Hi Everyone,

Over the past weekend we attended a rally driving school at Maramarua forest. The school is run by Rally Drive NZ Ltd and is a huge amount of fun. The course is run over two days and covers both the co-driver and driver's jobs. We would recommend the school as a must for anyone wishing to take up the sport or anyone who wishes to experience the thrill of driving a rally car.

We thought we'd share some of the experience with you.

Our intrepid rally driver wannabies.

Saturday 26th August 2000
The day started of at 10:00 am. We all assembled at the rally drive headquarters and had a look around. There were several rally cars both inside and outside of the complex to look at.

Our tutors for the day were Dale Perry, Colin Smith and Chris Ramsey.

For most of the morning we covered the documentation requirements and signals, flags and markers used in rallies. It was surprising to see just how the events are run, there are many rules regarding the timing of the events that require very strict enforcement (to keep the event running on time). There is a range of rules regarding departure and arrival time for each car, with some fairly severe penalties if they are broken.

We then moved onto 'road books'. These are books containing the basic course of the rally, mapped out using 'Tulip' diagrams (small drawings of road feature with approximate distances etc - see drawings below). It soon became apparent that the co-driver has a lot more work to do than most people realise. All this - and pace notes had not even been mentioned yet!

After a brief run-down on safety requirements, we were sent out in pairs in the cars to test our newly aquired knowledge. We had to navigate our way along some roads to an area called the 'Sand Pit'. From their we had to swap duties (drivers swapped with co-drivers) and find our way back to the rally school. This was great fun and gave us an idea of what to expect from the cars for sunday. The cars were awesome to drive on the roads, the power was quite spectacular to have under your foot.

There is not much to the inside of these rally cars.

Once we made it back to the rally school (after missing a turn off, ooops), we were taken down to a couple of paddocks. In the paddocks the rally school staff had set up some cones and markers. The object of the idea was to navigate your way through the markers and get back to the start point as fast as you could. This was complicated by the fact that it had been raining heavily the night before so the ground was very muddy. We were given a run in both a front-wheel-drive and a four-wheel-drive car. It soon became obvious that what worked in one car, did not suit the other.

After finishing the runs in the paddock (which was a mud-bog by the time we were done with it) we headed back to the shelter of the class room. Once back there we covered the day's classes and talked briefly about Sunday's events. We were all looking forward to the runs through the forest, but only a few of us knew what to expect (two of the people on the class had driven in rally events before).

Next >>