This is it. The sun is shining, the snow is melting and the winter rally season is drawing to a close. Of course, this isn’t the case in faraway Finland or other Scandinavian countries, but the Baltic states are now waiting for spring and summer. The last winter rally of the season took place in the beautiful town of Otepaa in south-eastern Estonia. It was the second round of the Estonian Rally Championship and it’s known for using many of the roads used in WRC Rally Estonia. It was a one-day rally with quite long stages. The last two stages were driven at dusk and at night. The Samsonas Motorsport team, Martynas Samsonas and Ervinas Snitkas, did very well with their BMW M3 E36 with N5 suspension and were the fastest of the 2WD cars, as they had been a month earlier in Alūksne. The three winter rallies are over and the team is preparing for the long-haul trip to the United States. Before that, Martynas shared his thoughts on the past weekend.
Latvia, Finland, and now Estonia. How was the weekend?
I’d say it was difficult. Although the rally was almost perfect, the beginning was nervous and difficult.
We checked the helmets and headphones an hour before the start and my special headphones didn’t work again. I think when I stopped on a special stage in Finland and got out quickly without disconnecting my helmet, I pulled the cable and damaged the plug. Maybe, I don’t know. Well, we also replaced all the headphones, the intercom plug and so on, but the replacement intercom didn’t work well, so on the first stage I asked Ervinas to repeat the pacenotes maybe five times… That doesn’t exactly add speed.
And I caused another problem myself.
In previous rallies, we’ve used a short N5-spec steering column, and because this BMW also has the steering rack point moved, the steering wheel itself is terribly short and sensitive. That’s fine to some extent, it’s practical, but when you enter the jump in a corner or just after a corner, it’s very difficult to keep the car straight where you need it to be. That’s why we decided to use the original, unshortened Subaru steering column for this rally. Well, of course, I didn’t try it out, I thought, that there is no need to do that 🙂
After the start and already in 5th gear, while driving on a narrow road over crests, I had the feeling that yeah… Well, I just can’t catch the car with the steering wheel, and the snowbanks are right there and it’s pulling so much that it can roll car over at this speed. So I had to drive 4 stages more smoothly, and then we switched back to a short column at the long service and it was better. It’s a shame that the last stage was very slow, with a lot of 2 – 3 gear junctions. Nevertheless, we were able to make up everything we had thrown away in the final stage and even moved up in the 2WD classification.
And another thing: this rally wasn’t at all suitable for an RWD car due to the special features of the stages and, above all, the road surface. It’s narrow, and there are many braking zones, first – second – third gear in many places. The BMW doesn’t move, it skids. In 95% of the corners, there is no way to go full throttle. Most of the time you have to drive slowly through the corner, and then only at exit hit the gas. It’s very slippery and tight.
I don’t even know why they gave us a seventh starting number. I’ve got a feeling it was on purpose. Because the later you start, the more the road is cleared.
Three rallies on snow in different countries – how did the BMW M3 E36 with the N5 suspension perform in the cold season?
Actually, three rallies on similar surfaces, but in reality I’d say that all three variants were completely different.
In Alūksne there was a lot of gravel, and I’d say it was maybe soft or something because the tires didn’t wear out, the studs held perfectly. And the grip was good, wide, and fast – a fabulous feeling.
In Finland, there was pure ice, good, frozen, hard ice. It was also slippery, not like in Otepaa, but it was really slippery, and the studs didn’t wear out either. Neither the road nor the spikes wore out. And Otepaa was the hardest, most slippery rally. The tires were worn, the studs were worn and came loose. Probably, we were digging into the frozen gravel of the road.
And the suspension was good. Excellent. The jumps were really very good and big. I jumped at full speed, as they say. I thought it will be what it will be – we have to increase the quality 🙂
So, that’s also a very good feeling. You just drive in 5th gear and jump at 170-180 km/h 🙂
There were also sharp jumps where you jump high, not far. Such jumps are usually painful, but the suspension coped with them perfectly.
Some sections of the special stages led through the special stages of the WRC Rally Estonia – what impression did these roads leave?
As I said, I couldn’t push as hard as I’d have liked everywhere due to the extremely slippery road. It would be fun to come back in the summer. But the special features of the stages are quite similar to those in Finland. It’s really not easy to get a good pacenotes, you have to turn your head hard and check a lot. That’s why we go where it’s difficult, not where it’s easy 🙂
We often talk with Ervinas – it would be great to do a Lithuanian Rally Championship round abroad – in Finland or Estonia. Driving fast in Lithuania doesn’t mean anything yet, but driving fast on unknown stages – you usually know immediately how it’ll be 🙂
You weren’t alone, the MV Sport team car with M. Kempa also took part in the rally. How did they managed the rally and how are the projects with MV Sport going?
Well, our Subaru Impreza S14 WRC VRT seems to be moving, but it’s scary because it’s only 2 months until the start of the season. It’s not very fun and calm situation. I’ve got the feeling that we’re either too late or that there won’t be any big tests.
And M. Kempa said that it’s terribly slippery 🙂 I told him – let’s switch cars, you’ll see for who it is slippery 🙂 As I understood, he was very happy and satisfied.
You now have a long trip to the USA coming up. What wishes and goals have you set yourself for this trip?
Since we have driven twice and not finished twice, the goal is to finish. We will arrive 10 days before the rally, so we will work on preparing the car and test it. We will try to finish – there is nothing else left 🙂
