WRC Modern Classics Season 2001! Rally Argentina

MagpieRacer

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MagpieRacer
Here it is, the moment you have been waiting for. The announcement for the 2nd series of the WRC Modern Classics club. This season we will be recreating one of the tightest championships of the World Rally Car era, featuring some of the most iconic cars of the era which were piloted by some of the true greats of the sport. The field featured no less than 6 world champions at the time (9 retrospectively), 3 of which were multiple champions.

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It is of course:
2001

The championship will start on March 8th.

Massive thank you to @Speedster502 for creating the artwork.

Club link
Checkout this EA SPORTS WRC 23 Club in EA Racenet

 
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Welcome everyone to Season 2 of the Modern Classics WRC club, depicting the 2001 World Rally Championship. The season will begin Friday 8th March and last for 140 days, ending Friday 26th July.

The rules will follow a similar path to the first season, there will be a prescribed set of cars to choose from, please choose from only those cars or risk being removed from the championship, multiple offenders will be banned. Each round is 10 days in length.

The Cars
Ford Focus RS Rally 2001
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 6
Peugeot 206 Rally
Subaru Impreza 2001
Seat Cordoba WRC

With the absence of the Octavia and Hyundai Accent, the Seat Cordoba gets the nod, whilst there wasn't a full time works Seat team, Seat Sport did run a car in 7 events through the season. I have also decided not to include the Citroen Xsara, Citroen entered 4 rounds (and managed to win one) but it was very much a development season, the Xsara in the game, is the 2003 model which is very quick up against the other early 2000s cars so has been left out this time round.

As with 1995, if you could stick with your choice for the whole season, that would be great, as I will keep a constructors championship as well.

It is a 14 round season, the calendar is above (many thanks @Speedster502 for the stunning artwork). As with 1995, Chile is representing Rally GB and Pacifico represents Rally Australia, as I feel those 2 rallies are the closest in feel and style. We have an additional 3 substitute rallies this season which I will now detail.

Argentina
Argentina is a very unique event, mountainous and rough with some frequent, very high speed sections, it takes place at a time of year in the southern hemisphere which is typically wet and chilly. I felt Sardinia would be a good substitute for Argentina as it has mountainous terrain, some fast sections and set to a wintry season, has a pretty good vibe to sub in for Argentina.

Cyprus
Cyprus was always known as a car breaker, tight, hilly and incredibly rough. At first I was going to run Sardinia again but with different routes and spring/summer settings. But decided that Mexico actually captures the roughness and mountain terrain very well.

San Remo
Was a tough choice between Croatia and Japan. Ultimately I felt Croatia came closer to looking like San Remo, with enough twists and turns to replicate the Italian tarmac. Might not be the most popular rally in the game, but I just felt it was closer in feel to San Remo than Japan.

The rallies this time around will vary in length, I have tried to scale down the real events in a way where some rallies will clearly feel like more enduring tests, such as Monte-Carlo and Kenya, whilst others will be on the shorter side as they were in real like, like Catalunya. The degradation setting has been set to MAX degradation, simply because I feel it fits best for this season, memories of the rutted and wet Portugal, roughest rally of all time Cyprus and of course the brutal test of Kenya. Max felt like the best way to go for an authentic feel. Again, weather and season has been matched as best as possible to the real season.

Assists and car setups are enabled, hardcore damage is enabled and we will once again be using the flexible points scoring system. For the constructors (which I do manually) I will be using the 25-1 points system, scoring the highest 2 from each team within the top 10, then allocating any remaining points to the '3rd car'. This time, I will be allocating 3rd car points to the first cars outside the top 10, so everyone can get involved with scoring constructors points.

Good luck, have fun and enjoy!

Be sure to check back to this thread regularly for event updates, reports and photos.

 
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My money was on 2003 based on the clues, but close enough :lol:. Very excited nonetheless! I was too young during the Group A era so these cars hit closer to home for me. :D
Me too; and since I can see the Cordoba in the poster I now know what car I will be using for the part-time (or maybe full time :sly:) championship :mischievous:
 
Picking a car will be tricky here as all 5 of them are great. Looking forward to it and I hope I'm more consistent than I was with the Group A cars. 2001 also means Rally Kenya 🥳
 
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In reality it was such a disappointing finale at GB. Hyped as a huge 3-way McRae/Makinen/Burns title fight going into the weekend, with Sainz as an outside long-shot.
But Makinen knocked a wheel off in SS2 and McRae crashed spectacularly on SS4 while pushing too hard, leaving Burns to cruise to the title with just one win on the year (NZ)
 
Picking a car will be tricky here as all 5 of them are great. Looking forward to it and I hope I'm more consistent than I was with the Group A cars. 2001 also means Rally Kenya 🥳
And Finland, which 1995 didn't have. Kenya is going to be monstrous, I'll be scaling the events a bit this time to reflect their real life challenges, Kenya in 2001 was over 1100km, everything else was sub 400km.
 
