Rally Time!

In college I participated in a number of Road Rallies, and it was a lot of fun. I never set one up but I think that we could do it. The rallies I was in were not Time Speed Distance Rallies but "Gimmick" rallies. We could do a best fuel economy rally. A few twists could be added in and we could end up somewhere and have a meal? What do you think?

If you have never seen one or have experience with these events here is some information:

What Is A Road Rally?

A Road Rally is not a race.
A Road Rally is not illegal.
A Road Rally does not require special equipment.
A Road Rally is an amateur event.
A Road Rally encourages novices to participate.
A Road Rally is a lot of fun.
In a Road Rally, each team of two people--a driver and a navigator--is given a set of route directions to follow, and the speeds at which they should travel the route. The route will generally consist of rural and quieter back roads. At the very least, you'll have a nice drive in the country!

Our rather limited concept of motor sports had mostly been developed for us by the media. It consisted totally of track or off-road racing. And the message was clear: highly trained drivers in high-priced machines taking high risks for high stakes.

TSD Rallying was very different from our concept of motor sports. Each car was given a set of written instructions and sent off at intervals on public roads. Each team tried to follow the course as well as maintain a given average speed, which was always legal. Sprinkled around the course were checkpoints where our arrival time was clocked. We were given a score based on how close we came to arriving perfectly "on time".

For a nominal entry fee and almost no risk to car, life, or limb we got to drive the most scenic roads in the area and compete on the basis of precision driving and navigation. We were a team on an adventure designed by an experienced rallymaster. We were a team competing not based on the amount of muscle in our car, but on the sharpness of our minds and driving skill. But most of all, we had fun - from the people and places to the competition and sense of discovery.

Types of Road Rallies

Beyond this broad description of our first Road Rally lies a whole range of events to suit every kind of rallyist. But the basic idea of most Road Rallies is the same: each competing team, consisting of a driver and a navigator, is given a set of written instructions which are used to follow a pre-determined course. Each team drives the course independently, usually at one minute intervals, following the written instructions, or route instructions, exactly.
The events range from the Sunday afternoon Gimmick Rally, usually run by a car club which maps out a scenic route ending at a restaurant or a picnic, through the highly competitive Pro Rallies, run at high speeds over roads closed to the general public. This book concentrates on the most prevalent and popular events which fall in the middle of this range: Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) Road Rallies in which the route instructions have assigned speeds and teams are scored based on their ability to maintain these speeds precisely over public roads.

Gimmick Rallies

The first event many teams enter is often some type of Gimmick Rally. These events are not scored on any speed factor, but on some special Gimmick Rule defined by the organizers.
Many Gimmick rallies have no checkpoints. You are scored based on information you find on the course. One long-standing annual event in the Northeast has teams count turkey-shaped signs placed along the course. If you see the correct number of signs, you found the entire correct course. A bit more involved format, called Course Marker Rallies, is used on the West Coast. The rallymaster places signs along the intended route - some signs have information which you copy onto your scorecard (for scoring) and others have course-following information. The markers you copy on your scorecard distinguish among teams who unravel the gimmicks.

Another Gimmick format, the shortest-distance rally, challenges competitors to visit various locations while traveling the fewest miles. The team usually has to answer some question at each location to prove that they actually visited each spot ("What year was the church on the corner of Main and Elm dedicated?")

Still another format, called the economy run, seems to pop up whenever there is a gas crunch. Teams attempt to drive the course while getting the best gas mileage. Scoring for one past event factored in the weight of the vehicle in order to equalize the advantage of smaller cars. The team which took this event ran in a gargantuan cement truck - and described their vehicle on the entry form as a "Sport Mixer". They did poorly on miles-per-gallon but easily won based on ton-miles-per-gallon.

Gimmick Rallies can be great fun and are ideal for first-time teams or competitors who run once or twice a year. However, few rallyists make a career out of Gimmick Rallies. Because of their nature, there is often an element of luck and a lack of preciseness in these events which makes a team's results somewhat a matter of chance.


With that as a starting point what do you think??

 

OK I will take that as a resounding no.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DaveinOlyWA @ Jun 8 2006, 05:49 PM) [snapback]268349[/snapback]</div>

Bill Merchant had some interest. This is a time for hands across three or four boarders. If we could get the BC folks interested. I just remember the rallies I was in College to be a lot of fun. It takes local knowledge. Back roads are better than freeways, though we could use those as needed for brief segments. I guess I would be willing to forgo the experience to help set it up, but local knowledge of back roads made the experience I had good. It will work best if we actually have 3 or 4 "routes" over the "course". That way the participants see each other going in different directions. Adds a bit of uncertainy to the whole thing. Is he going the wrong way or am I? Never know. Add a bit of vague or down right poetic directions, and no one will take the same route or go over the same course. If we can get the three "provinces" together we can have some fun. If we do it down by the Columbia we need some one with local knowledge of the Washington side of the river down by Vancouver.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(artcarter @ Jul 20 2006, 12:21 AM) [snapback]289256[/snapback]</div>

Art what a great idea! Rally time and no work. I think we need to get on this. It would be nice if we could get our act together by late summer. We need high temps for MPG! Don't tell the Corvette people about that.