Only needs to understand about 20 English words for co-driving, it's about the accuracy and timing of the calls, not the breadth of vocabulary. You don't have time to recite a poem.
I think the airline industry studied the subject and came to the conclusion that a strict standardized language was the most effective and should be used in every cockpit, it came on the heels of some plane crashes and listening to the confusion in the cockpit as the emergencies developed.
I think a little of column a, and a little of column b.
If you’ve never been in a “shit-storm” / “cloud-of-confusion” / “fit-hitting-the-shan” (or whatever they call it In your industry) scenario in your life, you’re probably gonna fuck the first one up!
NP. Fuck it up. But learn about it.
I haven’t even googled these dudes and I know sweet fuck all about rally racing except: “Don’t break the car Samir”. (Interesting story behind that one).
But I’m willing to wager that they have a crap ton of experience behind them…. And they have 100% broken cars.
But that’s when you start to get really good… “been through this before… or something very similar… let’s not fuck it up again”.
And I’m 1000% sure the muscle memory kicks in.
“Hey I’m fucked here, grab the e-brake for me?”.
“ON IT”.
That’s just teamwork and experience.
If you’ve never threw another bunch of dummies in there in the same situation… my guess is… 9/10 would fuck it up!
As an outsider to rally car racing, I concur with the above statement. You gotta admit there’s poetic dissonance between an Irishman and a Japanese man having intense and time sensitive conversations, even if it’s just 20 words or less.
It reminds me of the classic movie, See No Evil, Hear No Evil.
im almost 100% sure the leader of toyota rally team said the reason is cause japanese codrivers are very rare and if they need to be changed its a problem. Everyone speaks english and its easy to change to a codriver who speaks it. I guess if they had a japanese codriver who spoke english it would be fine but there perhaps isnt one good enough for this level
I think they are trying to correct the claim he is Irish, due to him being born in Northern Ireland. He wears a ROI flag and WRC has his nationality as Irish. People in Northern Ireland have the legal right to identify as British, Irish or both.
You understand a langue by listening first, not speaking. He might have a small vocabulary but probably also understands a whole lot more. Japanese people in general undersell themselves a whole lot. Also, the navigator is speaking nice and slow.
English is taught from a young age in Japan. In fact, one of their character systems is composed mostly of English words, but using their phonetic system.
Young age is relative. 13 is way too late to start teaching English when their own language is so different, it's why hardly anyone here speaks acceptable English.
Rally car drivers/navigators are just built different. It blows my mind how they just casually deal with high stress problems at a fast pace. I should probably watch these races...
RallyTV is the best option, has a monthly sub or an annual one. Rallies stetch across the whole weekend, from Thursday evening or Friday morning to Midday Sunday (depending or rally timezones) so it's awesome to just tune in on the side while doing chores or other stuff during the weekend!
Like getting paid to ride a rollercoaster, but you have to read out each turn in advance, but not too far in advance. And if you screw up (or maybe even if you don't), you will likely be in a pretty severe car accident.
Theres a youtube channel that makes pretty fun onboard compilations, some of that shit will have you takin a bite out of your couch, sweatin and stressin like a mf lol
I remember a top gear episode where James May takes a crack at being the navigator. He read off two instructions and the driver yelled something like "READ EM OFF FASTER! YOU HAVE TO BE FASTER!" My stress level went up just watching it on TV.
I drove a car without power steering once and the steering wheel did not turn that effortlessly lol dude is either super strong or the power steering didn’t fully cut off. Also I have never been in a rally car so my experience is completely different than this.
I've had it sort of fail to where it would pulsate and sort of work but also resist what I was trying to do even at 20 MPH or so. Immediately pulled over and since on that car the power steering was on its own belt I just cut the belt and then it was fine and like a normal car without power steering until I fixed it.
The early models of Honda Civics and CRXs didn't have power steering at all. I remember being mildly impressed with my friends CRX because the steering felt so fine tuned. Must have had some pretty serious engineering.
You have to steer while moving. It's much easier than in the parking lot. I had a car without power steering not so long ago, I am not strong by any means and it drove just fine. You just have to move while steering. But my car was slow as fuck so it may be way different while racing.
A vehicle designed without power steering will usually have a larger steering wheel diameter and a slower steering ratio to make it bearable.
A vehicle designed to have power steering will have a smaller wheel and a quick ratio, making it absolutely horrible to use when the PS goes out because you just don't have the mechanical advantage to raw dog the steering rack like that.
At speed, you're right that the wheels are much easier to turn than when stationary.
True, but sometimes that's actually desired. I know that it's not uncommon in the miata community to get a car with power steering and remove it so you get a tighter ratio for autocross.
In light vehicles especially you can get away with no power steering even with the lower mechanical advantage
He's pulling the handbrake in the corner to help get the rear around. If there was a brake failure he would be pulling it before the corner (or more probably, you wouldn't keep driving). Video from Red Bull says power steering failure: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUD-CNGj8PZ/
Nah, it's power steering failure — the reason he isn't ripping the handbrake himself is because the steering wheel needs two hands. Otherwise he'd be doing it himself like he always does
My engine would die around corners in the jeep I drove in highschool with 35" tires. Dead engine meant no power steering and no power brakes. This is totally doable at speed with two hands.
I learned to drive on cars what had no powersteers. My first car was without the powersteer. When the car is moving there is no problem at all. If you are stopped, yes, then it’s hard to turn the wheel.
I've driven "race" cars without power steering. It isn't that bad. Removing power steering is pretty common in some race cars to eek out every bit of power.
I say "race" because a rally car is on a different level than the spec miata and E30 I drove.
