Well, with some MSA speccd' cars going for a grand why don't ya? I sold my mint Escort Cossie a few years ago to build an XR2 and never looked back.Although I've not done an event for 6 months due to junior on his way!
I read all the time on here about 400bhp isn't enough etc, you don't need that for the road! There is nothing like doing a nine mile stage, non stop full on aggresion. If ya think you can drive fast on the roads, think again, Rallying is very good at bringing you down to earth.
So, Why aren't more of ya entering then? and if it's cause you've got nowhere to put a trailer, there was a guy with a black Integra type R at last years Carnival stages who drove there, and took the kids to school in it!(I once saw a mk2 drive from Jersey with a Roofrack service kit, do the rally, and drive home!
Andy

 

Andy

i would love to, it's just i can't afford it honestly

marco

 

I generally find its because people dont know how to start Andy.

The BARS test has seen a reduction in numbers too

 

I do try. BUt here it's not so easy and very expensive compared to avarege income. Still you can see some photos of me rallying in pictures section :-D Last spring I done a raly with so fast stages I needed to use 5th on standard gearing in Escos!

 

That;s a big problem too. How do one make licence in UK? Here yo have to do those stupid "Concurse Auto Driving" events which are generally very short, very tight, timed trials with tousends of cones to navigate. And you get points for you lincence there. So every year in the first rlaly of season there are massive accidents when people who got their licences this way get out into reall stages not driving with 1st gerar and handbrake only anymore.

 

andy

see and tracks days are alot cheaper and are not as hard on a car

rallying just kills them imgine me now putting my 3dr car though a forest it would be wheel spin city and probally put it striaght into a tree at the first corner not only that the floor pan would be wrecked with all the rocks

look at all the WRC's that have all the top of the range stuff on ,they still break

and their buget is second to none how could you or me compete with any wrc car lets be honest here

thats is most defo a rich mans sport you do need a few quid behind you no matter what car your rallying

Marco

 

I'd love to but i've never known how to start

 

Fair point Marco, but what if you sold the Cossie and bought a well prepped pinto'd mk2 and did single venue tarmac, so much more fun than track days, Łand yes, things go wrong, but you have to find the money, I'm only a Firefighter and I (just ) financed it.
Tony, can you imagine Marco (look at his siggy!) entering Abingdon!and ref the BARS test, I had to pay Ł300 quid for 10 minutes in a mk2 so yes, it is crap! and it'll get harder as I'm sure you know (ref WRC in Wales )

 

Excellent post!
I did a few road rallies years ago and it was an amazing buzz. I wasn't a good enough driver to be competitive but really enjoyed it anyway and the great camaraderie between fellow competitors and the bodywarmered nutters who follow/marshall them lol.
Bamber and I followed the RAC rally spectating from Wales to Grizdale a couple of years on the trot and had great adventures both trips.

 

1 Sell the Evo

2 give me the money, I'll finish my new Mk2

3 Get ya Navigators licence, squeeze into the wifes gear and sit next to me to learn

Job done, next lol.

 

Plus a support crew

 

My pal who navigated for me was a nightmare. He suffered from left-right dyslexia imo

 

this is the bit now where Tony NutsRus is compiling his "How to start Rallying" thread quoting the exact things to do!lol Gotta give it to ya Tony, you know ya stuff

my last event


this went for Ł1000 on ebay, and I threw in loads of wheels and tyres, sensible last all day long fun.

 

Sell the evo

I think i'll stick to track days

 

ooh, I've just found a piccy of the boot in my old Mk2, I was so sad I painted the stripe inside too , anyway, back to the topic!lol



and here's the XR2 I built when I sold the cossie, 1.9 on 40's and it sold for Ł1500! Ł4000+ to build, get on rallyusedparts.co.uk peeps

 

I think I like the co-driver

 

A guide to getting started would be very helpful

 

Ai, she's a good girl, and v good on the notes, Not the best piccy of her though

 

Wrong Andy - its a not to start post lol

My next event so far has cost me

Ł635 for 4 tyres
Ł320 Entry fee
Ł110 Ferry
Ł160 Rally Fuel

Plus a further Ł600 on life specced parts on the car.

Thats before any accomodation / food / transport getting there and back etc.

And I only run in the 1600cc class

It's self financed (and is hard yes) but I go without other things just to have fun. I will finish nowhere and will start from the back but the buzz will still be the same as Abingdon where we came second and got a plastic trophy

 

something like this for single venue Tarmac assuming you have a prepped car (over to Tony for that bit!lol)

1 get the Go rallying (Ł40) from the MSA
2 Apply for your licence
3 Do ya BARS test at a local rally school, theory and practical(Ł200-Ł350)
4 Join a motorclub and also a local championship, they will send you entry regs for each event
5 Enter an event (Ł150+)you can ask to be seeded last in the running order if you want, although sometimes you will meet on stage with other stuff, could be a WRC Focus, could be a Mk2
6 Get ya overalls (Ł120+) and helmet (Ł60+) which has to have a safety sticker on it from an MSA rep
7 It gets a bit confusing now, and it would be an advantage to have an experianced Navigator fot the event, as you have time controls, time at SS1, noise checks etc, I've never done any of this as the wife takes over for all this, I just drive,But finding someone at an event to help aint a problem, it is such a different atmosphere to road car events etc.

Andy

 

You doing Jersey then? I'm not, but I have the honour of towing back home all the trailers that are gonna be at the docks as it's to much to put em on the Ferry, and taking em back afterwards.

But, if you were to buy a Fezza XR2, you could do an event for cheap, road tyres, Ł60 fuel, drive it there, don't crash, simple.