And Finland, which 1995 didn't have. Kenya is going to be monstrous, I'll be scaling the events a bit this time to reflect their real life challenges, Kenya in 2001 was over 1100km, everything else was sub 400km.
Finland is fun but Kenya is probably my favourite rally in the game and also less terrifying
 
My choice usually ends up being whatever is least chosen to give the field some variety but will actually be trying out the cars beforehand this time so will see.
Very much looking forward to this.
 
I highly recommend trying the cars before making a choice, they are quite different. Tuning options are different between some of them too.

I'm leaning towards the 206 myself despite the 5 gears, but I might go Seat or Mitsubishi.

Would it be necessary to do a sort of "roll call" before the start, with the cars, so we have a rough idea of how many of each cars they will be? Maybe not because in the end it's not that "serious", but just in case one of the cars doesn't get picked at all?
 
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2nd post has been updated with rules, setup and calendar information, Please read through! Thanks all for continuing to contribute and I am genuinely excited for the 2001 season to begin! 2 days and counting to the start!

Feel free to share what cars you plan to use!

Massive thank you again to @Speedster502 for the series' artwork and calendar. Check out the link in his profile for more of his incredible artwork and photography.
 
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If I hadn't almost instantly reversed in my "retirement" :lol: I sure as would be thinking about it now, Looking like this is going to be a lot of fun again. As a Ford/M-Sport fan like usual I would choose the Ford but like others have said, If some cars don't get enough entries I will swap to accommodate.

Great artwork @Speedster502 :cheers:

With the effort @MagpieRacer puts in to it, The club deserves to look as good as that 👏
 
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Can't wait for this to get started - a proper challenge lies ahead for sure. Thanks for all the compliments on the artwork too, it's greatly appreciated!

Think I'm likely to go with the 206 or Impreza, but I'm happy to change if there's more under-represented manufacturers.
 
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2nd post has been updated with rules, setup and calendar information, Please read through! Thanks all for continuing to contribute and I am genuinely excited for the 2001 season to begin! 2 days and counting to the start!

Feel free to share what cars you plan to use!

Massive thank you again to @Speedster502 for the series' artwork and calendar. Check out the link in his profile for more of his incredible artwork and photography.
Time to decide which rally I'm going to do in my part time schedule :sly:
 
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From the few posts so far it seems there's going to be at least one selection for each... I'm also torn between sticking with Mitsubishi or swapping to the Impreza, both are incredibly fun to throw around.

That said, considering how many people got booted for picking the Lancia in the '95 championship I wonder how many people will field an ineligible car this time. :P
 
From the few posts so far it seems there's going to be at least one selection for each... I'm also torn between sticking with Mitsubishi or swapping to the Impreza, both are incredibly fun to throw around.

That said, considering how many people got booted for picking the Lancia in the '95 championship I wonder how many people will field an ineligible car this time. :P
It's inevitable sadly, I'm sure no one here will but it's impossible to police it. Until we get a filtering system like Grid Legends.

I'm torn on car, love the underdog Cordoba, huge Impreza fanboy, the Focus is great. I probably won't be looking at the 206, I do struggle with that car. Maybe I'll do the Cordoba in a Hyundai livery..
 
It's inevitable sadly, I'm sure no one here will but it's impossible to police it. Until we get a filtering system like Grid Legends.

I'm torn on car, love the underdog Cordoba, huge Impreza fanboy, the Focus is great. I probably won't be looking at the 206, I do struggle with that car. Maybe I'll do the Cordoba in a Hyundai livery..
I know it's in your signature but were you planning on having a link to the club on racenet in one of the opening posts?
 
Sorry to delay but the EA servers won't let me start the series. Bit of a pain after all the build up. Will try again in the morning.
 
After a delayed start, welcome to the 1st round of the 2001 World Rally Championship, the 69th Rallye Automobile de Monte Carlo.
With tough road conditions after weeks of freezing temperatures, the stages will feel much longer than their routes suggest. Starting in the town of St Leger and ending in the mountains at the Col de Turini. 2000 Monte Carlo rally winners Mitsubishi will be hoping for another strong start to retake the crown from reigning champions Peugeot.

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Itinerary
Day 1

Shakedown
Morning Service
SS1: Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes - La Bâtie-Neuve - 16.8km
SS2: Les Borels - 8.6km

Lunchtime Service
SS3: Saint-Léger-les-Mélèzes - La Bâtie-Neuve 2 - 16.8km
SS4: Ravin de Coste Belle - 8.6km

Evening Service
SS5: Ancelle - 8km

Day 2
Morning Service
SS6: La Maïris - 9.3km
SS7: Baisse de Patronel - 9.3km

Lunchtime Service
SS8: La Bollène-Vésubie - Col de Turini - 9.2km

Total Distance: 86.6km
 
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