[masaredera]

This thread is inspired by a bit of recent discussion in the "How do you see the future of rally?" thread. I posted the suggestion that the WRC could look at getting some more rallies going, and that Austria would have the potential to produce some good rally stages (completely forgetting about the Alpenfahrt as I did so). In order to demonstrate what I meant, I quickly drew up a 'stage' using the Google Maps Pedometer. Rather than run that discussion off-topic, I decided instead to create a dedicated discussion for stage creation, because I have quite literally wasted hours of my time doing this. It's a bizarre hobby, I know, but once you get into it and you start spotting the ways that roads could be linked together, it becomes surprisingly addictive. In order to do it, you will need to use a mapping program, like the pedometer, QuikMap or Scribble Maps (I recommend the pedometer; it's the easiest to use).

This is one of my better efforts, a 39 kilometre stage near Cripple Creek, Colorado that I call Bauxite (yes, I know it's a gold mine - I just find the word "bauxite" to be hilarious, kind of like "mazipan"; it's just the way my mind works). I think it would be particularly challenging, since most of the stage is ten thousand feet above sea level, so the air is thinner, forcing the engine to work harder. It starts out on tarmac, on a well-built road that follows the countours of the countryside to the town of Cripple Creek. Then it loops around to the south through some more technical bends to a second, smaller town, Victor, at which point the surface changes to gravel. The roads here stop being well-built and start being temporary roads made for the adjacent open-cut mine (the route does not match the roads under the 'map' tab, but they do match the roads on the 'satellite' tab). They meander around the pit before opening back out onto faster, more permanent roads that are sealed for the final five kilometres. Getting out of the stage is a little more difficult because there are no roads that bypass the stage start. To this end, the end of the stage would serve as a regroup for the cars, and the stage would temporarily be suspended after every tenth car to let the finished cars back through the first five hundred metres of the stage. Alternatively, the mining equipment could be used to carve out a temporary road to let the cars out; there's certainly enough space.

The second stage that I have invented is Iron Mountain. While I think Denver would be a good base for a rally in America, there is also some good stuff outside Rapid City, South Dakota (isolated as it may be). I think this 9.7km stage would be great as a power stage, because it would be very fast and goes past Mount Rushmore (though naming the stage after Mount Rushmore just seemed a little too on-the-nose for my tastes). It starts with a fast and narrow descent through a forest before doubling back and climbing up up past Mount Rushmore with a series of long sweepers.

Okay, yeah. These stages are probably never going to be run. Not unless we all somehow end up organising rallies for a living. But it's just a bit of fun to fill in time between Christmas and the New Year.

So, who's up for some stage design?