Should TAR try this new rule?

[Rembrant]

So, on Sunday evenings on the hispanic Discovery Channel, they now have the first season of 'The Amazing Race en Discovery Channel', which is the hispanic version of TAR, so I get to enjoy two different TAR on the same night. It does have a couple small flaws, but overall, four episodes in so far, it has been very nice for its first season, and I am enjoying it even more than the current original version.

Now, the reason I'm posting this is because this hispanic TAR has a brand new rule that I've never seen in any TAR before, and I wanted to see if I get any opinions out of it. Okay, so, so far when traveling to other areas by plane, the teams have taken mostly the same flights (except for the first episode with two flights already assigned). However, in here, whenever teams arrive in airports, they must search and find a board which has a clock attached to it. Teams must then sign their names and the exact hour displayed on the clock. Now, upon arrival at the next destination, the first team leaves, and the teams that signed afterwards will leave depending on the time difference upon signing it.

Here's an example: First team signs in at 1:09 PM, second team at 1:27, third team at 1:37. Thus, upon arriving, the first team leaves immediately, whereas the second team must leave 18 minutes after the first team leaves, and the third team leaves ten minutes after the second team leaves, and it keeps going that way until the last team leaves. Though I must say I'm curious as to how it would work if a team that signed in late managed to grab an earlier flight than teams that signed before them, so hopefully they'll clear that up in upcoming episodes.

So, any opinions of this particular twist in the competition? Should it be tried in the original TAR? Personally, I'm still a bit iffy about it since it's so new, but on the other hand, it is certainly a very original way to prevent bunching in airports.

[LG.]

I don't care for that rule at all. I know leading teams don't like the "bunching" at airports, but retaining the "lead" prevents teams from competiting at the same time for the same events, which is one of the more interesting things to watch. Who can do the monkey imitation faster, or learn how to march like a Russian soldier, or find a certain location. If they are all staggered out and never compete head to head, we only get a change in the lead when one teams screws up badly enough to get passed. It's a race, for crying out loud, and airplanes, places of businesses, etc have their own schedules that racers just need to deal with.

[NFL1]

I don't think I'd like it either - many racers find alternate flights which could unbunch a bit.

Does this version also do the same thing when bunched at an attraction that is closed when the racers appear, and they all have to wait till it opens? If not, then they should not do that at the airport either.

[justCoz]

I don't think I would like it. Even though the leaders don't like the equalizers it's real life. If you are in a race and you all end up at the airport, you get the flight you get. Also, hours of operations are real things. I of course hate them when it adversly affects one of my favorites, but otherwise I know that it's a race that they have false challenges to do, but then the racing aspect of it is true to life. Sometimes you can get a horrible cab driver, sometimes flights are delayed, sometimes you don't make it to a place of business before it closes. Those are things I don't want to see changed.

[Fierce Critter]

Nope. No sir. Don't like it. Don't like it t'all.

[KeepItReal]

That would be a "NO" for me as well.

[ElizabethG]

to all of the above....I think the bunching that occurs sometimes is just part of the race and actually like to see how some of the racers try to scheme and manuever when they realize they're getting equalized.

[Rembrant]

Does this version also do the same thing when bunched at an attraction that is closed when the racers appear, and they all have to wait till it opens? If not, then they should not do that at the airport either.

Nope, it does not apply to this. Places that open at a certain time are still here and it is what's keeping the teams equalized for the most part.

So far the airport thing has not been a big breaker in the order, as in the second episode (first episode was NEL), the last team, who had to do the Speed Bump, was a good three hours behind the first team to leave the airport and still managed to catch up and arrived to the pitstop in third place, thanks to an equalizer due to opening hours and performing very well in the Detour. Ironically, they did not perform the Speed Bump, which required them to drive stick shift and neither knew how, so they skipped it, which gave them a penalty that pushed them all the way up to last place and got eliminated.

But yes, overall the rule of leaving the airport with those time differences has not had a big effect in the long run, especially because of the driving around getting some teams lost and certain tasks being more difficult than they originally seem. I still get a crack out of the third episode Roadblock, where team members had to run through a huge vineyard out in the sun, looking for hard to locate boxes, while their teammates rested in the shade and got to enjoy wine and cheese, another thing I had never seen in the original TAR.

[Endit]

That is not a good change. Though I do not like the "I'll take what they're having" thing that all the teams do. That I would like to see done away with. If the other team tells you, ok, but not otherwise.

[dantrb]

I enjoy the Latin American version and I read that part of the reason of the signing in at the airports is because they actually have pre-booked flights. There aren't really that many flights leaving from one place to another so it would be a constant bunching every time. So far it hasn't really impacted the race much. I wish they would travel outside Latin America but like the Asian version of the race they keep it "local."