Car Racing without Money

Chapter 854: Chapter 350: Wielding a Broadsword Before Guan Gong (Part 3)

As the main race begins, many high-precision infrared timers on the track have started, enhancing precision from the previous one-tenth of a second during reconnaissance to the current one-hundredth of a second.

Although it doesn’t reach the F1 level of millisecond error, for a WRC event spanning hundreds of kilometers, a precision of one-hundredth of a second is enough to determine victory between drivers.

Thus, a terrifying fact emerged: Chen Xiangbei’s speed is even faster than Sebastien Loeb!

Originally, everyone thought that Chen Xiangbei, a cross-border newbie, would do well if he could finish the whole course without incidents or accidents, and matching Kimi Raikkonen was basically impossible.

Unexpectedly, he surpassed the "Rally God" Loeb and was faster than Raikkonen in the SS1 timed segment by 0.17 seconds!

Although it’s only 0.12 seconds, across the roughly one hundred kilometers of the first stage, divided into about ten small segments, Chen Xiangbei managed to be 1.2 seconds faster than Loeb overall.

Furthermore, this lead is not a linear improvement; instead, as the altitude rises and the road conditions become increasingly complex, the time difference in each small segment increases, possibly leading to a lead of 3 to 5 seconds.

Of course, it’s possible for Loeb to overtake and lead Chen Xiangbei again.

But regardless of the outcome, Chen Xiangbei leading in the SS1 segment is simply a miracle!

"Lock the broadcast camera on Driver Bei, let’s see how he’s driving."

Almost simultaneously, every team leader gave the almost identical instruction.

To be honest, they could barely accept his fast reconnaissance speed last night; after all, as long as you’re fearless, an F1 driver’s foundation is there, even if he was slower than Loeb by three to four minutes during reconnaissance, it was acceptable.

But this is the main race, and it’s the most famous Monte Carlo night battle, with no possibility of slacking or taking shortcuts.

Fast is fast, and slow is slow!

Chen Xiangbei’s speed in the SS1 segment completely overturned their perception.

As the management of each team focused on Chen Xiangbei, particularly with the helicopter cameras in the sky capturing highlights, some keen observers already noticed the differences.

"Isn’t Bei’s tire setup a bit different?"

"That’s right, it seems to be a cross-dressing of two different types of tires."

"Is there any theory or intention behind this setup?"

"I don’t know."

A chorus of discussions followed, as the cross-dressing method introduced a decade early left today’s team members confused; they couldn’t merely judge the pros and cons of this tire setup without testing.

Although the strategy department couldn’t figure out the intention behind the cross-dressing tire setup, they did understand the racing line that led to Chen Xiangbei being ahead of Loeb.

It’s known that early WRC races emphasized drifting around corners, seeing it as a unique feature and charm of rally racing, especially the "Nordic Pendulum," which was once highly revered and showcased in the film "Racing Life."

However, as time progressed, with Loeb appearing on the historical stage, he directly overturned many flamboyant drifting operations in WRC, particularly adopting extremely clean and crisp driving methods on asphalt roads, including the circuit drivers’ commonly used trail braking around corners.

The change and update in cornering technology made Loeb the driver who transcended the era.

But does specializing in fields allow you to be faster than an F1 driver?

Slalom cornering and trail braking around corners, in front of an F1 driver, is as if showing off swordplay before Guan Gong, coupled with Chen Xiangbei’s start response already perfected, he directly suppressed the rally god Loeb in the SS1 segment!