From: www.rally-live.com

Acropolis : Subaru World Rally Team - Preview [02/06/03 - 16:44]


Petter Solberg / Subaru
Round six of the 2003 FIA World Rally Championship, the Rally of Greece, begins next Thursday, when 90 competitors will cross the ceremonial start ramp in front of the Acropolis in Athens at 1930hrs. One of the oldest rallies in the Championship, this year marks its 50th anniversary.
Mixing rough and twisty mountain roads, searing temperatures and choking dust, the event presents a series of tough challenges for both car and driver. Cars must be at optimum strength to endure the rock-strewn stages, while drivers need to be at peak physical condition to cope with the scorching summer temperatures of up to 40ºC.
This year's event comprises 398.63 competitive kilometres, split over 22 stages. The route for Legs one and two is similar to last year's, however Leg three is new and features three brand new stages in the Timphristos Mountain region. For the first time, the event will also include a Super Special stage and around 10,000 spectators are expected to watch the 2km head to head action at Lilea on Friday and Saturday night.
2003 also sees the rally base move from Delphi to the city of Lamia, 210km north of Athens, with a single service park, media centre and parc ferme located in the Lamia National Trade Center. Following the gruelling three-day event, the winning crew is expected to cross the finish ramp in Lamia at 1620hrs on Sunday 8 June.

Regular SWRT drivers Tommi Mäkinen and Petter Solberg are entered to drive Subaru Impreza WRC2003's in the Acropolis Rally of Greece. Both are eligible to score Manufacturers' points for the team.
Although outright victory has eluded Tommi and Petter in Greece to date, both have scored credible second positions there. Tommi took the silver in 1996, while Petter, competing on the tough Greek terrain for the first time in a Subaru, claimed second in 2001. Both finished within a minute of the leader.
Team tyre partner Pirelli have an impressive record in Greece, having come out on top four times in the last five years. This, twinned with a terrain that's well suited to the Impreza, means that both SWRT drivers will be pushing hard for their maiden Greek win in 2003.
Petter Solberg knows that he can be quick at the Acropolis so the Norwegian driver is looking for a good result: "The Impreza is very good in the conditions in Greece - the tyres and car have worked well in the past and cope excellently with the gravel roads. I've always been quick so will definitely be trying for a good result. My experience of the Safari Rally helps as it is so extreme - Greece is almost like a smaller version. The next few rallies are very important for the Championship and fortunately, are my favourites. It's been difficult to prepare myself for the physical challenges of Greece but I will try to relax a bit when I get there to get myself into the rhythm."

Tommi Makinen
His teammate Tommi Mäkinen is looking forward to this rally, especially after the positive work done on the car since the last event. "Obviously the temperatures and extreme conditions make everything harder, but for me it is not usually a serious problem." said Tommi. "Rough conditions have always been good for me and hopefully Greece this year should be no different. I am looking forward to the three new stages - it's good to have some variety. I've done some testing since Argentina on the new dampers and the feeling is getting better and better. I'm confident that everything's in place ahead of Greece and it should be a good event."
Subaru World Rally Team Principal, David Lapworth, talks about the challenge of this very tough event: "With the loss of the Safari Rally from the WRC, Greece is now the toughest event in the championship, and followed by Cyprus, it's the first of two successive, potentially very demanding events. The stages are very rough and twisty and that brings the speeds down, I expect that we'll see a rally average of around 85kph."
"As far as the car set-up is concerned, in Greece we're going to try some different settings on our new dampers after an encouraging introduction in Argentina." said Lapworth. "On the last event we took a more conservative approach, using well-proven settings while we evaluated their endurance. I think the biggest challenge in Greece will be tyre wear, especially as recent rainfall could make the stages even more rough and cut up than usual, but the Pirelli's are traditionally very strong there. They've been the winning choice four times in the last five Acropolis events - and that's certainly a positive for us."

as much as i'd love to see either Solberg or Makinen win the Acropolis Rally, i wouldn't put money on it. Makinen's car hasn't been holding together really well on some of the rougher rallys this year (notably Turkey and Argentina), and I would be disappointed, but not surprised to see him retire from the rally with a mechanical. Solberg has a slightly better chance in my estimation, but it's going to be hard work keeping up with the 206s and Xsaras. That said, I don't see Gronholm winning in Greece either. My guess is that Marko Martin will finish strongly, along with at least one (possibly more) of the Citroens, and possibly Burns in his Peugot. If his car stays together, i'd put my money on Martin.

being he Rally head case that i am, i watched Rally XS on Speed this evening and caught a glimpse of the new Skoda Fabia (i'm guessing that's how it's spelled, but i don't speak Czech). Gardemeister said that it handled a lot like a 206, which is what everyone is chasing these days. personally, i think it looks like crap. it looks like someone mated a Focus, a 206, and a box van together. sure it's small and more manuverable, but it looks like a brick with the front air dam and high nose combined with the straight drop from the roofline at the rear.

Originally posted by dropkick_muppet
being he Rally head case that i am, i watched Rally XS on Speed this evening and caught a glimpse of the new Skoda Fabia (i'm guessing that's how it's spelled, but i don't speak Czech). Gardemeister said that it handled a lot like a 206, which is what everyone is chasing these days. personally, i think it looks like crap. it looks like someone mated a Focus, a 206, and a box van together. sure it's small and more manuverable, but it looks like a brick with the front air dam and high nose combined with the straight drop from the roofline at the rear.

I think it looks kind of like a VW Golf 5-door. But who really cares what it looks like? If they can get a podium spot in the next six months, which is their goal, then more power to them. Subaru has the biggest car in the WRC now (until the Evo comes back) and that's not good.

