Don’t get me wrong, corners are great. But every now and then it’s nice to see a bit of straightline speed. There’s something about a machine with the taps wide open, on the limiter and hurtling, horizon-bound at an insane rate of knots.
It’s special.
And it’s one of the things we’re really missing right now. The only action I saw in México was high in the hills high above Las Minas while waiting for the cars at the end of the stage.
Normally, there’s a good opportunity for some early-season speed in Sweden – watching the cars come through the last section of the Torsby test is always entertaining. Not this time. Like the rest of the service park, I spent much of the event staring into the sky wondering if or when the big fella upstairs might consider delivering winter.
And Monte was all about tap-tap-tapping in the press office.
So, so far this season no speed.
Until last Friday night. I know. I had no idea such an opportunity for live, real-time spectating was coming my way. And, even better, it was properly dark. I do love a good night stage.
This unexpected bonus came courtesy of my son’s physics master at Haberdashers Adams.
He had messaged his students to remind them there would be some serious speed on display directly above them anytime now.
And there it was, clocking close 17,500mph. Now that, my friends, is speed. Sufficient speed to circulate planet earth in 92 minutes – which is does 15 and a bit times each day. The International Space Station has left me kind of cold in the past, I’m not really into all that stuff. How could you get excited about something 250 miles above you that you could barely see?
It was, however, completely captivating. And utterly fascinating. And, bloody, bloody quick. We’ve all stood and watched a variety of planes flying overhead, including the odd Eurofighter – a $90million, 26-year-old fighter which can still crack on at 1500mph.
ISS left them for dead. And you could actually, genuinely, properly see it hauling it from one side of the sky to the other. I understand I’m a bit late to this, but it was mental. I made a video, but, good as the two-times zoom on Apple’s latest phone might be, it’s not really up to the job of chasing the largest manmade body in low earth orbit (thanks Wiki…) from north of Shropshire to the other side of the world.
Talking in fatherly tones over Sunday morning breakfast, I informed the family that the ISS is 100 metres wide, 73 metres long and weighs more than 400,000 kilos. I pointed out that pulling 17,500mph was pretty impressive for something which – as you can see from the picture – isn’t exactly aerodynamic.
This was the point where the children reminded me aerodynamics didn’t really count for much in places where there wasn’t much air. Like space.
Oh.
Sensing I’d disappointed them as a parent, I offered a different story about speed.
The one about the fastest stage in the history of the World Rally Championship. Stig Blomqvist and Björn Cederberg averaged 117.77mph for the opening test on the 1983 Rally Argentina.
So, let’s get that right, they averaged that speed. Presumably, this was some straight-line superspecial or something like that? Er, no. It was the 50-mile run from Fray Louis Beltran to Valle Azul. Blomqvist and the captain stopped the clock on 25m48s.
Blomqvist’s Audi quattro was geared for 130mph, which demonstrates how few corners there must be on that road south-west of San Carlos de Bariloche.
Regardless of the number of corners, 25 minutes on the limiter in a Group B car must have been lively to say the least.
And to put that into modern-day context, remember the Kron stage of Rally Sweden? The one that was canceled on its second run in 2017? This was the one that fell foul of the FIA’s rule about high average speeds. Ott Tänak was fastest on the first run. His average speed? Try 85mph. That’s 32mph slower than Blomqvist.
What about the fastest ever? Well, as was the case for the numbers in the Blomqvist story, I had to reach into McKlein’s awesome Group B book to discover Juha Kankkunen managed 170mph in a Subaru Impreza with no turbo restrictor and a big final drive on an event in Peru, 2007.
See? Told you speed’s cool. Whichever stratosphere you’re in.
