Join in and discuss all the action from stage 8 of the 2015 Dakar Rally. This is the second half of the Marathon stage. The special section of stage 8 is 781km long. Robby Gordon start time: 5:25am/et, and he will be the 9th car off the line. After a 9th place finish in stage 7, Gordon sits 23rd in the overall standings, 5h48m behind. Raceday chat will be available throughout the entire 2015 Dakar Rally.
2015 Stage 7 Photos
STAGE 8 TRACKING
STAGE 8: UYUNI > IQUIQUE
Connection 24km | Special Stage 781km | Total 805km
COURSE OVERVIEW
The Dakar bows to the laws of nature. Hence, the weather will decide which route will be taken to leave Bolivia. If it’s dry, the start could take place in the Salar de Uyuni, for a 100km route across a smooth road of white salt: full throttle and foot to the floor! The route then slows down abruptly, with the longest part of the special stage taking place on more technical mountain terrain. The day will end with more than 40km of dunes, concluding with the vertiginous descent to Iquique.
The GREEN section of the route is the connection , the RED is the Special Section of the stage.
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This should have been one of the stages that the Gordini would have been really good at. It is a shame to have to play it safe. But better to play it safe and race another day. But a 1000 km in these conditions is a big test of any vehicle.
Keep on truckin...
I disagree... Yes, the Hummer was good. But the big difference is 2wd vs 4wd. None of the 2wd entries this year did anything. Convert the Gordini to 4wd. Look at the stages that went problem free, it still finished 5 minutes off the pace of the leader.
Hummer was good in Africa, but it is too damn big for this version of the rally imo. The Hummer struggled with WRC stages in South America. Robby obviously likes the 2wd SCORE builds with the gasoline LS engine. Peugeot feels the 2wd is the way to go and they are for sure my early favorite for next year. I am sure they have a mega budget and will have 5 or 6 next year. I hope they change the SIR's for next year to get his top speed closer to the turbo diesels. Top speed seems to be off about 10-15 km/hr, more at attitude because NA. Does SCORE allow turbos?
matt
Yes, If ASO opens the intake diameter restricter and we get a few more km/hr then yes we can compete. But if the rules are unfavorable there might not be a choice but to switch to 4wd.
I am sure Robby and Team will get the weak points sorted out as this will now be the 2nd year of development on this platform. Luckily he does not have major redesigns if he stays with 2wd LS version of the Gordini. Maybe he can find the speed with some simple straight line speed testing.
here are 'some' of the rules, be sure to read the FIA Rally Raid rules also.
http://www.dakar.com/dakar/2015/us/regulation.html
No,turbo/supercharger's are not legal on 'production' gasoline engines.
The whole engine debate is stupid. How about brakes locking up on stage 2 and costing 5 hours?Easy Kenyon.lol
I disagree with you Phillip. The package Robby is running now is what he believes is the future, and he should know. The Hummers was great. They are gone, on to the next chapter. This race is really that hard. My personal hope is RG and teamSPEED finish. That's it, simple. Since they didn't last year this will be a huge step in the right direction. It took RG and the team a few years to get where they were with the Hummer. Winning some SS events would be great but I'm for finishing this years Dakar. That would be a Win .....
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