Red Bull Motorsports
Rally drivers are meant to be the most fearless drivers in the world, right? Probably true. Because any of these six scariest stages in the world – from past and present – would send most mere mortals running home to their mummies…
1. Panzerplatte (Germany)
As you’d expect from a stage run through a military area, Panzerplatte takes absolutely no prisoners – as several drivers have found out over the years. The problem here is hinkelsteins: massive great concrete boulders that were originally used to keep Panzer tanks on the road during training exercises. Added to that you have concrete roads for which the sign ‘slippery when wet’ could have been invented, plus sharp edges to those same concrete roads that are a bit like stiletto knives for tyres. Panzerplatte in the rain is genuinely the stuff of nightmares: and it seems to be raining there more often than not. It’s almost certainly the most dangerous stage currently used on the World Rally Championship.
2. Giulio Cesare (Argentina)
Similar to the sad fate that befell the famous Roman emperor that this mountain stage is named after, the rocky roads that characterise Giulio Cesare have a nasty habit of stabbing drivers in the back. With engines starved of oxygen at high altitude, a crazy camber and a slippery surface, it’s one of the biggest challenges in the sport. When you get to the top you encounter thick fog and rocks the size of footballs, but it’s going down where the problem really starts. It’s flat out all the way, in minimal visibility, with engines starved of power by the thin air so there’s not enough torque to get you out of trouble. “You just have to listen to the paces notes and steer. And hope.” That’s how 2001 World Champion Richard Burns described it – and the stage is still being used now.
3. Motu Road Gorge (New Zealand)
Sadly this one has dropped off the schedule, but it was epic. It gained its fearsome reputation during the 1990s as part of the World Championship’s Rally New Zealand, deciding the outcome of the event nearly every year. Every corner was heavily cambered, so if you got it wrong you’d be mercilessly spat into the scenery. Think of a high-speed waltzer ride on gravel and you get the idea. It was also very long: the stage record set by Colin McRae in 1994 was 37m21s. McRae made the Motu his own, winning it on three occasions in his heyday. That fact alone gives you an idea of just how mental it really was.
4. Sete Cidades (Azores)
Surrounded by high earth banks, this truly epic stage is usually run twice, with the drivers seemingly balancing their cars on a knife-edge. Below them are 70 cubic kilometres of volcanic crater, which have now become a lake. As a spectacle, nothing else on earth comes close, which is why thousands of enthusiastic fans flock to the tiny island of São Miguel every year to watch this round of the European Rally Championship. And this one stage in particular.
5. Ouninpohja (Finland)
No list of scary stages would be complete without Ouninpohja. It’s not actually got the biggest crests on Rally Finland, but it’s where the cars tend to fly for the longest, thanks to the evil launch-pad nature of the topography. The speeds are so high that the cars will fly for an awful long time before they fall back down to earth – and of course once in the air, there’s nothing much the driver can do to influence the trajectory. No wonder people are scared of it.
6. Ajaccio to Calvi (Corsica)
Known as the ‘Coast Road’ this was a key stage of the famous Tour de Corse that was run in various incarnations throughout the 1980s. It takes in a staggering total of 175 kilometres of narrow and twisty coastal road – although it was never used all in one go – with only a small stone parapet separating the drivers from a watery fate. “On the one side you had the sea, on the other side you had the mountain,” is how the legendary Michele Mouton remembers it. “So it was best to look in the middle.” The part of the road that wasn’t being used as a special stage was normally used as a road section: but the timing was so tight on the sprint rally that was the old-school Tour de Corse, that the drivers used to pace note the road sections too.
