I disagree with you that Charla/Mirna and Oswald/Danny are great racers. I think that Charla/Mirna's popularity overshadow the fact that they were not good in any facet on the game. They somehow made the final 3 of TAR 11 which I still don't understand and they were 6th on TAR 5 which too me does not warrant an appearance on All Stars. You might be huge fans of Charla and Mirna but they were not great physically, mentally and they always argued among themselves and with others. They certainly had luck and they played the game incorrectly in my mind. They always would pay someone to show them the way to a place, too me I think that is a shady tactic that should not be allowed on the show. I also would argue that Oswald and Danny weren't great mentally or physically, although they certainly were superior to Charla/Mirna. They were the typical team that goes far because they stayed calm and didn't really make any enemies except for Eric and Danielle. You can argue that they were a great team because they finished 4th twice but you can also argue that they were more of a good team than a great team. Besides them only Uchenna/Joyce who were only average on TAR 11, Rob and Amber who were eliminated very early and Dustin and Kandice who are great competitors, who else provided any challenge? Teri and Ian, Bill and Joe, John Vito and Jill, Kevin and Drew and David and Mary were not even in the top 3 best teams on their season. Compared to TAR 18 this all star season was basically a joke. Only two or three teams into the middle of the show had a chance to win besides Eric and Danielle. On The Amazing Race 18, you can only argue that 1 team had no business being on the show and that is Mel and Mike. Kent and Vyxsin were probably on the show because of popularity although they performed decently on both seasons, Zev/Justin and Gary/Mallory did not finish very highly on their season's but they proved on TAR 18 that they were worth of being casted. Kris and Amanda were eliminated because of a blind U-Turn on their season. They might have not performed well on either season but they were amazing physical competitors. Ron and Christina might have been another team that was casted for their popularity but they did pretty well on their season. But seriously look at the competitors on the two all star seasons. The best from TAR 11 were Dustin/Kandice, Rob/Amber, Uchenna/Joyce, Oswald/Danny and Eric/Danielle. The best from TAR 18 were Kisha/Jen, FT/BE, Margie/Luke, Jet/Cord, Gary/Mallory and Zev/Justin. Come on, do you really think that Season 11 was the harder season to win on? Season 11 had a couple of good competitors but it doesn't hold a candle to TAR 18 because of the amount of Middle Level/Lower Level teams that were casted.
amazing race fan,
I think you need to read more carefully. I do not even like Charla and Mirna as a team and never have. However, the question you posed was whether they could have won AR11 and the answer is that the finale can be highly luck-based so they could have won just that leg. Charla being short is no disadvantage in taxis and if they had a good taxi driver they would have gotten off at the proper entrance to the Park where the Finish Line was with enough advantage to hold off either of the other 2 teams they would have been the AR11 winner. Improbable, but very possible.
I am in the camp with others above that says that AR11 had a better overall group of racers than AR18 based on their original race. Somewhere back in the history of RFF once the teams were known, I calculated and posted that the average leg ending position history of the AR11 racers from their original racers was superior to that of AR11. Remember that you had Amanda/Chris (8th in AR11 and you know what they did in AR18), Zev/Justin (9th in AR15) and Mel/Mike (who at #5 in AR14 were about as competitive as David and Mary #6 in AR10 in both their races), Gary/Mallory (#6 in AR17), Kent/Vyxsin (#5 in AR12) in AR18 vs. John Vito/Jill (#5 in AR1) . In the middle groups for both races were Kevin/Drew (#4 in AR1), Oswald/Danny (#4 in AR2), Dustin/Kandice (#4 in AR10) vs. LaKisha/Jen (#4 in AR14) and Nate/Herb (#4 in AR15). The elite group of Final 3 racers in their original race were Joe/Bill (#3 in AR1), Ian/Teri (#2 in AR3), Rob/Amber (#2 in AR7), and Uchenna/Joyce (#1 in AR7) vs. Margie/Luke (#3 in AR14), Jet/Cord (#2 in AR16), Ron/Christina (#2 in AR12) and Jaime/Cara (#2 in AR14). You have to come up with a special rating for Eric/Danielle no lower than (2+8)/2 = 5; I think in view of Eric's dominance that an assigned placement of #3 in AR9 is fairer.
So, let's add all of those prior race positions for AR11 (result is an average ordinal position of 3.45) and for AR18 (result is an average ordinal placement of 4.45). A difference of 1 average ordinal placement is huge. I rest my case!