WRC Modern Classics S3: Season 2007

[MagpieRacer]

Welcome back everyone to Modern Classics Series 3!
This series recreates the 2007 World Rally Championship, which saw 2 titans of the sport lock horns once again, Marcus Gronholm and Sebastien Loeb. Citroen returned officially as a manufacturer after a year hiatus to work on the new for 2007 Citroen C4. Sebastien Loeb entered 2007 looking to equal Tommi Makinen and Juha Kankkunen by taking a 4th title.

The series will start on October 23rd 2024 and run until February 12th 2025 across 16 rounds.

The following cars are permitted:
Citroen C4 WRC
Ford Focus RS WRC2008
Citroen Xsara WRC
Skoda Fabia WRC

This season, Argentina will be represented by Mexico, Germany by CER, Rally Japan will be represented by Pacifico, Rally Ireland by CER and Wales Rally GB by Chile.
The rallies this season will feature longer lengths and more services than previously, so be prepared for some very challenging weeks, (check out Finland). As ever, itineraries, weather and seasons are replicated as best as possible.

As always, have fun, share pictures, tips and discussion!​

 

[Cabelmania]

I will be part time once again, driving the Skoda Happy that there will be no more Hardcore damages

 

[MagpieRacer]

I will be part time once again, driving the Skoda Happy that there will be no more Hardcore damages

Yep, very conscious decision not to have hardcore damage this time around. The rallies are generally much longer this time round, so there will still be a focus on looking after the car, it'll just be over the course of the whole rally rather than stage to stage.

To give you an idea, the longest rally in the 2001 series, was Kenya, with 12 stages running to 120km. In 2007, Finland is 20 stages running to just over 200km, Germany (CER) is 15 stages running to nearly 215km. There are some shorter ones but I wanted to emphasize the challenge of the 2007 season with it's mammoth 16 round campaign and FIA recommended 360km minimum recommended for competitive stages.

 

[MagpieRacer]

2007 Season
Round 1
75th Rallye Automobile Monte Carlo
Day 1
Service Park
1 - La Bollène-Vésubie - Peïra Cava - 18.5km
2 - Baisse de Patronel - 9.3km

Day 2
Service Park
3 - Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes - La Bâtie-Neuve - 16.8km
Remote Service
4 - Les Borels - 8.6km
5 - Ancelle - 8km
Service Park
6 - Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes - La Bâtie-Neuve 2 - 16.8km
Remote Service
7 - Les Borels 2 - 8.6km
8 - Ancelle 2 - 8km

Day 3
Service Park
9 - Pra d'Alart - 8.9km
10 - La Maïris - 9.3km
Service Park
11 - Pra d'Alart 2 - 8.9km
12 - La Maïris 2 - 9.3km

Total Competitive KM - 131km​

 

[Dreadmed]

I have to confess I'm a bit curious by the timescale, for Season 2 (2001) we had about 10 days to complete every event but I see that's been shortened to a week this time around, coupled with the jam-packed stage fillings I wonder how that will have an effect on things.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I have to confess I'm a bit curious by the timescale, for Season 2 (2001) we had about 10 days to complete every event but I see that's been shortened to a week this time around, coupled with the jam-packed stage fillings I wonder how that will have an effect on things.

Majority of the time, runs were done within a week. There are times of course where people where competing late and that's fine. With such a long calendar it's tough to get the balance right, making it 10 days makes it run nearly 6 months and, as I've seen with previous championships, interest does start to drop as it wears on. My hope is, that making it a bit more of a full Rally itinerary, with more services, no hardcore damage, it'll be easier for people to stay motivated over a shorter period of time and get a sensible completion window on the series as well.

Time will tell if it was a bad call 😅

 

[Speedster502]

Might end up taking on a part-season for this, I'd love to compete in all the rounds but not sure if I'll have time especially come December/Jan time.

Excited to be diving into these 2007 cars though, find the Focus quite an enjoyable car to drive!

 

[Darrenersmit]

Excellent news, thanks

 

[bozian]

Great idea, thank you for creating this. Will be a lot of fun!

 

[Cabelmania]

First 5 stages done apart for a evitable 5 seconds penalty on the 1st stage I had no real problems whatsoever

 

[RYAN]

I'll start my run tonight. Pleased to see the slight avoidance of the C4. I had visions of a 1 make C4 championship 😄

Like in IRL I shall be driving the Focus.

I was going to use the '11 KB43 livery but fortunately a '07 Ireland Livery was put on overtake.gg in the last few days so I'll be period correct 😊👍

Livery Creator - Sebastien Degraeve (overtake.gg)

UPDATE -

Nice clean start. Made up to stage 8. You can tell its a clean run when the car gets as dirty as this...

 

[Cabelmania]

First 5 stages done apart for a evitable 5 seconds penalty on the 1st stage I had no real problems whatsoever

Update: still ok with 2 stages to go still too slow on the Col de Turini

 

[RYAN]

Got to the end. Messed up not getting the extra medium tyre, As it was a struggle stretching @MagpieRacer 's usual stingy tyre allocation Only bad stage was SS9 the first run through Pra D Alart when I had a few mistakes and a quick roll. Other than that I'm fairly happy with the effort.

Crossing the finishing line

 

[Belgianwaffle]

Got to the end. Messed up not getting the extra medium tyre, As it was a struggle stretching @MagpieRacer 's usual stingy tyre allocation Only bad stage was SS9 the first run through Pra D Alart when I had a few mistakes and a quick roll. Other than that I'm fairly happy with the effort.

