For starters, I think any Rally vehicle can be "too fast" when something goes wrong on a road that is too fast. My old Rallytruck was probably the slowest thing ever to enter a rally (160 crank HP when GM built it, 200,000+ miles, 4000+ lbs.), and even that turd was doing 93 MPH while testing my ball joints on the busted up tarmac mining roads with big posts whizzing past the doors at 100AW . Thus it seems to me that increasing training and lowering the HP of the top cars, as discussed in other threads, may help reduce serious accidents, but unless we address the speed of the roads, we will continue to have a bad crash occasionally.
Here's the new idea for a compromise:
We decide on a maiximum acceptable length of straight stage road (one that sounds good to the insurance company also). We detect it by measuring the distance separating each turn in the rally. I hope This could be done objectively with the Jemba system, but we could also do it objectively with just eyeballs. Any stage found in violation is divided into two (or more) stages with a finish before each straight, a transit thru the straight, then the start a the "new" stage after the straight.
Granted this would shorten some stages, and I realize this is not ideal, but I'd rather see something like this done than deal with ultra high entry fees, elimination of the fastest classes, or eventual extinction of the sport in the US.
Thoughts?
Jim Cox
#558
Here's the new idea for a compromise:
We decide on a maiximum acceptable length of straight stage road (one that sounds good to the insurance company also). We detect it by measuring the distance separating each turn in the rally. I hope This could be done objectively with the Jemba system, but we could also do it objectively with just eyeballs. Any stage found in violation is divided into two (or more) stages with a finish before each straight, a transit thru the straight, then the start a the "new" stage after the straight.
Granted this would shorten some stages, and I realize this is not ideal, but I'd rather see something like this done than deal with ultra high entry fees, elimination of the fastest classes, or eventual extinction of the sport in the US.
Thoughts?
Jim Cox
#558