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[Noahs944]

You couldn’t have convinced me driving dirt roads at night was a good idea. Especially when the roads narrow atop mountainous cliffs hundreds of feet up from what is your certain death should you suffer from a punctured tire or dislodge your car’s tie rod end at the wrong place, the wrong time. Plus the idea seems worse when you include sheer cliffs with falling rock hazards overhead.

Now one must also consider the other dangers of driving in the wilderness… regardless of time of day; For example in this neck of the woods (Western Canada) there are cattle, wild horses, deer and bear. A collision with any one of these will render your car inoperable.

And I suppose it’s only practical to prepare as best you can for mechanical breakdowns, of which there are many. Perhaps even more in a classic or vintage car, due to age, but let’s face it all cars break down.

Enter the craziest idea in the world: Night Rally.

Over the last year I have been getting exposed to the local rally world. It’s a practical alternative to track driving a sports car because you can do it all year long. You can do it in any car with decent tires, making it cheap to get involved in.

[Noahs944]

The Loop Rally is a 650 km drive where the navigator and driver work tightly as a team to control the speed and accuracy of the car. Starting from the foothills of Alberta and into the mountains of British Columbia via the back roads.

September 24th was my first time attending & it was also a first for my buddy Jodie who volunteered to be navigator. We did what any practical team would do and hopped in a 1988 four cylinder Porsche and with little training we joined the others in the parking lot.

After our briefing and vehicle inspections, away we went, following the key instructions in the logbook.

Moments later the sun lowered itself beneath the horizon and all that was left were stars in the sky. Of course we can’t see the stars in the sky because we are in a snarly, delicious, wedge-shaped land-rocket with newly mounted rally lights and winter tires, and are too busy trying to figure out how to read the log book... and basically how not to get lost!

Poor Jodie jumped into this without any previous instruction, and much of that is my fault.

Like others I am sure, Jodie was sleep deprived. He had to rush over to my place straight from work and we didn’t have a lot of time to prepare. But essentially the lack of prep resulted in low score marks for our team on this event, but it didn’t discount any of the fun, the thrills, the adventure & the excitement.

[Noahs944]

Truly the course layout was SUPERBE. I absolutely loved the flowy trails, the mix of tarmac and dirt & gravel. The triple caution exposure of the cliffs and the hairpin turns, and not knowing if cars or people or large rocks are waiting for your demise - all factors in to a really exciting time!

Before attending this rally I didn’t get the appeal. WHY? Why needlessly exposure yourself to additional dangers & really, isn’t it better driving when you can see?

What I realized is with very good lights you can see just fine and what you can’t see, like I say adds to the mystery, the excitement. Additionally there is the bonus of far less people on the roads at 3 in the morning and that opens up the gates for heavier use of the gas pedal.

Thank you to the volunteers & organizers and sponsor of this event.

The Loop Rally is a blast!

[morghen]

Thanks for sharing.
_________________
Supercharger and EFI kits
https://www.the924.com

[Kenodog]

So Alberta hasn't installed stupid speed cameras on the back roads yet ?




Me
_________________
1979 Euro 931, Olive
1981 931, Sabine
1991 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4, Ricky
1996 Ford E-350 ex-FedEx Van
2014 Mazda CX-5 (Kinderwagon)
2019 KTM 790 Adventure
2024 KLX300
2024 KLX140

[Rasta Monsta]

TSD rallies aren't TOP speed contests, they're ACCURATE speed contests (i.e., get from Point A to Point B in X minutes).
_________________
Toofah King Bad

• WeiBe (1987 924S 2.5t) - 931 S3

[Kenodog]

[Noahs944]

I have a problem with the rear suspension bottoming out on the 944 when I hit bumps hard (I'm not jumping, but when I come in hot to a rough section, sometimes the rear suspension goes bang).
Currently running factory ride height but with a full tank of gas and 2 spares & lots of tools & junk.
I try to go minimal, but on a TSD, there's still considerable stuff to bring.
I thought it was the rear sway bar limiting travel, so I took it off.
The torsion bar is factory & the shocks are new (this year) Sachs.

-might you or someone else have a suggestion? I thought about raising the ass end a notch. Or perhaps the front & rear like Van did on his red chump car for rally.
*a nice BMW hit it's oil pan this weekend & dripped oil out & it was an expensive tow bill home, so this makes some good sense* but it's obviously a compromise for street/track.

I thought about swapping torsion bars to something stiffer. I thought about doubling up on shocks. I thought about replacing the rear shocks with 150 lb/inch coil overs to support the torsion bars but am worried that the coil overs might not have the necessary travel.

The other thing, though a minor thing... and I'm not really sure how much I can do to deal with this is (forgive me if I am not using the correct term): Torque Steer.

It was really scary with 25 year old shocks, and I was hoping it would improve with the lsd trans but it still exists.

If you watch 3:29 of this video with the lancia coming out of a corner, you can see the driver countering the torque steer. Is this something that will always exist or will stiffer rear springs help? Or does someone have a suggestion? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO3FQCFG1W0

[morghen]

New this year ca be completely shot.
Put the sway bar back in and get some stiffer or adjustable shocks.
_________________
Supercharger and EFI kits
https://www.the924.com

[Power Tryp]

[Kenodog]

Well they should be right here, that's where all the nice cars are.

And FYI I wouldn't mind taking The Van on a rally but that would be grossly unfair to the competition, and I am a man who believes in the rule of 'fair play'.

Also, a good client of ours just bought a membership here to the Vancouver Island Motorsports Circuit and I am saving myself for a ride in his GT4...

http://islandmotorsportcircuit.com/



Me
_________________
1979 Euro 931, Olive
1981 931, Sabine
1991 Ford Ranger XLT 4x4, Ricky
1996 Ford E-350 ex-FedEx Van
2014 Mazda CX-5 (Kinderwagon)
2019 KTM 790 Adventure
2024 KLX300
2024 KLX140

[Noahs944]

[QUOTE=Per vers;13642144]when drive on gravel/dirt. You have to "set up" the car before the corner.
You don't nessary need to use "Scandinavian flick". Just turn into the corner a little bit earlier, to change the balance of the car. It will make the "ready" for the corner.

The technique is easy to train on a open space. Doing figures of 8.

Regards Per[/QUOTE]

Per,

I made your comments my "theme" for the day.

The truth is I reached a plateau in my driving & then got rusty from inactivity. & I just know there is so much MORE skill I can acquire if I work on it. Then I feel "guilty" for practicing in public spaces & scared to crash, particularly into other people.

So there was this barrier... mental barrier I just had to brake through. And today I did it!

Essential for me it was early turn in with left foot braking before the turn it. Until today I hadn't really been using the left foot to load the front end in a straight line and then turn with the brakes on (but still at around 4000 rpm on the gas pedal). I REALLY felt the car pivot & align to the direction I wanted to go...

My confidence behind the wheel just got a BOOST. Thanks for the "pep talk" brother.

[Noahs944]

Last year when I watched it, it confused the hell out of me...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgg5WWfMWzM

But today, I realized the instructor is showing about 6 different variations of LFB, most of which I do (which about 12-15 hours of "dirt time" with left foot braking), of course he's combining with clutchless shifting:

So, he calls what I was experiencing yesturday "Trailbrake into Pendulum Turn". Its so fun & seems to be more efficient than the skani flick for turn that are greater then 90 degrees. I seem to scrub off too much speed with the flick (something I've complained about... ) but this technique keeps the momentum going! WOOHOO!