Road conditions at last year's Subaru Ontario Winter Rally were evil.  There was something like 20cm of fresh snow that day.  In the bottom of the deep tracks left from cars ahead of us, the road surface was pure ice.  But if we strayed a bit out of the ruts our tires would 'hydroplane' on the deep snow, losing all contact with the road surface.  It was really difficult to get a feel for any grip.

The animated GIF image above was made from this short video clip: darnWipers.mpg ~10MB.

We had some traction issues going steeply uphill toward the crest of this hill.  I was trying hard to limit wheel spin as it really throws off our odometer quickly if I get too happy on the throttle.  Then the bottom dropped out coming over the crest.

As the car momentarily went light, the deep snow started dragging the front end toward the left snowbank and I nearly lost it there.  I had to make a big steering correction to pull it back straight.  In the process I inadvertently flipped the wiper stalk causing the windshield wipers to shriek across the dry windshield.  That sudden unexpected noise just about made me jump out of my skin!

You can see from the video that we're not going all that fast.  I don't think we were keeping up with the CAS at this point.  But I'm fighting the steering all the way as the car gets pulled left and right by the deep snow.  And in the left curve at the end of the video clip, where Christoph calls the next instruction "Stop T-Right",  I had to back way off because the corner is wickedly off-camber and I get another fright as my car suddenly understeers badly.  I really HATE understeer!

I'm sure it's possible to do this section much faster.  I just wasn't comfortable pushing any harder than this.  You can see, from the photos posted by Ryan, that some people evidently pushed too hard...

 

Wicked - thanks for the vid! If you (or anybody else) have any other/longer vids from previous events, us newbies who have no clue what to expect would really appreciate it!  

I can create a temporary account on my webspace for FTP uploads, if you don't have room...




... gee I wish Ian started his winter school already !

Ferdinand wrote on 12/26/4 at 23:10:52:



I wasn't pushing too hard.  My problem was that I wasn't pushing hard enough!
What happened to me last year, I believe it was right at the very end of Old Hastings (perhaps Alex can correct me on that).  There was a very tall crest, the downslope was very steep with a slight left, and followed by a long straight.  Just as we crested the hill I could see a checkpoint at the end of the straight.  
As we went down the hill, I decided we were going a bit too fast, so I just let off a bit on the gas.  Apparently it was just enough to transfer the weight of the car foreward, and cause the back end to slide out just a little bit.  We were fine going down the hill, but as soon a we reached the bottom, the rear wheels touched the deeper snow outside of the ruts and got sucked into it.  This put the car into a massive oversteer (which normally wouldn't be a problem, except that we were in a straightaway now, NOT a corner).  So I countersteered, and got the car pointing straight again, but there was too much pendulum effect.  The back wheels slid right through the ruts in the middle, and hit the deep snow on the other side of the road.  So now we had a huge oversteer in the other direction, but with much more force this time.  That was when I realize we were boned.  There was no way to correct this.  Our only hope was if I could keep the car fishtailing long enough, until it scrubbed off enough speed that I could control it again.  But, we were not lucky that day.  The next time the car came around, it went right around, I couldn't stop it.  And that's how we ended up in the ditch at last year's OWR.
It all started because I lifted the gas pedal about 1cm, while on a downhill with a slight left.

If I had to do it again, obviously I wouldn't make the same mistake of lifting on a downhill.  But even so, as long as the road is rutted like that, there's always a chance the same situation may arise.  So if that happens to me again I wouldn't try to correct the car in a normal way.  Because that didn't work.  I think the best route would be to hit the brakes hard, and try to lock all four wheels at the inital oversteer, when the wheels first move outside of the ruts.  At that point, there is not enough sideway movement for us to end up in the ditch.  So we would probably just spin or slide to a stop, and then continue on our way.  That's bad for our average speed, but at least we stay out of the banks.

The first, and most important thing when driving these events, is to drive within your own comfort zone.  Don't ever drive faster than you feel comfortable.  Even if that's slower than the given CAS speed.  Arriving late, is better than not at all.

Second, is to drive based on what you can see (or can't see).  If you're coming up to a crest or a corner, and do not know what is on the other side, then be cautious.  There could be an unexpected turn, oncoming traffic, a checkpoint, a stuck competitor, local wildlife.  You never know what might be there.  So I always drive with caution whenever I don't know what could be in front of me.  I always make sure that when I come over a crest, or around a corner, that I am ready and able to swerve and avoid whatever unexpected things which may be in store for me.

"McRae-style" driving is out of the question, and should be reserved only for performance rallies on closed roads.  Those guys are driving at the limit of traction at all times, plus they have notes telling them what is coming up, so they are driving far beyond what they can see.  So if anything is coming up on the road that they are not aware of, they are royally screwed.  Just watch the footage of 2003 Rally Sweeden.  When Harri Rovanpera was flying through a stage, and came across (I think it was) Roman Kresta, stuck right in the middle of the road.  And there was absolutely nothing Harri could do to avoid the impact.  The road wasn't wide enough to go around.  There were spectators everywhere, so he couldn't ditch it.  All he could do was slam on the brakes, make a stupid face, and wait for the bang!

He's right.... video is misleading.  It might have helped if we had shown more of the car when we shot ours, but I remember watching it after the event and thinking "wow, we weren't going very fast"..... even though I have a clip where my navvie makes a comment on how fast i'm going down a straight stretch.

The first event I drove in was Ontario Winter Rally back in 2003, and my dad was the navvie.  I had heard that we would be running south wollaston lake road, and since that is a road I normally drive in the summer, I thought I'd do a run up it in the winter.  At one point along the road, my dad actually commented that "you know doug, you're not even in the rally yet, you don't have to push so hard".  I was driving like I normally would have on a road like that.

The best advide that I could pass along to a new team is: make sure you understand how to do the timing calculations (but if things go to hell, don't worry about the timing, just drive your own rally).  Also, if you can invest in some good lights, then make sure you've got them.  If you've got good lights, make sure they are aligned properly.  The alignment you would use on highways is not the same alignment you would use on a twisty backroad.

Quote:


Mmhm, that's very much the least of our worries!
Never in the past season were we lost in terms of calculations - we always knew exactly how late we are!  

I would think the best advice to (snow) newbies, and certainly my primary worry as indicated, is staying the heck out of snow banks. I do have basic aux lights installed, not sure if I'll be allowed to use them though as with the newfangled electric system it's proving very difficult to wire them to the high-beam switch


As for video, I have enough of my own video footage to be able to compensate for perceptions. I know how slow the Lanark video looks compared to real drive (I stopped showing it to my very unimpressed friends;))
But, by comparing how fast your video of snow rallies looks to my video of Lanark, I can quite easily deduce how freaked out I should be (if it looks the same... not good!)
So, I'm still looking for footage, especially Ferdinand's, as he has the steering wheel & everything in the picture:)

The main "rules" in order of preference:
Stay ON the road. (otherwise you WILL be late)
Stay on the correct road. (otherwise you WILL be late)
Stay on time. (the LAST of your concerns)

On a winter rally, once you've dropped a minute, to heck with the timing, drive to your own personal limit/comfort-level.  Because now all you want is to find a checkpoint ASAP, before you lose more time.  You do not need to calculate anything once you are late enough that you can't make it up.  So, just drive your buns off and pray for a checkpoint, and enjoy the ride.