinand... So far I've only ever puked at Tall Pines. There's jusby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteMichiel 318iS QuoteFerdinand Catching any air on the first jump means landing the car smack into the uphill slope of the following jump. AU! Just looking at it makes me feel your pain. Very unfortunate landing. Was the car undamaged after this event? Other than the bent left rear upper control arm that was replaced at the first service stop, and another bent left rear upper control arby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Let the misery begin... I've got a splitting headache, and I'm feeling deadly nauseous. No amount of rolling windows down, drinking water, or anything else, was going to make that go away. And worse, we had a long 45-minute transit to reach the start of the next stage, Egan Creek. The straight highway portion is no problem, but from there on the transit road itself is already aby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Quoterkj QuoteFerdinand A10 - Lower Old Hastings 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aIN5twerK0 That video only goes to the jump-ouch, that is what you intended, right Ferd? The bad jump is at 3:55, but the video continues to the end of the stage and is 12:18 long.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
A10 - Lower Old Hastings 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aIN5twerK0 Martin says he's going to try to keep the car on the ground over jumps so we don't break anything else. That sounds like an excellent idea to me. The stage starts off okay. We're feeling more confident now and the notes are working well. At 2:50 we're catching the tail lights of the Fiesta R2 of Tby Ferdinand - Community Forum
A9 - Middle Old Hastings 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsi-mH1866I At the start line Martin remembers how we "almost went off here" in the opening few corners back in 2009. In the low-light conditions of these night stages, the camera image has a green hue. The exposure corrects itself at 0:56 when the nose of the car drops through a dip and the view momentarily shows more ofby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Major repairs were required to the broken strut. Martin had a spare insert, but not a spare strut tube. That's usually not a problem, but this time we had also managed to damage the tube itself. The upper end was all mangled. So it was a major project just to pull the damaged strut insert out of the also damaged strut tube. The frantic activity attracted quite a crowd of spectators.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
While we're waiting for the car to be repaired (again) at Service, check out this little video! Surely you've all already seen the awesome wing-suit video, called "Grinding the Crack". If not, you're probably the only person on the internet who hasn't seen it yet. Either way, watch it again because it's truly amazing! Jeb Corliss, "Grinding The Crby Ferdinand - Community Forum
After narrowly missing a bunch of tree stumps, but successfully finishing the long and rough A7 Mayo Stage, we were happy to find that the car still steered straight, not pulling to either side. We assumed that meant all the wheels were still attached and pointing in the right directions. Wrong! I had to get out of the car at the arrival control to check us in on time at the start of the nexby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Unfortunately the GoPro battery died just before this stage, so no more HD footage from here on. But the ChaseCam is still working fine. A7 - Mayo Lake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8T4ZBranwE This an awesome stage, 28.5 km long. We had a scary big moment further in when we fell completely off the road on a slippery muddy corner and almost bounced the car sideways over several tree stby Ferdinand - Community Forum
A6 - Iron Bridge 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF-bxldPxZc Suspension repaired and strengthened, we're good to go. Lots more fun to be had. The Iron Bridge stage is a repeat of the last portion of the earlier Old Detlor stage, the fast stuff with the big jump then ending at the Iron Bridge spectator location. The road is getting badly dug up, with deep ruts in the loose sand.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Now it's back to the Service park for a scheduled 20 minute stop. Car goes up on jack stands, wheels off, left rear upper control arm is toast. It has to come out. Time for Dr. Goodwrench to perform another emergency control-arm-ectomy. Meanwhile the crew has pre-assembled the bits in the jig to fabricate a stronger ring-shaped control arm. They've tack-welded the parts to hold tby Ferdinand - Community Forum
"It feels to me like I have a left-rear problem."by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Watching that A4 - Old Detlor stage again, I only just realized we did that big jump in 4th gear! Yikes! A5 - The Peanut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq3wiEuUvvU Speaking of helpful and friendly volunteers who come out year after year, at the arrival and start control of The Peanut we were welcomed by my friends Josée Riopel and Guy Blanchard. Seems like they' show up to help atby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteDave_GDang, you guys go through control arms faster than I go through tires! Good thing it sounds like they're easily replaceable. The easily replaceable ones look something like this. They are already banana-shaped to begin with because they have to pass around the strut assembly. Easy to replace, but weak. We had only one spare, which is now just as bent and buggered as the origiby Ferdinand - Community Forum
A4 - Old Detlor Old Detlor starts with a very narrow, tight, and rough section of Old Detlor Road, then a brief bit of tarmac at Detlor Crossing where the stage jogs left across Detlor Rd, then back onto the increasingly churned up and deeply rutted Landon Rd, over the BIG jump, then the Tee-Right at Tait Farm, eventually finishing in front of the huge crowd of spectators at Iron Bridge. Thby Ferdinand - Community Forum
That's a smart choice for a commuter car. Small, cheap, inexpensive, and it's a Toyota so you know it'll be reliable. I don't understand the appeal of those expensive, heavy, overly-complicated, electric/gasoline hybrid cars when something simple like this car gets every bit as good fuel mileage.by Ferdinand - Car Talk
A3 - Upper Old Hastings 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0I7CYm191Q With the rear suspension repaired, this is our second run on Upper Old Hastings. For this run I stuck the GoPro camera outside my door. With the engine idling the door panel resonates something awful causing the camera to flutter on its mount. The "rolling shutter" on the camera creates that weird pulsing wavby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Here's the same stage again with no in-car commentary, just the rooftop GoPro video. It's such an awesome viewpoint. A2 - Upper Old Hastings 1 - No Talking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oyXBnr6xMI When we nearly went off and clouted the dirt berm on the edge of the road at 2:40, we bent the upper control on the left rear suspension. The top of the wheel was pushed in. Riby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Wow, that's a lot of cars!by Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteDave_GRyan Huber and John Vanos: That link goes to the video of your car again. Oops, my bad. Sorry. Try this link instead, Ryan Huber and John Vanos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f6_FtuS5hM Quote How does the driver differentiate a repeat from a new instruction? I guess it's all in the delivery. That's a tough one. I really should preface every repeat by explicitlyby Ferdinand - Community Forum
A2 - Upper Old Hastings 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5DA9XKJgXc Ya gotta watch this one! We made a dog's breakfast of this run, almost crashing out starting at 2:30 in the video. Divided into three portions, Old Hastings is a fabulous rally road. The northern "Upper" section is wide, smooth, and crazy FAST!!! "Middle" Old Hastings is narrow, twisty, and teby Ferdinand - Community Forum