Climbing into a rally-prepped MkII Escort RS2000 would, I imagine, be an intimidating experience at the best of times. Particularly so when sitting at the start of the kind of forest stage where the car's hero status was earned. But, having ventured to mid-Wales to attend a launch for the console version of Codemasters' DiRT Rally game, the click of the harness locking into place and crackle of the helmet's intercom connecting do a good job of putting excitement ahead of nerves.
Time to fulfil a childhood dream.
Forest Experience
(formerly Higgins) Rally School in Carno is divided into two halves. The morning providing the opportunity to drive a real life rally car on a real life rally stage before sampling the game and, hopefully, appreciating the realism it relays to the player. Full review of the game in due course. Reality first though.
Upon arrival we're greeted by the school's new owner, reigning Citroen C2 Rally Champion Ross Leach. Saying that his C2 sits dejectedly at the back of the workshop following a roll in the opening event of the year. Seeing the car, roof squashed and windscreen caved-in, is an uneasy reminder of the consequences mistakes can have here.
We're driven through ever-thickening fog, along a narrow track which winds up the side of the valley. Eventually arriving at a clearing in the middle of a dense pine forest, two MkII Escort RS2000s sit waiting for us. Even with some creative licence, the game already has quite a way to go to match this. After the briefest of diagram-based lessons - which essentially boils down to "brake firm then hard into the corners, accelerate firm then hard out of them" - it's straight into the car.
The throw between the Escort's gears is incredibly short and catches me out instantly. I struggle to get it into second - it's already gone in my instructor, Graham, tells me. After taking a few laps of the clearing, familiarising myself with the surface, gearing and low steering ratio, we head out onto the stage proper. The loose gravel, riddled with rocks and potholes is unlike anything I've experienced, (except maybe the A23) but the Escort's tyres find grip everywhere. The confidence to brake harder into corners, getting more weight over the front wheels to dig into the mud, is difficult to find at first with walls of pine trees only a few feet away. But the Escort's stability allows it to be discovered quickly. Graham urges me onward and the confidence the car instills to keep pushing makes it an easy command to obey.
A couple of runs later and the RS2000 already seems completely familiar, the gearbox is seamless, the handling nimble and balanced with heaps of feedback through the wheel. They say never meet your heroes but the Escort is sensational, exactly as I imagined as a boy, pretending to be Ari Vatanen throwing his around the corners of the imaginary circuit in my grandparents' garden.
I hop out and swap seats with Graham. The Escort felt great when I was driving, but it's in a whole different league now. Flying around corners at speeds I wouldn't have dared, he knows both the car and the stage like the back of his hand and is masterful at showing them off. I also take a lap of the stage with Ross in his rear-wheel drive Impreza STI. This is all of the same but so much more. More power, more speed, more sideways. It's incredible but also feels strangely disconnected, as though we're simply gliding over the surface, and only serves to reaffirm how special the Escort really is.
The morning passes all too quickly and it's time to head back down to the school to see how the game compares. The staff at The Forest Experience tell me when people only come for a half-day session they always come back for more. I can see why. There aren't many rally schools or experience days left running Escorts now, let alone ones which let you drive them on an authentic rally stage. They're just too valuable an investment to risk in the hands of novices. It's a shame that fewer and fewer people will get the chance to experience the cars, stripped out, paint chipped and mud splattered, as they were meant to be. But if you ever get the chance, there really is nothing else quite like it.