Any rally events?

[240Kyle]

Considering building a rally car and need to know of any tracks in the area or organizations. Been on the scca website and nothing in the tampa area that i can find.

Any help appreciated

thanks
~Kyle

[treekiller]

There are no "Tracks" exactly, since the spirit of rally is getting from one point to another as fast as possable. or in like the old days it's an endurance challange.

rally rebels used to have a decent website (down now) and SCCA is running a rallycross at Homestead this weekend.

#1 point of advice, don't build a rally car, buy a rally car. I'd start out by trying some of the harder TSD rallies to see if your cut out for it. and you don't need a car. then rallycross, then rally sprints (this is where you need to have a car)

A good used VW Golf rally car can be had for a couple thousand dollars. way less then the sum of it's parts. unless your a professional fabricator there is no way a privateer can compete with the value that is a good used rally car. I personally spent well in excess of $20,000 and was not even close to having a car I could compete in.

If you do well in the VW (or other cheap rally car) then go ahead and build a car, (motto: you need a car while your building a car) and untill you're able to drive a 100hp car at the limit on dirt putting yourself in a 400hp car is just asking for a intamate knowledge of body work or worse swapping out all your equimpment into a new shell.

some people have had luck in converting old roadrace cars to rally cars, but I highly suggest against this, the saftey regulations for rally are much more strigent, and the suspension alone on a rally car can be in excess of a few thousand dollars. you can allways roadrace a rally car but not vice-versa.

From personal experence prepairing a rallycar is a huge and monumential task. and most times ends up in a car that is too modified to be a decent street car and not prepaired enough to compete, or even legally get you into a club level event. and worst a unfinished project sold for pennies on the dollar.

most importantly, go get the seat time, get the saftey equipment, helmet and fire suit. then you can Co-drive for someone. knowing what the navagator goes through is what makes a great rally driver. I'm a control freak this is the hardest thing for me to do, get yourself in those circles. and before you know it you'll know everything there is to know, a good navagator will make a GREAT driver. A good driver makes an awful navagator.

The important thing is when you allign yourself with a very cool headed navagator things will fall into place. I've seen 100hp cars finish in the top 3 in club level rallies so there is so much driver involvement.

like I said go do it, my rally experence makes me a VERY fast road course driver. and I know my car control is worlds beyond other drivers of my racing level. I might not be as polished but when it comes to driving near on and over the edge, I'm perfectly comfortable. and a word of wisdom sweedish flicking the hairpin at Sebring is highly shunned by the corner worker.

[Loren]

FYI, Jeff comes from the frozen North. They do rally up there. I don't think you're going to find a lot of rally action in Florida. There's a hint of rallycross going on here and there, but that's about it.

[treekiller]

If you want I can Revive the Treekiller rally. although you must adhere to the strict rules.

1. First Rule of treekiller rally,There is no Treekiller Rally
2. Second Rule of Treekiller rally, THERE IS NO TREEKILLER RALLY
2. Each "team" consists of 2 people, one of which must attempt to drive
3. To score a position you must finish
4. closest to Computed average speed is the winner.
5. Classes; yup we have one

[240Kyle]

im not looking to get into anything serious, Im a college student with a $60 volvo 240 and lots of spare parts and time,

Me and a friend want to get into racing legally and not in a straight line.

Autocross is one thing we are also getting into but we really are hoping to get into rally racing.

Yea every response i get for asking about rally racing is. "Go North and more west"

I wonder how hard it would be to kick start a rally racing project down here.

Thanks
~Kyle

Also any inks to as what HAS to be done to make a car rally legal?

[Loren]

Pick a sanctioning body that does rally events. Find their rules. Shouldn't be hard to figure out what the safety requirements are. But, as Jeff said, doing all of that prep is going to be expensive.

For your budget, I'd suggest sticking with autocross and seek out the rallycross events in the area as much as possible. You might actually consider doing the occasional <gasp> dirt oval track race. The small round tracks are much less finicky about safety requirements (though they do have some), and even less finicky about driver experience. Might be fun to go up against some good-ol' boys in a Volvo!

[RoadRacer]

Ivor at TAP runs a rally school in Stark. I use to take my focus up there in 2000 and 2001 and rally and rallycross. They just build a 2.2 mile road course. Ivor Wigham's European Rally School of Florida Welcomes You! (http://www.gorally.com)

[RoadRacer]

ha, loren I though about buying a kart and running some dirt track races at dirt devils up in Pasco.

[Loren]

Wow, I had no idea there was a rally school up in N. Florida. Cool!