Growing attached to a hire car’s not something that happens every day. It did last week. Colin Clark, Eliot Barnard, James Bowen and I can testify that Toyota’s Land Cruiser does precisely what it says on the tin.
We did Prague to Passau, Passau to Prague and back. Twice. We drove until the Austrian Alps were very much in the windshield and then went as far in the other direction. Three countries in four days demanded a car which doubled as an office, a sitting room and, yes, on occasion a bedroom.
Up and out before dawn, we were aboard the big Toyota for around 15 hours per day – little wonder we’d become quite so attached by Sunday night. It was part of the team, just as content scrambling across a farmer’s ploughed and hideously muddy field in search of a broken Hyundai (the farmer was delighted to host DirtFish on his land) as it was maxed out at a seriously impressive rate of knots on an autobahn.
More important than any of that, though, is what we saw through the windshield: did the Central European Rally tick the box?
Standing in Prague Castle on Thursday being warned off from stroking a beautiful German Shepherd busily sniffing my shoes was curiously impressive. Sniffer dogs ahead of a host country’s premier is not something we see every week.
The Czech Republic turned on the pomp for the ceremonial start and the numbers were good. But were they great? Certainly not all-time. There was still room to stand as local hero Erik Cais led the field over the start ramp.
“I will never forget that moment,” Cais told DirtFish. “Talking to the president of my country and then going over the ramp in the middle of this place I visited so many times as a tourist when I was younger… incredible.”
Nosing his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 out of the capital followed by world championship leader Kalle Rovanperä, there’s no doubt Thursday grew the WRC’s fanbase. Children who’d never even heard of rallying stood and stared at the EV-silent menace of Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally1 as it breezed by. Plans were being changed for the weekend. These things had to be seen in the wild.
And the stages were completely wild at times. As ever, the weather added spice to a Tarmac round, but these were interesting and challenging roads with plenty of variation in terms of grip and tempo.
If I had one request, it would be to switch the dates for CER and Rally Japan. To have the potential for even more extreme weather in and around Passau would be great. Go prepared: bundle up all the unused Monte tires in January and send them north-east into storage for the season and whip them out for a final round with a touch of winter. Perfect.
And there’s only one thing better than Japan and that’s Japan mid-fall. Last year the colors in Aichi were lovely, but a handful of weeks earlier and they’d be even better. It’s not too late for next year, go on Munich… you know it makes sense.
What about the people? What about the massive crowds? The insane crowds that were going to clog the roads and make the running of the event almost impossible… they were nowhere to be seen on the roads. Because they were already in the stages.
Credit where it’s due, the spectator infrastructure with fan zones was very, very good. Rarely did we hit on a traffic jam with people queuing to get in and when we did stick our noses into those areas, they were usually pretty well packed – but with a good selection of viewing available.
I think we’re all aware of the issues raised by Esapekka Lappi’s crash on Friday – and some of the subsequent social footage – and that needs addressing swiftly. I have no doubt it will be. The decision to halt stage six was exactly the right move. Fans were warned the stage would be canceled and that action had to be taken. Once again, the FIA’s superb team led by Michèle Mouton and Nicolas Klinger left you in no doubt that spectator safety was, quite literally, in the safest of safe hands.
So, the competition was good, the roads were good, the countryside was great, the weather was nicely mixed up (but obviously not cold enough). What about the elephant in the room? What about the monster mileage?
On the whole, the crews weren’t loving it. You can tell when a driver and co-driver have been in the car for a long time by how long they sit waiting at junctions with their doors open trying get fresh air onboard. Granted, it’s not a precise measure, but it adds color to the picture. There were a lot of doors open last week. Even in the rain.
From the top of this tale, you can tell we were in the car for a long time – we saw more than 2000 kilometers on the Land Cruiser’s trip. Yes it was tiring, but I felt it was part of the adventure. I’m a little bit old school in that fashion. If we’re going to travel, we’ll travel. If we’re going to the north, we have to go to the far north – hence as a family we’re intimately acquainted with Caithness, the UK’s most northerly county. Standing in Seattle airport, I still stare at planes bound for Anchorage and Fairbanks.
But I can also see the entirely coherent point made by Toyota men Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans, that this sort of itinerary simply won’t make the sustainable wash these days. On balance, there needs to be changes for next year and the road mileage has to be trimmed.
What else is there to talk about? The service park. For me, that was arguably the biggest disappointment. Passau is a fabulous place that we didn’t really discover until the final day – instead we were shepherded into the corner of an industrial area where service was shoehorned in. I’m well aware of the difficulties in finding a venue big enough to tick the necessary boxes, but I’m sure there’s got to be somewhere better than that.
Oh, and the name: Central European Rally, CER. Maybe more route one? How about the European Rally?
Not wanting to end on a negative note, I’ll take you back to Sunday morning and driving south towards the start of the Böhmerwald opener.
With the sun sitting still low in the sky, we popped over a hill and there before us was a vista dominated by the Alps. We were staring down Schladming way and it was simply stunning. For once, even the drivers stopped vigorously cleaning windshields long enough to appreciate what sat before them.