Crossing the finishing line
View attachment 1400166

I don't think @MagpieRacer choses the amount of tyres. I think the game does that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

But whoever does it, they are indeed stingy 😁

 

[RYAN]

I don't think @MagpieRacer choses the amount of tyres. I think the game does that. Correct me if I'm wrong.

But whoever does it, they are indeed stingy 😁

I know but @MagpieRacer set the event and series up. So he's getting the blame 😁

 

[Cabelmania]

Update: still ok with 2 stages to go still too slow on the Col de Turini

Update: finished with no problems still too slow on the Col de Turini (seriously, cannot beat @RYAN with cooked tyres, even with fresh tyres )

The Fabia was good on tarmac, let's see if it's the same on snow next week

 

[RYAN]

Update: finished with no problems still too slow on the Col de Turini (seriously, cannot beat @RYAN with cooked tyres, even with fresh tyres )

The Fabia was good on tarmac, let's see if it's the same on snow next week

I think everyone had cooked tyres tbh, Unless anyone decided to try the wets. I remember not having a good time using wets in the dry last time I tried so I just tried my best to stretch what I had. In all seriousness it was a good allocation. Only started feeling them really fall off in the final stage of each set. Made me actually be a tad more tidy and careful around the tight hairpins rather than powersliding through each one.

 

[MagpieRacer]

I think everyone had cooked tyres tbh, Unless anyone decided to try the wets. I remember not having a good time using wets in the dry last time I tried so I just tried my best to stretch what I had. In all seriousness it was a good allocation. Only started feeling them really fall off in the final stage of each set. Made me actually be a tad more tidy and careful around the tight hairpins rather than powersliding through each one.

Yeah the wets burn up so fast it's not funny.

 

[Belgianwaffle]

Since the Subaru 08 wasn't an option, I had to look to other brands.. The Japanese brand will always be my favourite.
I had a good run with the C4 this month in the official historic club. Even though I haven't ridden it much before.... I waited out a bit to see that it didn't turn into a C4 cup here. But that wasn't the case. Hence C4 for this season.
I had a really nice run in the first rally of the season. No trouble at all. In the beginning I had dreadmed as reference times. But he only did 6 stages, so after that it was concentrating on my own pace. Kinda like a real rally, when you have to start first when in the lead 😁

I had much fun and look forward to the rest of the season. Good luck to everyone!

 

[PickyReptail8]

Good to be Back🤗🤗🤗 After a lot of car testing for the season i decided to pick the C4… The BritishBomb livery was too good to miss out 🤭🤭🤭. I was way to conservative with the tires and the times didint come as expected but mistake free Monte is in the Books… On to the next one 😉

 

[RYAN]

Crazy how much faster the Citroens are. Starting to think I might have made a mistake as it's a long series and I don't feel like being a minute behind in every rally after 7 or 8 stages while driving pretty perfectly... 😄

 

[Dreadmed]

Crazy how much faster the Citroens are. Starting to think I might have made a mistake as it's a long series and I don't feel like being a minute behind in every rally after 7 or 8 stages while driving pretty perfectly... 😄

Truth be told I'd already written off MC + Sweden as a Citreon win simply because of the high speed sections, I'm hoping (i.e coping) it'll be a bit more equal in Mexico + Portugal...

-------------------------------

Here's the run I recorded earlier on worn mediums, you could see the grip (and my confidence) disappearing in real-time.

 

[Hasnain282]

Someone I follow is streaming this club

 

[Cabelmania]

Someone I follow is streaming this club

It's official, this club has hit the big time

 

[Dreadmed]

Someone I follow is streaming this club

I was surprised at how extreme his set-up was, also found it very relatable when he was trying to calculate tyre stints.

Speaking of which, I decided to take a gamble on wet tyres for S7+8 as I really didn't want do 6 stages and finish with knackered mediums for the downhill Turini*. Thankfully the grip was mostly there for the climb up to the top and Ancelle/Mossiere is mostly straight sections anyway, although the focus was understeering massively at that point.

Now to wait and see! E:* Bailey's last 2 stages were exactly what I was expecting to happen to me if I didn't take drastic action...

 

[Belgianwaffle]

I was surprised at how extreme his set-up was, also found it very relatable when he was trying to calculate tyre stints.

Speaking of which, I decided to take a gamble on wet tyres for S7+8 as I really didn't want do 6 stages and finish with knackered mediums for the downhill Turini*. Thankfully the grip was mostly there for the climb up to the top and Ancelle/Mossiere is mostly straight sections anyway, although the focus was understeering massively at that point.

Now to wait and see! E:* Bailey's last 2 stages were exactly what I was expecting to happen to me if I didn't take drastic action...

View attachment 1401253

Nice gamble with the wets, and pretty good times even... I lost too much time in the last 2 stages, just what you were afraid off..
But I really enjoyed our battle 😉

 

[MagpieRacer]

Amazing that there is only 4 seconds between you both overall after that much running. Incredible.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Squeezed my Monte Carlo run in last night, happy with the pace at times but a bit too conservative and lost a lot of time overall.

 

[bozian]

Unfortunately, the Monte was a disappointment for me. I had decided in favour of the C4 because I was able to meet Sebastien Loeb at a Citroen test in 2007 as a 13-year-old and have been a fan ever since. However, I've been fighting a heavy cold for a few days and was unsure whether I should still drive the stages. After being very cautious on the first stage, I wrapped the car around a telegraph pole on stage 2 and then decided to give up. Next attempt in Sweden then

 

[Tool1312]

Completely forgot about this, so I missed Monte