2023 UK Targa/Road Rallying Thread

2023 UK Targa/Road Rallying Thread

Author
Discussion

velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Saturday 28th October 2023
quotequote all
Oops, not sure if that’s better or worse than our performance last night on the De Lacy 12 Car.
Was going OK until the clutch cable On the Corsa went, After the first half. Had to bump the car off in gear and limp back to the start venue to get my car.
Driver drove it forty miles home clutchless.

This one was being run almost entirely on Rallyapp and it all seemed to be working well, a PC which we seemed to drive through, and an apparently missing code board, unless it was a glitch?
I’m liking the system for 12 cars, but miss the marshal interaction.

thepawbroon

Original Poster:

1,183 posts

190 months

Wednesday 15th November 2023
quotequote all
velocemitch said:
This one was being run almost entirely on Rallyapp and it all seemed to be working well, a PC which we seemed to drive through, and an apparently missing code board, unless it was a glitch?
I’m liking the system for 12 cars, but miss the marshal interaction.
I have still not done an event on RallyApp - I would like to, but not many down here use it. I think many folk were put off by early teething troubles, and in general we don't suffer a lack of marshals on the 12 Cars.....

I'm back out this Friday on the Sevenoaks & DMC 12 Car (The Chin Memorial) - some bodge repairs, new arch trim and mirror, better spot lamp bulbs and tonight I'll remove the sump guards and clear out the mud!

PaulV

312 posts

232 months

Thursday 16th November 2023
quotequote all
Rally App can work well, it just needs to be set up correctly.

I have done a fair few now, including a 120+ mile 12-Car, generally with few problems at all.

One thing to try with it is to have the phone located towards the driver as they will be the ones dealing with most of the alerts and notifications.


thepawbroon

Original Poster:

1,183 posts

190 months

Friday 17th November 2023
quotequote all
thepawbroon said:
I have still not done an event on RallyApp - I would like to, but not many down here use it. I think many folk were put off by early teething troubles, and in general we don't suffer a lack of marshals on the 12 Cars.....

I'm back out this Friday on the Sevenoaks & DMC 12 Car (The Chin Memorial) - some bodge repairs, new arch trim and mirror, better spot lamp bulbs and tonight I'll remove the sump guards and clear out the mud!
before....



during...



After!


thepawbroon

Original Poster:

1,183 posts

190 months

Saturday 18th November 2023
quotequote all
A really enjoyable night in the lanes last night, I took a steady approach to driving but luckily Chas was on good form on the maps. We had a couple of wrong slots which cost us time, but we got all the codes. Happy with 3rd place in pretty decent company.


velocemitch

3,840 posts

226 months

Sunday 19th November 2023
quotequote all
Just got home from the John Bloxham Memorial Rally...... bloody AWESOME event!

As some will know John was a multiple Motoring News Rally champion, back in the days when it was THE rally championship, probably eclipsing the BRC. John’s son Nick ( one of the countries top Navs) had put this on with Wolverhampton Motor Club, as the last round of the HRCR Clubmans Historic championship.

I think it was fair to say it was a fitting tribute, certainly the fastest Historic event I’ve done, the Lanes in the area are incredibly complex, extremely narrow and very very rough! More than half was run in the dark, with average speeds which were very difficult to meet, plus a time control section, which was basically a mini road rally in the middle. That’s not even to mention the tests, which were fast and very very sloppy! The last regularity alone was 45 miles, at 30 mph no breaks, 8 controls, four passage checks and something like 80 junctions. That when you work it out is on average a junction nearly every minute! Both the drivers and the navigators had their work cut out with that.

I was driving in the Alfa with an ex Motoring news Navigator ( John Youd ) and we had a pretty good run, finishing 18th, despite a bad start and a missed Control ( 5 minutes).

The Car certainly got a work out!

Best Single day event I think I’ve ever done.

Penny Whistle

5,783 posts

176 months

Tuesday 28th November 2023
quotequote all
Le Jog starts this coming Saturday. Cold weather forecast. See https://www.hero-era.com/rallies/2023/12/lejog

HERO said:
The hardest endurance rally in Europe, perhaps the world. Taking place in the depths of the British winter, a journey across the British Isles, from tip to top, and a journey into one’s own mind as competitors battle with cold, rain, snow, the dark, reliability and, the biggest enemy, fatigue.

thepawbroon

Original Poster:

1,183 posts

190 months

Saturday 2nd December 2023
quotequote all
Last night I put the outside Christmas lights up, and went down the other side of Godstone for around 4 of the Weald MC 12 Car Series. This one was organised by Southern Car Club, which some of you may remember as the Mazda / Sunseeker Winter Rally team.

It was a very cold night, lots of ice and frost around. In fact at one junction, there was so much ice that the police were parked up and warning us.

The club had attracted lots of marshals, which was brilliant. That meant manned passage controls vastly outnumbered the code boards. With a busy route of 10 sections over 50 miles, it was always going to be hard keeping on time.

As seems to be usual now, my navigator Chas had a good night and we got all the route. But for some reason we missed a code - I even recorded the route on Strava so I know we went the right way, but must have just driven past it. In the end it wouldn't have changed our position, and we finished 2nd overall and 1st Experts.


