Re: Icelandic "Off road racing"... as seen on UK C4 Saturday lunchtime

Derek James wrote: > > This has been covered for years by Eurosport. Excellent fun but a bit > short lived IMO. Other notable(!) niche motor sports on Eurosport that > may one day make the terrestrial channels include Truck Trials, Rally > Raids, Ice Racing and the wierdest off-road motorbike hill climb event > I've ever seen (from Switzerland I think). It's the Rachau (sp?) hillclimb! Some nutty offroad bikers(?) try to get their bike as far up a very steep hill as possible, and then have the bike selfdestruct as it falls down again :-) Great fun to watch :-) -- Arne Martin

Total madness isn't it :-) I saw them once 'aquaplaning' over a (I guess) 20m wide, 0.5m deep puddle . When they where fast enough they wouldn't sink in it, like floating over it without losing speed, but when they weren't fast enough they just sunk and almost get stuck in the puddle. Wouldn't that be an idea for a sim?! Andrew MacPherson <[email hidden]> schreef in berichtnieuws [email hidden]...

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> Stumbled over this yesterday thanks to my noisy neighbour. If he hadn't > been attempting open-heart surgery on his girlfriend (sounded like it) I'd > have been sleeping soundly. > > Anyway... these Icelandic blokes are *nuts*! 4-wheel drive vehicles (like > the SODA cars on enough steroids to keep the entire Soviet Block in gold > medals until the next Millennium) running up to and over 1000bhp, > basically trying to climb muddy quarries/mountains/anything steep that > doesn't get out of the way fast. > > I'm not a big fan of "gimmicky" motorsport, but these guys are mental, and > it had me grinning from ear to ear. When they get things wrong the "cars" > don't just fall off the slope they're climbing, they take off...often > vertically. Amazing to watch. Amazing power. Amazingly broken machines > when they land. > > I'm doing a lousy job of explaining this. It's not exactly racing, more > like trials biking where, one at a time, they try to get bikes into places > where even mountain goats get vertigo. > > Series started this week and continues at about 12noon C4 on Saturdays if > anyone in the Yook's interested. At the very least it'll keep the kids > quiet for a while... after which they'll try to drive their trikes up the > nearest garden wall. Don't blame me if you spend next weekend in casualty > :-) > > Andrew McP > > PS Apologies to anyone who's now read this several times. Accidentally > poked it down the wrong internet 'ole.

Hi Andrew, I completely agree, these guys are bloody mental. I too was roused on Saturday by daft tele-sales calls & I thought bugger it I'll watch the karting championship they have been showing but these Icelandic off-roaders have got to be kinda weird surely. BTW this racing was also shown on that Jeremy Clarkson series a year or 2 ago where he swanned around the world faffing about. Cheers, Colin

> This has been covered for years by Eurosport. Ah, you're reminding me I'm very out of date in my 4-channel terrestrial existence! Andrew McP

On Sun, 20 Feb 2000 07:18 +0000 (GMT Standard Time),

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>Stumbled over this yesterday thanks to my noisy neighbour. If he hadn't >been attempting open-heart surgery on his girlfriend (sounded like it) I'd >have been sleeping soundly. >Anyway... these Icelandic blokes are *nuts*! 4-wheel drive vehicles (like >the SODA cars on enough steroids to keep the entire Soviet Block in gold >medals until the next Millennium) running up to and over 1000bhp, >basically trying to climb muddy quarries/mountains/anything steep that >doesn't get out of the way fast. >I'm not a big fan of "gimmicky" motorsport, but these guys are mental, and >it had me grinning from ear to ear. When they get things wrong the "cars" >don't just fall off the slope they're climbing, they take off...often >vertically. Amazing to watch. Amazing power. Amazingly broken machines >when they land. >I'm doing a lousy job of explaining this. It's not exactly racing, more >like trials biking where, one at a time, they try to get bikes into places >where even mountain goats get vertigo. >Series started this week and continues at about 12noon C4 on Saturdays if >anyone in the Yook's interested. At the very least it'll keep the kids >quiet for a while... after which they'll try to drive their trikes up the >nearest garden wall. Don't blame me if you spend next weekend in casualty >:-) >Andrew McP >PS Apologies to anyone who's now read this several times. Accidentally >poked it down the wrong internet 'ole.

I saw someone interviewing an Icelandic _female_ driver. She was driving one of those 600 hp 4WD monsters across the rough volcanic icelandic surface at speeds I don't even do on the motorway. She commented it with the words "it sure beats knitting". No shit? /petern /

snip > It's the Rachau (sp?) hillclimb! Some nutty offroad bikers(?) try to get > their bike as far up a very steep hill as possible, and then have the > bike selfdestruct as it falls down again :-) Great fun to watch :-) And the English commentary takes the cake... ;^) Wouldn't be half as funny without it. -- l8er ronny Your mouse has moved. Windows must be restarted for the change to take effect. Reboot now? |\ _,,,---,,_ I want to die like my Grandfather, ZZZzz /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ in his sleep. |,4- ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-' Not like the people in his car, '---''(_/--' `-'\_) screaming their heads off!

As a pom now living in Australia my favorite was the Weston Super-Mere motorcyle beach races. Very spectacular when 100 bikes all arrive at the first dune which no one can actually get over. The track is like quicksand and at the end of the day you can see riders digging bikes out of the sand buried upto their petrol cap. It makes the start in a bad ping race at Moza in GPL look relatively tame. -----------== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com, Uncensored Usenet News ==---------- http://www.newsfeeds.com The Largest Usenet Servers in the World! ------== Over 73,000 Newsgroups - Including Dedicated Binaries Servers ==-----

> > Anyway... these Icelandic blokes are *nuts*! 4-wheel drive vehicles.... these guys are meant to be competing in the UK in the Spring at Foxhill near Swindon - it was meant to have taken place last year - this was the reply i got back from Iceland when i tried to found out more: "Thank you for your interest in our Formula Off Road races. Unfortunately due to several reasons, we have had to delay the race scheduled for the 2. october until next spring. The date has not been set. Still it will be at Foxhill near Swindon. Instead we will finnish the championship in Iceland on October 2nd. or 3rd. I am sorry about this, but we will have to wait few more months for the race in England. With best regards, Icelandic Motorsport Association - Motoris Ltd., Olafur Gudmundsson." i only heard about it on Eurosport about a week before it was due to happen so keep an eye out and let me know if you hear anything btw, they brought one of the machines over to the Network Q rally show 3 years ago - the whole place stopped when they started the engine. they apparently took it for a run but shredded the tyres on the tarmac display arena cheers sa w