Just thought I'd put a post out to see if anyone else out there does navigational road rallies, as I have discussed them with a few other scooby owners, and everyone seems to be in the dark about them(which is sort of ideal, as they are generally held at night). For those that don't know, a navigational road rally is a rally held in a road legal motor vehicle, which range from a Fiat Cinquecento, right up to Discos, a few Impreza's and all sorts in between. The events are usually held by local district motor clubs, and are usually held on Saturday nights in Autumn and Spring (it gets darker earlier in the evening, but weather conditions aren't so bad as to hinder the running of the rally), usually between 7pm and midnight. The official jist, is that, you have a starting point, and then from that point on, you have to get to the next checkpoint via clues given at the last point, each section being a stage, as in competition rallies (the basics of the timing are very similar in both styles of rallying, therefore, it is an excellent training ground to learn basic navigating skills for stage rallying). You are given a set time between each checkpoint for the stages, which is calculated at approx 30mph (if you haven't already clicked out of this post already, and have just seen 30mph, please bear with me as it's about to get interesting). Let me take for instance, you have a 7 mile section (an average length,as you have generally have anywhere between 12-20 stages, with a total length of approx 100 miles), so you are allowed 14/15 minutes to complete this. Now take into account that the navigator has to work out the clue (say at least 3 mins) so you now have 11/12 mins to do 7 miles, and he is trying to read the OS map you need for the event while you drive down the road (Oh, i forgot to mention, these generally take place on B roads, unclassified roads, and when you're lucky, a little bit of A road to help you make up time), but you miss the turn for the unclassified road, and travel another mile down the road, have to turn back, and head in the right direction. So now you have added another 2 miles to your travelling distance and lost time. Are you starting to understand yet, you get to hoon about back roads, having an absolute riot with your mate, trying to average 60/70/80/-- miles an hour to get to the next point. Oops, and there only is one correct route, with cleverly placed marker boards with letters on them that you note so the organisers can tell you went the right way. You get penalised for being early, being late and missing code boards, and there are rules to get you excluded, but you have to be an idiot to manage that. There are only small tacky trophies, you'll use close to a tank of petrol, and it costs around £30-£40 to enter, but it's an absolute scream. Incidentally, the guy in the Fiat usually wins, he's be doing it for years, gets harder clues than you but still manages to clean every stage, but where's the fun in doing it at sensible speeds. Anyone up for a go?
Craig
