Hi all,
In Europe (not speaking for the UK for now) there are many events that are geared towards rallying classic cars.
Most of these events limit entry to cars built before a particular year (e.g.
Mille Miglia is only eligible for cars that ran in the original clssic Mille Miglia, i.e. from 1927 to 1957). The modifications allowed to the car must be period... i.e. fog lights or long range driving lamps must have been available in that period too.
In order to certify that the car is original, it needs a FIVA (
Fédération Internationale Véhicules Anciens) Identity Card. For my entry in the Wintertrial, I needed to get my car verified and scrutineered. The things that your car should comply with, and application forms can be found on
here. Normally local, national autoclubs handle the inspection and application process in a particular country.
Some people go quite a long way in preparing their rally car. They add roll-bars, special enlarged and foam filled fuel tanks, automatic fire extinguishers, electrical cut-outs, four point belts, matt-black paint on the bonnet/hood, and so on. For really strenuous rally events that is quite useful, also if you intend to seriously participate in multiple events per year. However, most of these changes are pretty final: it becomes hard to return the car to its original form.
At any rate, even if you do not intend to rally that frequently, you need to add things to be able to perform in a rally:
- fire extinguisher
- driving or fog lamps
- navigation lights in the car
- halda or other mechanical precision odometer
Generally however I found that any modifications you make to the car should improve its reliability rather than its performance. Lasting the 5 day, strenuous driving event is more important than finishing the first and second day 1st and dropping out on the 3rd day. Things to consider, depending on when the event is run are winter tires, stiffened suspension, reliable electricals, those sort of things.
The events in Europe for classic cars typically are a combination of navigation (where the navigator is taxed with sometimes fiendishly difficult puzzles, a logical mind really helps), time-speed-distance regularity sections (where the driver and the navigator have to work together with precision odometer, and stopwatches to drive a section at an exact series of speeds), special stages (where, e.g. on a cleared parking lot a parcours has to be followed in the shortest possible time). The roads are not closed off, there is other traffic, but they are typically quiet, narrow and mountainous. Achieving the average speed requires drivers to push on quite a lot where possible.
Events typically have two or three classes. Trial class is for those that have some serious experience in rallying. They typically involve night sections, and sometimes higher average speeds (e.g. 35 km/h on a regularity, and 50km/h overall). Club class is better suited when you join in for the first time, and the first years thereafter. Usually no night sections (so you can retire to the bar earlier) and sometimes lower average speeds (45 km/h) although that was not the case on the winter trial.
With regard to the kind of navigation you do, that depends on the event. The long distance rallies use road books with a variety of instructions (e.g. tulips diagrams or intersection instructions, have a look at an article on my own
web-siteon this. If there is interest, I can post some articles on regularities, and on other navigational puzzles that get given.
There is a whole range of rallies to choose from in Europe. Well known organisers/rallies are:
Peter
Check out
http://bali.esweb.nl for photographs of classic car events and my 1970 280 SL