Penny Whistle

5,783 posts

176 months

Friday 8th December 2023
quotequote all
Penny Whistle said:
Le Jog starts this coming Saturday. Cold weather forecast. See https://www.hero-era.com/rallies/2023/12/lejog

HERO said:
The hardest endurance rally in Europe, perhaps the world. Taking place in the depths of the British winter, a journey across the British Isles, from tip to top, and a journey into one’s own mind as competitors battle with cold, rain, snow, the dark, reliability and, the biggest enemy, fatigue.
Blue skies for both the start and end of LE JoG - very unusual, made all the more noticeable by the awful weather in between ! A bit of snow on Dartmoor, lots in Wales and then the whole of northern Scotland seemed to be covered in sheet ice. What fun.

thepawbroon

Original Poster:

1,183 posts

190 months

Saturday 9th December 2023
quotequote all
A very rare outing on the maps for me tonight, navigating my pal Graham round the last part of his 60thbirthday "weekend" on Farnborough District Motor Club's excellent Gwyn Jones Memorial 12 Car Rally.

It's been 2.5 years since I last did any plotting, and my rustiness, failing eyesight and carsickness showed - but so did experience - we cut and run one section to avoid OTL so got a finish where others didn't.

6th overall / 3rd in the Expert class was good, and the roads were outstanding.

Well done to GB for getting us round and thank you to the organisers and marshals for letting us play in the mud. Wonder if I can squeeze in one more rally next weekend?


Ranger 6

7,152 posts

255 months

Saturday 9th December 2023
quotequote all
We did an interesting one last weekend. A BAMA event - Magnum Spirit.

A night navigation event that used BOATs around and on Salisbury Plain, so a 4x4 was necessary.

My son was navigating for me and as his first event, and my second (for over 30 years) we were in the beginners class.

With an excellent attention to detail especially with approaches he got us round to first in class and second overall. Really pleased and proud of him and his ‘driver management’ skills. We only dropped 10 points which was good on a challenging route. A clever use of byways for some controls to get the approach right meant even some of the experienced navs got caught out.

A great event and will be back next year. Oh yes, did I mention that we were the only non Land Rover? wink

thepawbroon

Original Poster:

1,183 posts

190 months

Saturday 9th December 2023
quotequote all
That sounds good Ranger6, are these events open to non-BAMA and non-service people?

I've always wanted to compete on the Plain, now that there's no stage rallies there.

And what 4x4 did you use?

Ranger 6

7,152 posts

255 months

Saturday 9th December 2023
quotequote all
Open to invited clubs so Craven was included. A great atmosphere and not all military entries.

I did it in the X3. Will let you know about the next one.

thepawbroon

Original Poster:

1,183 posts

190 months

Saturday 9th December 2023
quotequote all
Ranger 6 said:
Open to invited clubs so Craven was included. A great atmosphere and not all military entries.

I did it in the X3. Will let you know about the next one.
Magic thanks, do you think a CR-V would cope?

alanwak

7 posts

74 months

Saturday 9th December 2023
quotequote all
For those wishing to learn more about RallyAppLive, there's a call next Monday (11th December) at 19:00 for new and experienced users.

You can register at:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0sdO-gq...

To gain experience of using the app, there are 19 RallyAppLive Test Routes (untimed) set up across the Country.

You can use these routes with the app and experience the different types of Controls.

There are routes in the Cotswolds, Swansea, Snowdon, Exeter, Weston-Super-Mare, Southsea, Fishguard, Forest of Dean, Durham, Peak District, Crawley, Yorkshire Dales, Bradford, Telford, Rugby, Brecon Beacons, Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.

More can be added, just ask.

We'll be discussing these routes on Monday and how to access them.

We'll also have a stand at the HRCR Show at Gaydon in January if you'd like to chat.

Edited by alanwak on Saturday 9th December 16:40


Edited by alanwak on Saturday 9th December 17:03


Edited by alanwak on Saturday 9th December 17:06

Ranger 6

7,152 posts

255 months

Saturday 9th December 2023
quotequote all
thepawbroon said:
Magic thanks, do you think a CR-V would cope?
Don't know TBH - there was a Freelander as well as us and I have to say a 'proper' set of Grabber ATs really made the difference. The route was 35/40% off road and 95% of the byways were just tracks. The plain tracks were the established gravel roads, nothing too extreme as it was a test of navigation, not off-road ability.

They did have a recovery truck (Shogun) with a winch ready to pull anyone out, but he (Do you know Phil?) was quiet most of the night.

thepawbroon

Original Poster:

1,183 posts

190 months

Sunday 10th December 2023
quotequote all
As a quick aside, I swapped seats for Farnborough & DMC’s Gwyn Jones Memorial 12 Car in early December, with Graham Brunton driving my Mini. A little treat for his big birthday.


It’s been 2½ years since I last navigated and solved cryptic Expert instructions, and my eyesight and motion nausea have got a little worse since. As a result, it took me some time to get in the groove and we were nearly OTL by TC3.


We cut and run one section to get some breathing space, then got our heads around the task a little more. We managed to compete the rest of the route no problems, cleaning the last 2 or 3 sections and really enjoying the challenging, flooded, mud-strewn roads around the A32.



I think we were 6th overall, ahead of 3 or 4 crews who went OTL, so our strategy paid off. I’m not sure how far off the next position we were, but that didn’t really matter – we both had a ball.


As an established event, it’s no surprise to see it well-supported and well-organised. Plenty of tricky roads, LWRNAMs and small lakes to negotiate.



A little sample of the plot & bash nav - I do love a herringbone!