Day 4 - Stage 3 - Mooring Cove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l11o-u9YIyc Okay this one was painfully slow. Ross pulled this trick on us earlier at Greenspond and caught out several teams. Now he's done it a second time at Mooring Cove and caught out another three teams. Curiously, it was all three of the Mini Coopers entered in Grand Touring that missed their time on this stage. Tby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 4 - Stage 2 - Harbour Mille: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wit2vLvctbM The breakfast stop in Harbour Mille was fun. We had to wait for all the Targa cars to complete the stage behind us before we could line up again for the return trip. With lots of time to kill, everybody had a chance to chat and enjoy the sunshine. About ten of us were standing together when a couple of cute girlsby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 4 - Stage 1 - Little Bay East: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzCaGLleAKw The first stage of the day starts in Bay L'Argent, takes a small but intense detour through Little Bay East, and then finishes in a long run out to Harbour Mille, where we stop for breakfast before turning around and running the same stage back in the other direction. The first section was quite easy, but theby Ferdinand - Community Forum
At the end of Day-3 only three GT teams remained without penalties. Day-4 dawned sunny and beautiful. Day-4 was going to be tough, with our time window narrowing to +/- 5 seconds.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Quotedanielyou will now exist on the internet forever. I guess it proves what my neighbours say about me. I am always out in my driveway working on my car.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Quoteec437So which car is my diff living in? The differential was intended for the black 86 325e. But I never got around to installing it. It's still in its shipping crate. The black car has since been retired. There are just too many rust issues plaguing it. It would have cost a lot to beat back the rust for a few more years. For nearly the same amount of money, I bought the red 1by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Early this spring there were lots of reports of people seeing the Google mapping vans cruising the streets of Ottawa. I really wanted to see one of those in action. Instead, I had my back turned when the Google car snuck past behind me and snapped a shot of my butt!by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Gooseberry Cove was the last stage of Day-3. At the end of Day-3 only three GT remained clean with no penalties. Now we headed for the long transit to our overnight stay in Marystown. But on the way we stopped at Vernon's Antique Toy Shop in Swift Current, Newfoundland. You gotta see it to believe it! It's not a museum. It's Vernon's own collection of lovingly restby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 8 - Gooseberry Cove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdyWy1GSTT0 It's too bad that this long stage had to be split into three parts like this due to construction. This last bit, which doesn't count now, would have been tough to do. At the end of this stage our "support crew" was waiting for us providing snacks and good cheer, while I put air in their tiresby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 8B - Gooseberry Cove (Part-B ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btDdKRRolXA Another snoozer. But we got to honk the horn at Ross at the finish. That was amusing.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 8A - Gooseberry Cove (Part-A): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kFIUcEYaXk It's too bad we didn't bring our camera with us, because Gooseberry Cove itself is a very scenic harbour village. We had a break here while we waited for all the Targa cars to finish before we turned aorund to start back in the opposite direction. This time I remembered to start the camera, anby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 7 - NorthWest Brook (Part-B ): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVJ4J6S0rHk This stage was a snoozer. I forgot to start the video recorder until a 1.5 minutes into the stage, totally missing the only interesting portion. Then Christoph was snoring by the end and I had to wake him up to give me a countdown to the finish line.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 7 - NorthWest Brook (Part-A): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUnunLEeCWw Pretty scenery, rough pavement, otherwise uninteresting.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 7 - NorthWest Brook (Start Moved): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI5Xxxq0OzA The Northwest Brook stage was supposed to be one long road all the way out to Gooseberry Cove, where we have a snack break while waiting for the other teams to finish, then turn around and run it back in the other direction again. But road construction forced the organizers to break this into three secby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 5 - Greenspond: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1vyO324z-A Greenspond is a classic. It's a short stage that starts and finishes with relatively easy straight sections, but in between it has incredibly narrow, steep, uphill, downhill, tight, hairpins, etc. And it's beautifully scenic. My memory of this stage, from five years ago, was that the start and finish seby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 4 - New-Wes-Valley: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqRXJ0jmmVE After the adrenaline rush of Musgrave Harbour, our pace on the much-shortened New-Wes-Valley stage felt a lot slower. Nothing exciting here. The highlight of this stage, one of the best of the entire week, was passsing the Memorial Academy school on the transit to the next stop. All the school kids were lined upby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteEarendilAfter crossing the finish line said "That was tough" in a seemingly monotone bored voice. Coincidentally, those were the exact same words used by Jane & Bruce Leonard as they crossed the line 8 econds too late, taking their first penalty of the week. