Tips for my first rally

[purecountry]

Me and my wife will be competing in our first rally in May 2011 at Rally Tennessee. We are originally from TN, and feel that knowing the road style is going to be a definite advantage to our first effort. She will be codriving and I will be driving. Any tips for a new guy. I'm getting ready to start my registration efforts soon. At the time of the race car will have Fixed back Sparco race seats, harness bar, 5 pt harness, vf39 turbo, coilovers, good Tarmac rims and tires. Where can I find if a cage is required, and what class I fit into? I think I'll be in stoc medium, instead of open awd heavy or light, but this shit is fucking complicated. Any tips for a first timer?

[Angry Iron Off Road]

Rally Tn is a NASA Rally Sport event Anders Green being the organizer. You need to read up on the rules. It is a full up Rally and requires a fully Rally prepped, caged and log booked car. You also have to have the full compliment of personal safety equipment to include head and neck restraint. If you hurry you may be able to get it together in time for TN.

I highly recomend "READING THE RULE BOOK" before you waste time and money heading in the wrong direction. One of my mistakes. Read Both the NASA and Rally America Rules on car prep so you can compete in either series.

I would suggest buying a good used 2WD car unless you have Fab Skills and time to get it done. They can be had for cheaper than you can build one.

Shawn

[Angry Iron Off Road]

First stage of Rally TN 2010 we blew the engine about 3/4 through stage 4

YouTube - Rally TN 2010 SS1

[blackrider]

Yes definitely need a Hans device(neck restraint)they are expensive(about $500) and at least a 6 point cage I would assume..
And a pre-inspection would be a good Idea to find out what else is needed.
I found that out when building a buddies Bonneville car.
good luck sounds fun!

[Sean Gallagher]

Originally Posted by purecountry

Me and my wife will be competing in our first rally in May 2011 at Rally Tennessee. We are originally from TN, and feel that knowing the road style is going to be a definite advantage to our first effort. She will be codriving and I will be driving. Any tips for a new guy. I'm getting ready to start my registration efforts soon. At the time of the race car will have Fixed back Sparco race seats, harness bar, 5 pt harness, vf39 turbo, coilovers, good Tarmac rims and tires. Where can I find if a cage is required, and what class I fit into? I think I'll be in stoc medium, instead of open awd heavy or light, but this shit is fucking complicated. Any tips for a first timer?

I've done this for a long time..

You're from San Diego..Go to the California Rally Series School on Feb 19-20 in Ridgecrest,CA.( Google the CRS I'm bad with links in forums) This will be the best money you ever spent if you want to stage rally.

Volunteer to work a few CRS events. You will learn a lot in one day working a rally.

Download all the rule books for, Rally America, NASA Rallysport and CRS. They're all different,and you need to know them well.

Buy a built rally car. Based on what you have now plan on spending $7500.+ just for your first event. You can get a proven turn key car for less.

Trust me.

[OTR]

Originally Posted by Sean Gallagher

...You're from San Diego..Go to the California Rally Series School on Feb 19-20 in Ridgecrest,CA.( Google the CRS I'm bad with links in forums) This will be the best money you ever spent if you want to stage rally...

Trust me.

Heres the link.

http://www.crsrallyschool.com/


k.

[XtremeJ]

all good tips above

- don't try to run stage notes, run tulips instead. this will lessen the workload a lot.
- aim to stay on the road and finish.
- buy a used car, cents on the dollar compared to building your own
- run a low HP FWD until you can drive consistently at 8 or 9 tenths without throwing the car off the road.
- have fun

Specialstage.com is a good resource, some knowitall's, but generally good folk

[Angry Iron Off Road]

Originally Posted by XtremeJ

Specialstage.com is a good resource, some knowitall's, but generally good folk

Ha there is non of that here on Pirate.

[SMC]

You need to check with your sanctioning body if they will even let you run a turbo car. If your are new to racing; IE have little to no track experience, Then bodies I ran with would only let you run a non-turbo FWD or RWD car for a season until you could prove that you wouldn't kill yourself. Then then you earned "credits" to get a license to race in more powerful classes and AWD. I ran with RallyAmerica, NASA Rally Sport and California Rally Assoc. RallyAmerica being the most anal about this.

As for prepping. You need to prepare with your co-driver if rally is new to you. Having somebody talking to you while your deep into the racing groove is annoying enough. Actually having to pay attention to what they are saying is an experience that has to be learned over time. And you WILL need to pay attention to your co-driver to hear what corners are coming up. Especially if your in a turbo car. That "L3 Tightens Dont Cut" corner may look like a L5 if you were just driving it alone. But your course notes let you know to slow down and not hit the rock on the apex.
It takes time. But you will learn to trust whats coming over the intercom.

