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Took these last weekend during the Finnish WRC Rally event. They aren't that useful for modelers at the moment since no kits seem to be available of the new WRC cars which were introduced for this year. The new cars are still equipped with four wheel drive and turbo-charged four cylinder engines but the capacity is now 1.6 litres instead of 2.0. Partly because of this, all the factory cars are now based on smaller models than previously, i.e. Focus was replaced by a smaller Fiesta and Citroen C4 by DS3.

Special Stage (SS) 5, Evo:

Jari-Matti Latvala (Fin), who finished second

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The new Mini John Cooper Works WRC driven by (North) Irishman Kris Meeke.

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Another Mini from a Portuguese crew.

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The former F-1 champion Kimi Räikkönen.

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Remote service at Lahti harbour:

Latvala's Ford

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Another Ford by Khalid Al Qassimi

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Loeb's winning Citroen

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SS 9, Hyväneula II:

Mikko Hirvonen (Fin), who lost the rally already on the special stage two but won most of the remaining stages. Unfortunately this wasn't enough.

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Meeke's Mini almost too sideways

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Latvala

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Sebastian Ogier (Fra), finished third.

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Awesome pics janman. I'd love to get to a WRC event sometime, unfortunately they rarely make it over to my side of the pond. :crying2:

-Dave

Seconded.

I'm hoping that the new contract with F1 and COTA will bring other forms of racing here. This country is completely too stuck on Nascar.

I miss the old Evos and STis though in WRC. These new cars just look childish and pathetically small. Obviously they're modified to the hilt and are awesome race cars but you'd never want to own the real life counterpart. You'd be a little disappointed if you took a Fiesta off road.

Great shots!

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Fabtastic shots! Thanks for posting! With which camera Nikon??? ( i remember that you buy something?)

PS One of my favorite driver is J. Kankkunen and in modern times P. Solberg :woot.gif:

Kankkunen with four championships is a good choice! :thumbsup: These photos were taken with a Nikon D5000 and Nikkor AF-S VR 70-300 f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED objective.

Awesome pics janman. I'd love to get to a WRC event sometime, unfortunately they rarely make it over to my side of the pond. :crying2:

-Dave

It's shame North Americans can't see these cars on their home continent, even if the contemporary cars are a bit lame at least for my taste and, I might argue, probably wouldn't appeal to a very large audience in the US either.

Seconded.

I'm hoping that the new contract with F1 and COTA will bring other forms of racing here. This country is completely too stuck on Nascar.

I miss the old Evos and STis though in WRC. These new cars just look childish and pathetically small. Obviously they're modified to the hilt and are awesome race cars but you'd never want to own the real life counterpart. You'd be a little disappointed if you took a Fiesta off road.

Great shots!

Thanks! As a hardc**re B-group enthusiast I have to agree with you to some degree. I certainly liked the old cars more. The new ones look like real racing cars too and they are very fast as well it seems. They even sound like racing cars, but only like 1.6 litre racing cars. The good thing is many of the electronic aids (like active differentials) are now omitted and the cars look more lively on the stage.

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Great pics, Jan ... :clap2:

Looks to have been a really fun event to attend ... :woo:

Thanks for sharing them ... :thumbsup:

Rally Racing here in the States is on the verge of getting bigger ...

A lot of younger folks are getting exposed to it through video games and things like X-Games with Gymkhana, etc ... Just give it some time ...

Gregg

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Nice pics Jan, I've been a rally fan for a long as I was aware of it, 40+ years, always nice to see quality shots like yours. I don't 'spose yoyu have any of the production class cars? A young fellow countryman of mine is currently leading the WRC for that class & I think, took out the 1000 Lakes in his class too. Haden Paddon, driving a Subaru.

Steve.

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Nice shots with that lens. I read reviews and this is very good lens for rather excellent price. I will buy one for my wife and hers (ours) D7000, and it is also great for airplane photographing :-)

:bandhead2: please God send good old group A cars and WRCs :-)

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Great pics, Jan ... :clap2:

Looks to have been a really fun event to attend ... :woo:

Thanks for sharing them ... :thumbsup:

Rally Racing here in the States is on the verge of getting bigger ...

A lot of younger folks are getting exposed to it through video games and things like X-Games with Gymkhana, etc ... Just give it some time ...

Gregg

Thanks, Gregg! The 1000 Lakes rally has its own special atmosphere. I guess it being the biggest spectator event in the whole Scandinavia already tells something about its importance for this rally-crazy nation. As a matter of fact, I hadn't attended the rally for years (I was there every year from 1985 (or at least -86) to 1993, but now when part of the route came closer to the Southern Finland, I wanted to make a comeback. Although I was kid back in the late 80's, early 90's, I still remember the smell of gasoline and clutch and the raw power of the B-group cars. A lot has changed since then but the 1000 Lakes rally is still about fast cars, extremely skillful drivers and fast gravel roads with long jumps - and some lakes!

Nice pics Jan, I've been a rally fan for a long as I was aware of it, 40+ years, always nice to see quality shots like yours. I don't 'spose yoyu have any of the production class cars? A young fellow countryman of mine is currently leading the WRC for that class & I think, took out the 1000 Lakes in his class too. Haden Paddon, driving a Subaru.

Steve.

Actually, I happened to take some photos of his car at the start of the SS 5. We were already leaving for Remote Service in Lahti, so I wasn't able to catch him on the stage.

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A private Finnish team eating sausage at the start of the same stage.

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Nice shots with that lens. I read reviews and this is very good lens for rather excellent price. I will buy one for my wife and hers (ours) D7000, and it is also great for airplane photographing :-)

:bandhead2: please God send good old group A cars and WRCs :-)

I like my lense so I can happily recommend it!

I don't know, it seems the new cars will always get faster than their predecessors at some point. Also, even though I'm not a big fan of these small Fiesta and DS3 based cars, size-wise they probably are as large as (or even bigger!) than the old B-group Peugeot 205 T16 - which was based on a small car.

Here's P.Sohlberg's private Citroen, Mario!

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A couple of photos from the service:

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Excellent additional shots, Jan ...

I love the pic of the two tires ... It's sort of random but it speaks volumes too ... Good Eye ! :thumbsup2:

Gregg

I've always liked the thread pattern of gravel tires. :D

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