| Name | Country | Area | Population | Language |
| Sweden | Sweden | 449 964 km2 | 8.000.000 | Swedish |
very fast stages drawn that run over a slightly hilly terrain through the frozen forests near Karlstad.
The only round of the championship that is run entirely on snow, the International Swedish Rally has been the playing field for numerous Scandinavian drivers and as such the tourists have a tough time beating the locals on the slippery stuff.
Swede Stig Blomqvist, an emblematic figure in the 70s and 80s still holds the incredible record of seven wins on Rally Sweden. In temperatures around the minus 40°C mark, the event necessitates a rigorous car preparation.
The stages in the Varmland forest and are very fast and spectacular. In these conditions, there is never a question as to what type of tyres to use: studded tyres are the norm to bite on the ice and give enough grip on these fast (near a 115 km/h average) stages.
The grip is at a minimum and using narrow tyres with a large number of studs is the only way of having a chance. These points demonstrate to what extent only the specialists have a hope of winning here and in fact, over the last ten editions of the rally only Swedes and Finns have won… until Sebastien Loeb broke the tradition by taking the victory in 2004!
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