If your rally has a recce ( reconnaissance ) run, take it! This gives you a chance to drive the course * at slower speeds * and quickly take some notes. Be it mental or on paper.

You WILL need a full rollcage. Check with your sanctioning body as to the specs that it needs to be built to. It should be listed in its rule book. You will also need to get a hold of them and get a log book for your car. It keeps info. like your vin number, build date, who did your cage along with its specs and a few pictures of your car. If there are issues with your car during tech inspection, it will be noted there.

Also, if you are running in a production class of car *stock build*, you can not have ANYTHING that is not a stock option on the engine or transmission. If its a turbo car, it has to be the stock turbo etc. etc. You will also have to run a restrictor on the turbo.
You can have rally coilovers instead of the stock struts and *generally* bigger swaybars but that about all you can modify on the suspension.


You will need the following:

At least 2: fire extinguishers. One located by the co-driver and one located in the trunk.

3: triangle emergency road reflectors.
1: Rally Spill kit. You can usually buy those at the event
Intercom: cause it sucks having to yell pace notes through multiple stages
A current Snell Rated helmet. Racing belts and seats must be within MFG's expiration dates.
You will need to bring a service manual for your make and year of car.
A fullsize spare tire and basic tools to change it out along with duct tape and zip ties for quick road fixes.

Hmm.. Thats about all I can think of as of yet. Heh, rally takes a bit of work. But once you have the above taken care of, you dont have to do it again. And I have said it before, but it needs repeating. Check the rules of your class with the sanction body that you plan on running with.

[barton174]

Reminds me of a story...

My later couple years of college ('01-'02), we built and raced a SCCA ClubRally car. A '91 Isuzu Impulse XS (FWD, NA 130HP 1.6L), in Group II. All being Engineering students, we sat down and all RTFRB (read the fucking rule book).

$800 Impulse, and they (the 2 guys who had money in it. I was just the builder/fabricator, truck driver, and crew) had less than $3500 in it, said and done. We found a place that would bend tube to spec and truck ship it to you for CHEAP... We just took the measurements, gave them $350, and they bent the main hoop and A-pillar tubes, and provided the rest of the tube for a 12-pt cage (that we then made into a ~16 pt cage). A set of Khumo gravel tires lasted the whole season, and a set of regular street tires on RS wheels. Orange tow hooks front and rear, racing buckets with 4-pt harnesses, replaced the sunfoof with sheet metal and a vent, skid plates made out of an old riding lawn mower hood and shelving from the K-mart that closed, etc. etc. etc...

We pulled into tech at our first rally in MN, and the tech guys walked around the car... and walked around the car again... and looked at each other... then looked at us, and said "somebody read the rule book!"

They actually had me stick around with the car for the next 3 cars, so they could show them how things were to be done. One pair of guys showed up in a FWD DSM with gravel tires, stock seats, and 5-pt harnesses attached to a single roll bar. No tow points, no skid plates, skull bucket motorcycle helmets, nothing in the way of Nomex suits, etc... They got turned away... fast...

RTFRB!!!

Mike

[barton174]

Proof:





Oh yeah... Love the ghetto strut tower brace tied into the cage... Yes, that is 2 pieces of angle iron turned into a square.





Oh, and stuff like this tends to happen... 2.5 rolls at 80mph, plus 200' sliding on the roof, down a hill... This is why you need a cage. As ghetto as the car was (keep in mind the shoe string budget of college kids), it met the rules, was reasonably safe, and it just plain worked.... And sadly, was MUCH less ghetto than some of the stuff, there...

[SMC]

Somebody once asked me, "What kind of investment it needed to get into rally racing?"

My reply, "You need to be willing to build a car and pour your time, money, sweat and blood into it. You need to make a car that your completely confidant in, to the point that its an extension of your driving abilities. Then you need to be able to handle the fact that your car may well turn into a pile of crushed scrap on your first run. And you will have to walk away, knowing that your investment just died.
Thats the investment you need to be able to make."

He sat there for a moment. "Fuck!?!"

"Yup."

Thats why I love crawlin. You kick out the major dents and cut off the rest And your still good to go.

[Super mud]

Yea ever watch those blown alchahol V8 drag boats that disintegrate as soon as they bob over 70mph? This one guy wrecked like 5 races in a row and is still racing starting from scratch each time.