Rally Civic

THE rally bug has bitten me. I guess it's a common species, attracted to bored engineers and especially harmful if said engineers congregate in small groups. [I have also heard reports that the humid warmth of machine shops also provide ample breeding conditions] So I guess it is no surprise that I find myself frantically trying to track down set of snow tires for this weekends road rally.

The Finger Lakes Region of the SCCA holds winter road rallys through these dreary months every two or three weeks from December to March. You would think that navigating a 200 mile secret-route through central NY wouldn't be too much fun. [Hell, why don't I just drive home for the weekend instead?] But, this isn't some day-dreamy trip down I90. The roads used are mostly limited use, unpaved back roads through the lake-effect prone snowbelt of western New York's southern tier. Did I mention it's at night? Oh yeah, that too.

The road rallys are Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) format. TSD is like a time trial, except that a driver doesn't try to get the lowest time, they try to match the goal time as close as possible, with every second that a car deviates from the goal counting as points. The car with the lowest points wins. Those ideal 'goals' are set by the rallymaster, and vary according to the speed class a driver is in (36,40,45 mph at this one). At this rally, I am a novice [n00b!1] and therefore in the 36 mph group. Those speeds don't sound like much, but those are average speeds, as soon as a driver misses a turn or gets lost...[you gotta make up the time somehow!]

But luckily, the driver isn't alone in this mess. Each car consists of a driver and a navigator. The two work as a team, with the driver frantically trying to stay on the road, watching for road signs and landmarks while the navigator reads off directions that resemble bad MS paint drawings and furiously calculates split-times, speeds and distances to make sure the car will arrive at the intended location on time.

And that's about all I know about format. There is all sorts of equipment that teams bring with them to more accurately determine their location such as rally computers and laptops with excel spreadsheets. But I don't have time for that [I build racecars instead]. I'll be relying on a trusty Ti-89 and a pencil. That's the cool thing about these rallys, you only need a car and some common safety equipment to compete. Most of the equipment I'm stealing from friends cars- towropes, DOT triangle, etc.

As far as getting the civic ready to drive, I just focused on items that will benefit me in the long run. I'm picking up a set of used snows on Friday and getting them mounted up. I rewired my fog lights, removing all safety items and relays, to get them to operate again. I also replaced my head light bulbs, with a high octane pair of Osram bulbs, straight off the boat from Germany. The picture is really only good for cosmetic comparison, but the performance is unbelievable! More info on these beasts over at honda-tech. I secured a co-driver, too. A fellow ME, so the math part shouldn't be a problem. He even has one road rally navigation under his belt, though that was in an AWD Legacy, the civic may prove to be a sub par vehicle for this....

Well, I guess that about sums it up. The rally starts at 5pm this Saturday and will last about 5 hours, if I don't get stuck [or broadside a stationary object]. I am hoping for snow, though only in that it's arrival will smoothen out the washboard roads around here. I promise to leave an update after the rally so if you don't hear from me, keep an eye out for a white civic stuck in a snowbank!

_ttk3

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