Quote:
Originally Posted by morphector
L'an prochain surement par contre  |
Too bad - you missed a good one! Yes, try for next year - especially if Jeff can keep delivering the great weather!
It was really well attended with a large, competitive Smart car contingent (gas + diesel models) from Club Smart Quebec.
Scoring better than 3 L / 100 km (78 mpg US) is absolutely achieveable on this course (with good weather, a fairly clean run & with the right vehicle).
The time/speed/distance element and the route choice really makes this a "driving enthusiast's" economy rally. Interesting combination! To keep from getting penalized, you have to push the car. It's a much more aggressive pace than the others I've gone to (Green Grand Prix & A.M.E.C.), and long sections are super twisty. I've never driven the car that hard before this weekend, and probably won't again until next time.
As mentioned, I drove and Will navigated in the U.F.O. (aka: Nerd Ferrari) with the hybrid system disabled. I'm happy to report that Will is equally as bad at navigating as I was when I sat in the right seat for him 2 years ago!
We incurred the same number of penalties this year as we did last time: 4 minutes total = 8% hit for corrected fuel consumption.
Spirited driving with the hybrid system disabled: oof, what a dog! (Many, many times I laughed at the dashboard "upshift" light. "Dashboard upshift light, I mock you! I ignore your ridiculous pleas for lower RPM.") On the hilly & twisty route, the un-assisted car could barely get out of its own way. On several stages, we really needed to pass another vehicle or two to keep from being late to our next check point, but it just wasn't an option! That was a bit frustrating.
A fun event ... and EcoModders represented nicely! That's 3 years of the event, 3 years of EcoModders in the top spot, if I'm not mistaken.