 

But if it helps.......

http://www.msauk.org/site/cms/conten...312&rand=41654

Quite alot of the cars on here would be perfect for sprints and hill climb type of events, where there are classes for road cars modified or not

 

Andy

selling the 3dr i wouldn't want to do i would mind in trying a tarmac stage to be honest

how do i go about getting a rally licence and how much does that cost ?

where would i have to go to get this licence ?

how much does it cost to enter a venue ?

what tyres would i need ?

all these things i we would need to know



p.s i did one of those rally days with "everyman rally school" yrs and yrs ago

my mrs done it for me as a birthday present i managed a total 148.5 points out of 150 and came first in the group ..lol.. thats the only bit i have ever done and this was with all different cars form what i rember these were the cars we all had to drive

hillman avenger gravel,

pug 205 gravel

escort mk2 gravel,

sierra 3dr cos tarmac

escort cos rwd ,tarmac

escort cos 4wd gravel,

seirra saff 4wd tarmac


it was a brilliant day and i enjoyed every min of it and i would do it again



marco

 

lol never seen all this while i was posting

 

and ref rallyschool, I did one once, the guy said I was awesome, (as they allways do) I came 2nd from last on my first rally! lol

 

At least you haven't totalled your car :-D

 

Wrong end of the country up to the Scottish Isles again for the Tour of Mull.

Last years pics will give you some of the atmosphere encountered.

http://www.2300club.org/gallery/2004/album0.html

 

good post.

i'd love to get involved, but didn't know how, how much etc.

maybe one day......

 

that statement just doesnt ring true!

 

becasue i'm going circuit racing next year

 

I'd love to do it.

1) not knowing how to start is one.

2) not having a garage or drive is another!

 

The tour of Mull is a bit unique....if you divide your costs by the milage I don't think it works out bad !!!!

Everyone who thinks they can drive should do at least 1 rally....and at best 1 gravel rally....only then can anyone appreciate how well there car can handle.....the reason I spend so much and sacrifice so much is there is no other adrenline rush like sittng on a stage start of the first stage of an event.....whether its the RAC or a single venue.

The best advice I would say is to be a member of a proactive car club....the people there will guide anyone into rallying....the sport is short of competitors, but to go rallying and do it sucessfully as a privateer does require a lot of commitment....time & money....thats why so many people do arrive and drive packages....

As for breaking a car....Tarmac rallying imo has always been harder mechanically on a car but lighter on the shell...gravel is usually less stressful to the car itself but does cause a lot of underbody deterioration....having said that i'll think you'll find some poor examples competing and completeing rallies every week....

If anyone off here wanted to do an event i'd certainly help....

Regards

Ian

 

Ian last year the event cost me the same amount of money - and the car did less than 8 miles on the event.

Fuel pump on stage 1

Was even worse value for money that year

 

That's bad. A mate had that i N-4 Escos - it was snow rally so when fuel pump died while going sideways he also crashed :-(


On last round of national championship SS1 was a massacre - I think 2 blown engines in title contenders cars and some broken suspention, flats and so on. Nobody knows why - pretty easy SS.

 

Andy,

I'd say most people don't do it because it's an absolute fortune!

Two years ago, we ran my brothers car in the 205 challenge series - that's a one make series with a control tyre, single venue (bar one round), nice easy spec list and regs to work from, and it ended up costing 10k plus for the year!

If you want to be remotely competitive, then you need money and plenty of it.

Granted, it was incredible fun, but you need driver skills that don't transfer quite as easily as road to circuit racing, and the costs, for a hobby, are a killer.

Pics:

 

That's interesting what you say. I always tought that rally skills are more aplicable to road then circut racing techniques. Racing is more about perfect line and perfect braking, rallying is more about car control, "road reading", and not being afraid

 

Rallying is the most fun you can have with your clothes on im my opinion, as sibster said it's worth the sacrafices you have to make once you get hooked.

I destroyed a very sorted pug on otterburn, sold absoloutly everything I could find which I could do without and came 5th overall on the next event in an evo , it is that addictive.

never looked on the mull piccies from last year but in pic 28 in zak hancock gallery is the hips of my saph

 

Nope, sorry, I disagree.

Most competent fast road drivers with basic knowledge can get on a race circuit, and drive fairly quickly.

To be fast on gravel requires a lot more basic skill, and a much higher level of car control. Reading the road with pacenotes is very very different from reading the road on a small tree lined B road.

 

Now it came to me that there may be huuuuuge difference because of different traffic in different countries. We still drive vry fast on open road from time to time here. Anyway maybe you're right in a way - there is a lot you can transfer FROM rallying onto the road and not so much from the circut, but from the road.. well if somebody does not practise rally techniques on the road he won't learn tehen just by driving. And basic circut techniques are less technial and more about the line and braking pouint as I said soe skills from the road are kind of enought (altought I can't see anybody learning to shift like racing driver with hill&toe by just driving cars on the road).


I never wrote anything about gravel rallying - that needs some trening. (although some drivers to it naturally)



Not that different. Some best rallydrivers in world come from Finish "blind rallying" where they got no pace notes. Look how little pacenotes has Marcus Gronholm or Toni Gardemaister and how many french or spanich drivers like Loeb or Sainz. English language pacenotes are somewhere in the middle. In FInalnd they have rallies whre you don't have any recce and you get your road book for next leg on the end of last so you don't kow where you're going and the best come from there. Ari Vatannen started like thata and he IS driving GOD. He still Is after 25 years.

 

Im glad im not the only one

I stick to doing the 4x4 off road avents Mind you there not cheap i'ver thats why i manly Marshall

Nothing better then having to recover other peoples motors when they get it Wrong because i know its not costing me a thing

Ps Andy theres a 4x4 avent on the sailsbury planes coming up soon(november) i belive did you want to come along in you L200