Originally posted by dropkick_muppet
being he Rally head case that i am, i watched Rally XS on Speed this evening and caught a glimpse of the new Skoda Fabia (i'm guessing that's how it's spelled, but i don't speak Czech). Gardemeister said that it handled a lot like a 206, which is what everyone is chasing these days. personally, i think it looks like crap. it looks like someone mated a Focus, a 206, and a box van together. sure it's small and more manuverable, but it looks like a brick with the front air dam and high nose combined with the straight drop from the roofline at the rear.

check this out
http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11518

-PJ

I think it looks kind of like a VW Golf 5-door. But who really cares what it looks like? If they can get a podium spot in the next six months, which is their goal, then more power to them. Subaru has the biggest car in the WRC now (until the Evo comes back) and that's not good.

you're right, if Skoda can get on the podium in six months, there isn't anyone who is going to give a damn what the car looks like. part of what struck me about the car was the lack of a rear wing compared to the Subaru and new Ford, and the huge frontal area. i have a hard time imagning that it would have as log a drag coefficient as some of the other cars in the championship.
the funny thing about Subaru now having the biggest car in the WRX is that the STi isn't a big car! both the 206 and the new Focus are pretty compact, but Subaru hasn't ever really seemed to suffer with the size of their cars like Skoda did. i think what's killing Subaru (compared to Peugot) is the balance of the car, and the power to some degree. if you watch the Peugots of Burns and Gronholm, the cars seem very balanced, and require less driver input and correction than the Subarus. Even the lesser Peugot drivers seem to have to make fewer corrections. it'll be interesting to see what direction Subaru will take their next WRC car in, primarily whether they'll follow Ford, Peugot and Skoda towards a hatchback style car, or whether they'll stick with their current, more sedan like formula.

i think Subaru will almost inevitably have to go to a smaller compact car. the car has a gotten a little bigger since the 1st wrx in 93. but, as dropkick says, it doesn't seem to have such a huge effect on them as it did for skoda with the big octavia. i think the subaru drivers are in the top 5 for skill, but are limited somewhat with what they can do with the car. i think if petter was in a citroen this season he would be in the top 3 drivers rank already. the impreza is known as one of the stronger cars on the wrc, but this year it just seems like they end up breaking an awful lot of stuff. which could be due to the "new" car this year. as dropkick also said, the pugs/citroens and the fords seem very well balanced and able to just flick around the roads. all in all i think subaru will have a more hatchback style entry in th wrc with in 2 years. as for mitsu, well lets hope did something right with their time off!
as for skoda, if they can make it to the podium this year i will, as well as everybody else probably, will be very impressed. seeing as its a totally new platform and all. i was looking at an issue of RallyXS yesterday and they had a little blurb on the fabia. and they showed next a 206, talk about the same car! it has the exact same wing on the back... whats up with that??
-PJ

i'd be interested to see what Subuaru might come up with if they chose to go to a smaller car. i'd love to see a two door WRX with a shorter wheel base making 250hp. then again, that assumes that they'd bring it to the US. it'd also be interesting to see what Petter and Tommi could do with such a car.

Well our worries are becoming a lot less stressful. 1/3 of the top 20 drivers have had to retire from the race on just the first day and lucky for us, nobody from subaru is amongst them.
Although I personally think Gronholm is an amazing driver, I have no love for the man and threw my hands up in celebration when I heard his fuel pump failed after completing all eight stages (although the 8th was canceled). This happened on the way back to service of all places....and forced him to retire for the entire rally. Thank you Mr. Gronholm b/c our man Petter took 3rd as a result :D
Tomorrow should be fun to keep track of.

Solberg in 3rd, and Mak in 5th!! they're sure to move up tomorrow!! maybe martin will have some odd failure similar to gronholms... he he he

well its been a great day for petter!! hes in third behind sainz and martin. i kind of doubt he will catch martin, unless he goes off somewhere. he's just on right now. but petter has done an awesome job getting to 3rd, and holding on to it. looking through the ranks for ss16, Auriol finished that stage tied for second with martin. i guess the octavia is pretty good...
T Mak sits in 5th, 2 mins back, while solberg is in 3rd just a little over 1 min. back. tomorrow should be great!!

-PJ

I have some pics of SS13 and the service area in Lamia. They are too big to post here. When Tommi's car came in for the final service they had the engine out in less than 10 minutes. If anyone wants to host some pics let me know.

Scott

Petter wins 4 stages sunday!! and T mak even won a stage. Petter was setup to take 2nd place, but got caught behind a limping McRae, who as Solberg says wouldn't stay to the left or the right side. so he did what any reasonable wrc driver would do, and bumped him from behind! haha, yeah Petter! however he ended up losing 15 secs to sainz, and lost 2nd place. uggg. at least he made it on the podium.

-PJ

Here is a link to pictures I took on saturday
Scott
http://public.fotki.com/booth99/acropolis_rally_2003/

i say we shoot mcrae. he never finishes well, talks himself and now he's held up solberg and made him drop 2. i think it's time to do something.....

haha, i totally agree...

Not that many of you guys may notice, but Penny looks prego.
In the program early on..she was wearing her pants really low and a protruding tummy...hmm

Hearing of the Colin incident..I initially thought that he held him up on purpose. In the coverage..you can see that he is totally shocked when he gets bumped by Solberg. I am still not happy about it as it would have been nice to see Petter get 2nd. I am just glad it was Carlos and not Burns up there! ;)


Congrats to Martin on his first win! He deserved it....

T