Drive a Rally car

My friend’s dad has a rally car however she’s now moved out and I don’t know him well enough to turn up on his doorstep and ask him to drive his car. I think it’s going to be one of those ‘gift experience’ things that I will end up buying for myself as opposed to receiving it as a gift.

I will be driving in a rally race from England to Tajikistan in July 2009. Get ready to check this off my list!

I know of a few places that offer instruction in New England, but the cost is very high ($2k-$3k).

My friend and I raced in the Rally America (was SCCA when we started) and the NASA (not the space agency) clubs in the pacific northwest. We started in a small 2 wheel drive and ended up finishing up in a 2.5RS Subaru. If you are looking to get into this, I can only give you this advice:
1) Start by volunteering. There is a rally race close by. Really. Even in the U.S. Google is your friend, as is http://specialstage.com
2) Co-drive, that is, be the navigator. I only drove a couple times and had one of the best seats in entire rally most days by riding shotgun.
3) Go rally-cross. No safety equipment needed other than a helmet (most clubs will provide one) and a seat belt. You could even use your daily driver.
4) Buy (or better yet, rent, a cheap-o, already built, first car. Small, front wheel drive, cheap (as long as it’ll pass technical inspection). You won’t kill yourself, probably, at the speeds these cars will give you. Learn to drive fast, before actually driving fast.

The rally community I was (and am) involved in were great. Top notch competitors and when the going got tough, everyone bands together.

According to our local rally enthusiasts, entry-level budget for 1600cc class rally is about 66000 USD per year.
30000 USD you will spend on a car. Its aproximate amount of money you’ll need to purshase and prepare Honda Civic (or whaterver you want).
About 6000 USD you’ll spend on each race, including spare parts, tyres, transportation and other spenditures. In our regional amateur rally cup we have 6 races per year. So this is another 36000 USD.

I think, that rally is the most difficult type of racing. Harder, than F1, circut and of course dragracing. It’s a challenge, and I’d like to do it some day.

/have the date book, 25th November. Very excited.

Joined the California Rally Series and am competing in the street stock rally cross class this year in my 2004 STi. Not a fully prepped rally car, but close enough to have me saying I want more.

Having loads of fun and, aside from numerous scrapes and rock chips, nothing on the car has failed after 5 races.

well ive now navigated, and driven my own few laps around mallala, i guess my goal is to properly compete in a rally.

but absolutly in the plan, my other half will drive & i’ll nav, (he he!) really love motorsport, (especially sprint cars), but rally seems to be the most achievable & the most fun. also not too expensive to get into. we dont want to be competitive, just the club scene, and hopefully the TARGA one day. I reckon 10 – 15 yrs before we will do this. Cant wait already! we reckon we could do it cheeply for NZ$20,000, so its not in the near future at all. But what a fab hobbie to have