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpSJCJgzloYby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteEarendilAfter crossing the finish line you verbally said "That was tough" in a seemingly monotone bored voice. It was Christoph, my son, who said in a monotone bored voice, "That was tough." I was still busy trying to catch my breath. Our target speed of 89 km/h was quite "brisk", but certainly not impossible. As always though, what makes it tough for us GTby Ferdinand - Community Forum
QuoteFerdinandThe Grand Touring Category, like any normal TSD rally, actually is easy... If you've watched our videos so far, I'm sure you will have noticed that it doesn't appear all that difficult. That's the beauty of the Grand Touring Category. It's open to anyone and it's not difficult. You know that bit there where I said it's easy, and not difficultby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 2 - Frederickton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2rfz-RAlJM For a little extra treat, we got to transit over a 7 km length of gravel road. Jane and Bruce, with their rally suspension equipped Subaru, said, "Yeeha, finally a real rally road!" They blasted through at a healthy pace. We took it a little slower. The route instructions said there were an extra 5 minutby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 3 - Stage 1 - Davidsville: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcQ7SDJqiLs Davidsville, the first stage of the day, started under grey overcast skies and wet roads. At the stage start they displayed a board declaring this stage as Road Condition 2, meaning the road is wet. In Grand Touring we get two different target speeds for each stage, one for Condition-1 (dry), and another slower speedby Ferdinand - Community Forum
At the end of Day-2 there were still eight GT teams tied with zero penalties. But today, on Day-3, it's starts getting tough. Only three GT teams survive this day with zeroes still intact. On Day-3 the allowable time window shrinks to +/- 10 seconds and small errors become more costly.by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Check this out! In stark contrast to our pedestrian GT pace through the Gander stage, here's what it looks like from the onboard camera of Steve Millen's Nissan GTR in the Open-Class Targa Category. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Dd8TNHzuI It sure looks like that car has bags of understeer. But, OMG, it goes like a scalded cat in a straight line!by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 2 - Gander Car Wash: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wcdlE0mSZQ From the hot Gander stage, straight into the car wash, then parked in the arena overnight for the car show. Good car. "Ridden hard, put away wet."by Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 2 - Stage 8 - Gander: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUaoO-BPyFE The Gander stage is amazing! Check out this map route. It's really busy. There are very few straightaways long enough to get up to the required speed. We had to push pretty hard on this stage. Again, Ross was devious in his ITC placements. Once we got into a rhythm, push hard, rev that engine, brake hard, turnby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 2 - Stage 7 - Pleasantview2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_qbsh0VlEA Our confidence took a beating on that last one. So we're a bit more subdued going into the return run over the same road, but without the tight town section at the end. Otherwise, no problems with this one. From here, it's the long transit back to Gander, during which Christoph constructively used theby Ferdinand - Community Forum
The Grand Touring Category, like any normal TSD rally, actually is easy. You don't need to be able to drive like Frank Sprongl. The pace is not that tough. You don't need to have a car like Steve Millen's. Any street-legal car will do. You don't need an expensive rally computer. Our toughest competitors, winners the two last years, were running unequipped. You donby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Before I get to the sad mess we made of the second Bobby's Cove stage, first a word or two about "average speed". We are assigned an average speed target for each stage, or sometimes several different average speed targets for different portions within each stage. A fairly quick average speed of 90+km/h is relatively easy to maintain if the road is straight and long. A compaby Ferdinand - Community Forum
I love the Leading Tickles lunch stop! Chris and my mom, our support crew, got there early enough to have a look around and enjoy the scenery before we arrived. They were in good shape, excited to see us, took lots of photos, listened to our stories, provided hugs and encouragement, and otherwise did a great job providing us with "support". We enjoyed the moose stew and other delby Ferdinand - Community Forum
Day 2 - Stage 4 - Point Leamington to Leading Tickles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWaem-vtLgQ The stage up to Leading Tickles and back is the longest of the week. It's about 20 minutes long for us, too long to fit into a 10-minute YouTube clip. You'll be happy to hear I edited half of it out. Happy because it's dead boring otherwise. We start in Point Leamington with aby Ferdinand - Community Forum