Many of the stages have changed too, with just six of the 20 tests following the same format as in 2007, although most of the others are familiar from previous years.
The action begins with a super special stage at the trotting track on Thursday evening before Friday's opening day visits the western part of the Värmland region for the first time since 2001. Saturday and Sunday's tests are clustered around Hagfors with all the more northerly stages missing from this year's itinerary. All three days include a remote service midway through. Sunne hosts Friday's break with Hagfors the location for Saturday and Sunday.
Drivers face 20 stages in total, with all 10 venues used twice, covering 340.24 kilometres in a total route of 1440.08 kilometres.
Last year:
Marcus Gronholm won the event in 2007 to clinch his second successive win in Sweden - and his fifth in total.
Marcus took the lead on the second loop on Friday, overhauling Petter Solberg in SS5 and eventually ending the day 11.1 seconds up on Loeb, who 'passed' Petter for third in the penultimate test.
Saturday looked set to be another all-too-familiar battle between Gronholm and Loeb, and while initially it look likely to be a close run thing, Marcus powered ahead on the middle loop, increasing his advantage more than two-fold after blitzing the opposition in Torntorp 2 and Vargasen 2. The 39-year-old then proceeded to pull further ahead in the afternoon, finishing the day 38.4 seconds in front.
The Ford man could have eased off on Sunday, but in the end he choose not too, winning three more stages, to add to the eight taken in legs 1 and 2 and finally triumphing by around 50-odd seconds.
After Seb in second,
Mikko Hirvonen took the final spot on the podium, another 50 seconds back in the #2
BP Ford Focus, followed by
Henning Solberg and Daniel Carlsson in fourth and fifth.
Toni Gardemeister, Manfred Stohl and
Chris Atkinson rounded out the points scorers’, the latter losing considerable time on the final day and dropping down from P5 after an off.
In terms of retirees there were only two major names that didn’t make it to the finish - Xavier Pons and
Petter Solberg.
Pons was the first to go out, when he went off the road in his privately entered Mitsubishi in SS5. Solberg followed the next day, in SS10, when he went off into a snow-bank and got stuck, losing around 14 minutes and dropping from third to no-where. He was later withdrawn.