The faster you're moving the easier it is. However there's resistance from the pistons in there steering rack that are not present in non assisted steering
Nope, Taka would normally control the handbrake himself by taking his right hand off the wheel. He's using both hands on the wheel cuz the PS died and it's taking a ton of effort to turn in those slow corners.
I've owned several cars without. If a car is already in motion turning the wheel is far, far easier than when it is still; however, it still does require some strength.
Given that our man here can't operate the handbrake any longer, he is needing both arms to turn the wheel reliably. As a professional driver, he is also likely in excellent physical shape too; so I imagine that with the speeds they're going, it's probably pretty damned tough.
The power steering died on my dad's van once, and he just kept driving it for awhile like nothing happened. The power steering died on my car once, and I could barely get into a parking spot to get it looked at. Some people are just built different.
when power steering fails you're fighting not just the wheels but a hydraulic system that won't move. a car without power steering at all turns okay as long as you're moving. it's possible that these rally cars are designed so that if the power steering should fail, it dumps the hydraulics completely so it acts like a non-hydraulic system, allowing the diver to maintain some control.
My 2nd gen rx7 did not have power steering at all. Pure rack and pinion. You only really noticed in parking lots. Once you were moving it was fine. Had a very nice, connected feel to the road.
I had a bearing error on a relatively large family SUV just at the beginning of a 2000 km drive this summer. The issue switched off a number of assistive functions, including the power stearing. Honestly, I mostly felt it during our stops, but out on the highway when the car was at speed I didn’t really notice the difference. I’d did miss the adaptive cruise control though.
My first car had manual steering. The faster you're moving the easier it is to turn the wheel. The slower you're going the harder it is. Parking was really strenuous!
Im also pretty certain the steering ratio on these also means less turns for full lock, so I think hes putting all of his strength into turning the wheel which is why he needs his co-driver to pull the handbrake
I think it depends a lot on whether the car was designed for power steering or not, and the weight distribution. Power steering went out in my 90s Cadillac, and it was like trying to arm wrestle a bear. It was NOT designed for it.
But I once had a Pontiac Fiero, and because so much of the car’s weight was off the front tires, I genuinely didn’t know it had zero power steering. That, and rack and pinion steering. I told my dad the Fiero didn’t have power steering, and he owned one in the 90s, and he straight up refused to believe me, because he also had no idea when he owned his Fiero.
I recently got back from training in the Mojave Desert (Yes, I was wishing for a nuclear winter) and one of the vehicles I had to move, a JLTV, was completely deadlined, and turning the vehicle was like arm wrestling a professional bodybuilder.
While I did get a good arm workout, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
What is it he's pulling? It looks like a handbrake, but I don't know rally cars, and I'm also not sure what a handbrake would have to do with power steering.
The copilot is pulling the handbrake/ebrake/emergency brake. If you turn very slightly and then pull this brake the cars body turns quickly further into the initiated turn. Its a way (together with proper use of accelerator pedal) to drive faster through bends and turns on loose surfaces and since these guys seem to be in a hurry, it's a useful technique.
The second black handle closer the driver is the shifter, gear up when pulled and gear down when pushed. Like changing gears in a stickshift manual car but then for rally race cars
ok, so I'm back to wondering what the handbrake has to do with power steering? And does the co-driver always operate the handbrake (in which case, what's remarkable about this video) or not (in which case why is it on that side)?
Yes that's what I think is happening here. Anyway, normal operation its the driver who does the handbrake ofcourse. But stuff happens.. like there is this video of the Belgian driver to use beer from the bystanders to refill his cooling system. Haha. video
With power steering the driver can spare one hand for a short pull on the hand brake. But with the power steering broken he needs both hands on the wheel all the time.
I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure the co-driver generally just gives verbal cues for turns coming up and track layout. I think the reason he is pulling the hand brake for him in this instance is because the driver's power steering failed to some degree so the driver needed both hands on the wheel to turn the car with enough force, so having someone help with the hand brake was ideal.
it's much harder to steer without power steering, what you can do with 2 fingers you now have to do 2 handed. I imagine that the pilot can't let go of the steering wheel because of that and thus can't operate the handbrake while turning, which is the point.
Plus he could also be under-steering because of that, which he could be compensating with handbreaking
Believe it's the handbrake. Beginning of the clip someone calls "handbrake" just before co driver checks the black handle, sees it isn't working, and switches to orange
I’ve seen hundreds and hundreds of really in car videos. This one takes the cake. Imagine what is going thru both of their heads on top of the regular load. Unreal.
Maybe but i guess my thing is your work is one thing and your life is obviously another. If you sick or something as an accountant or a dockworker you take the day off cause it’s just work. The same would apply here. Just a race.
I think jobs where you're professionally joining a competition have more pride/ego involved than most careers, if I was a gas attendant id never try to pump gas in a hail storm, but if I was say playing for a national level volleyball tournament? Id play on broken glass because he'll yea im going to show the world! It's really about competitiveness I suppose
No i get you. It’s kinda the Niki lauda story. After a bad crash he decided a race was too dangerous under weather circumstances and stopped mid race ultimately losing championship that year. He was very very committed to his profession.
Teamwork always looks amazing..and the fact they are two different people makes it even more awesome. Only if the rest of the world worked together in their metaphorical rally car
Rallying is massive in Ireland. There's a few races here every year and we've had a couple of drivers go pro who started out sliding sideways on wet farmers fields.
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u/marksk88 1d ago
It always seemed odd to me that Katsuta, who doesn't speak great English, has an Irish co-driver. But they seem to work well together.