Raikkonen Started His Transition from F1 To WRC

Kimi Raikkonen completed his first ever World Rally Championship (Rally Sweden) finishing in 30th. place. 37 minutes behind the leaders. He is competing for Citroen. Generally He set good stage times within the top ten overall. His problem was that He drove into a snow bank on the opening day. Without this incident He would have finished within the top ten and scored points on his debut. According to his Citroen boss Olivier Quesnel He is in a learning process and We have to be patient (including the media).

Kimi said this after the event "It was a really encouraging event, which allowed me to learn so much. From the start to the finish I felt I was improving all the time, which is what I expected from having more time in the car. Sure, we still have a lot to learn because the whole feeling is so different to what I had in Formula 1. But I'm getting a good idea of how to use the pace notes now and I understand the car a bit better as well. We wanted to have some more experience of the car and especially get to the finish, so we have achieved everything we wanted this weekend. Now I'm looking forward to driving gravel on the next rally in Mexico; it should be a bit easier for me I think".

Source from http://www.wrc.com/

The fans have to give Kimi more time to adapt from Formula 1 to the World Rally Championship. It is a transition that takes some time. He is a good driver, I think that He should do well in this Championship, and start scoring his first points soon.

Picture courtesy of Benjamin A Ward from http://www.rallysweden.com/

Is It A Car Or An Airplane?

This is an incredible jump made by Travis Pastrana with a Subaru Impreza WRX STI. He jumped 82 meters over the waters of Rainbow Harbour in Long Beach to establish a new world record. Enjoy the video.

The World Rally Car was flying like an airplane.

Picture courtesy of http://www.topgear.com/

The Experienced And Skillful Vs. The Young And Ambitious

The Michael Schumacher return saga continues as He impresses in his first Formula 1 testing session of 2010 in Valencia. His best lap was 1:12.947 and was 3rd. just behind Massa (Ferrari) and La Rosa (Sauber). He said "I feel like a young boy again and really enjoyed myself out there". As you can see He looks happy doing what He knows best which is to drive an F1 car. It is going to be very interesting to watch Schumacher who was born in 1969 competing against the young drivers like Lewis Hamilton (25), Felipe Massa (28), Fernando Alonso (28), Sebastian Vettel (22), and his teammate Nico Rosberg (24). It is the competition of The Experienced and Skillful (Schumacher)Vs. The Young and Ambitious. So far, Schumi is doing pretty well.

Picture courtesy of http://news.bbc.co.uk/

A Closer look To The Volkswagen Team At The Dakar

This is the Race Touareg 2 by Volkswagen. It is the winner of the Dakar 2010.

These are the main specifications:

Five-cylinder in-line TDI diesel engine, two-stage turbo-charging system with two exhaust turbo chargers and inter-cooling, longitudinally mounted behind the front axle. The displacement is 2,500 cc with a power output of 300 hp. It has a Sequential five-speed racing gearbox, and It is a permanent four-wheel drive car. It goes from 0 to 100 Kph in 6.1 seconds, and its maximum speed is 190 Kph.

This is how the cockpit looks like:

This is the process of loading the service trucks with all the replacement parts that the car might need during the race:

As you can see It requires a lot of organization, preparation, and hard work to win the Dakar. Congratulations to the Volkswagen team!

This is the Touareg that you can find at your local store in the U.S. It sells for approximately $40,850.00 U.S. dollars. For more specifications go to www.vw.com/touareg/completespecs/en/us/#engineering

Pictures courtesy of http://www.volkswagen-motorsport.com/

Volkswagen Takes 1, 2, 3 In The Dakar With Carlos Sainz As Winner. Team Peru Dakar Takes 47th. Place

The Dakar finished last Sunday and as expected Carlos Sainz won the rally. He was very close to win it last year until he felt to a dry river. So this was like a rematch for him. The Volkswagen team made the top 3 places with Nasser Al-Attiyah taking the 2nd. place just 2:12 minutes behind Sainz after 9,000 Kilometers of race. This was a perfect race for the Race Touareg 2 from Volkswagen. The 4th. and 5th. places were for BMW. Peterhansel made a good job with his BMW X3 CC. He finished 2:17:21 hours behind Sainz. Watch this video of the whole race.

This is such a difficult race that most participants are just happy to finish it. Most of the pilots are Exhausted at the end of the rally. An example of this situation is the case of Team Peru Dakar with Fernando Ferrand driving a FJ Cruiser from Toyota who finished in the 47th. place from a total of 57 cars. He finished 64:19:27 hours behind Carlos Sainz, but still, the Peru Dakar team was very happy.

Picture of the Peru Dakar team courtesy of www.peruanosaldakar.com

Driving Through Dakar´s Halfway Point

The Dakar is more than halfway, It is in its 9th. stage between Copiapo and La Serena in Chile. This is the route for today:

The Volkswagen team with its Race Touareg 2 model is dominating the event by grabbing the first 3 positions with Carlos Sainz being the leader. Their main rival Stephane Peterhansel driving a BMW X3 CC model is behind them on 4th. place but 02:02:25 hours away from Sainz. Peterhansel had transmission problems in stage 5, He had to drive half of that stage in only 2WD or 4x2 mode (imagine that in the Atacama desert). He managed to finish in the 33th. position in that stage. The following is a video from that difficult stage 5.

It looks that the fight for the first place in this Dakar will be between the drivers from the Volkswagen team. Enjoy the race!

The Dakar 2010 Edition

The Dakar rally has just begun last Saturday. This year´s rally is located in Argentina and Chile. In The car category there are two teams that are favorites to win which are BMW and Volkswagen. Volkswagen main drivers are Giniel De Villiers and Carlos Sainz, and BMW main drivers are Stephane Peterhansel and Joan Roma. The race finishes in Buenos Aires on January 17th 2010. This map shows the route. The drivers will have to make a 9000 kilometers loop through the continent. They will have to drive through the Atacama desert which is the driest in the world. You can follow the race on the official website http://www.dakar.com/. Enjoy!

Picture courtesy of http://www.dakar.com/