Car Rally 101

CAR RALLY 101 BY Roadwise Motoring Foundation Presented by

VIP ISADA

Rallying is a form of motor competition that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built roadlegal cars.

Rallying is distinguished by a point-topoint format in which participants and their co-drivers drive between control -Checkpoints (stages), leaving at regular intervals from one or more start points.

Rallies may be won by pure speed within the stages or alternatively by driving a predetermined time within the stages.

Rallying: A Look At The Past Pre-war era The term "rally", as a branch of motorsport, dates from the first Monte Carlo Rally of January 1907.

Prizes were awarded to the vehicles by a jury based on the reports of the observers who rode in each car;

The joint winners were Panhard et Levassor and Peugeot.

The first of these great races was the Paris Bordeaux-Paris Rally of June 1895, won by Emile Levassor in a Panhard-et-Levassor.

His time for the 1,178 km (732 mile) course, running virtually without a break, was 48 hours and 48 minutes, an average speed of 24 km/h (15 mph).

May 1900, the Automobile Club of Great Britain (RAC) organized the Thousand Mile Trial, a 15-day event linking Britain's major cities. Its objective is to promote the automobile as a a new form of transport.

• In 1907, two ultra long distance rallies took place, the Peking-Paris and the New York-Paris which went via Japan and Siberia.

• Each event attracted only a handful of competitors, but in both cases the winners exhibited characteristics modern rally drivers would recognize:

They are: • meticulous in preparing their car, • excellent mechanical skill, • determined and firm, • a certain single-minded ruthlessness • resourceful

• In 1931, the first Ulster Motor Rally (Ireland) was run from multiple starting points. After several years in this format, it transitioned into the 1,000-mile (1,600 km) Circuit of Ireland Rally.

• In Italy, Benito Mussolini's government encouraged motor sport of all kinds and facilitated road racing, so the sport quickly restarted after World War I.

• In 1927 the Millie Miglia was founded, run over a 1,000 mile (1,600 km) loop of highways from Brescia to Rome and back. It continued in this form until 1938.

• The Mille Miglia continued until a serious accident in 1957 caused it to be banned.

• In the 1950s Rallying became very popular in Sweden and Finland, thanks to their invention of the "specialsträcka" (Swedish) or "erikoiskoe" (Finnish), or special stage:

• shorter sections of route (kilometers) • usually on minor or private roads • predominantly gravel in these countries • away from habitation and traffic, • Each competitor is separately timed.

• These provided the solution to the conflict inherent to rallying and to the notion of driving as fast as possible on ordinary roads.

• The idea spread to other countries, although more slowly to the most demanding events such as the Safari Rally.

• The introduction of the special stage brought rallying effectively into the modern era.

• It placed a premium on fast driving, and enabled smaller events to spring up in Britain, France, Scandinavia, Finland, Belgium and in other countries.

• The increasing costs of organizing events and of competing as well as safety concerns change the rally formats: * shorter rallies, * shorter stages and * the elimination of nighttime running.

RALLY CAR EVOLUTION The CARS, throughout the years had plenty of changes because of these 2 main factors: 1. professionalism 2. commercialism

Manufacturers had entered works cars in rallies, from the very beginning:

The 1894 Paris-Rouen was mainly a competition between them; The Thousand Mile Trial of 1900 had more manufacturers than private entries.

• In 1973, this was taken a step further when the FIA created the World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, won in the first year by Alpine-Renault.

• Not until in 1979 was there a World Rally Championship for Drivers, won that year by Björn Waldegård. This is the first year that the driver was given recognition.

But as public interest grew, car companies started to introduce special models or variants for rallying, such as : Mini Cooper, Ford Lotus Cortina Escort Twin Cam, Abarth Fiat 124 and 131.

Renault bankrolled the small volume sports-car maker Alpine to transform their little A110 Berlinette coupé into a world-beating rally car, and hired a skilled team of drivers too.

• In 1974, the Lancia Stratos, the first car designed from scratch to win rallies, and became the dominant asphalt rally car of its time.

• In 1980 the AUDI QUATTRO was born. A coupé version of their family saloon, fitted with a turbocharged 2.1 litre five cylinder engine, and four-wheel drive system. The first to use in car rally.

• This created a generation of rallying super cars, of which the most radical and impressive were the: • Peugeot 205 T16 • Renault 5 Turbo • Lancia Delta S4 • RS200 • Metro 6R4

• On the 1986 Rallye de Portugal, four spectators were killed.

• In May, on the Tour de Corse rally, Henri Toivonen went over the edge of a mountain road and was burned to death in the fireball that followed.

• In 1987, Rally Cars would be in Group A specs, closer to the production model.

• The most successful car during this period was the Lancia Delta Integrale, world rally champion for six consecutive years 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992 - a feat yet unbeaten.

THE RALLY DRIVERS In the1950s rally drivers were: amateurs, paid little or nothing, reimburse the expenses given bonus for winning

In 1960, the first rallying superstar (and one of the first to be paid to rally full time), was Sweden's Erik Carlsson, driving for Saab.

• Today, World Rally Championship with the sideways driving style and specialized cars has produced a high level of professional drivers. It has brought Rally Driving as a profession.

TYPES OF RALLY There are two main forms: a. stage rallies and b. road rallies.

STAGE RALLIES have been the professional branch of the sport since the 1960s.

They are based on straightforward speed over stretches of road closed to traffic.

Rally Roads vary from asphalt mountain passes to rough forest tracks, from ice and snow to desert sand, each chosen to provide an enjoyable challenge for the crew and a test of the car's performance and reliability.

• Road rallies are the original form, held on highways open to normal traffic.

• The emphasis is not on outright speed but on accurate timekeeping and navigation and on vehicle reliability, often on difficult roads and over long distances. They are now primarily amateur events.

• There are several types of road rallies testing accuracy, navigation or problem solving.

a. Regularity rally or a Time-SpeedDistance rally (TSD) ability to stay on track and on time all the time), b. Pan-Am or MonteCarlo-style rally (testing navigation) c. Gimmick rally (testing logic)

Road rallies or Regularity rallies are usually run on public roads with an emphasis on navigation and teamwork.

These skills are important fundamentals required for anyone who wishes to progress to higher-level events.

RALLY ROADS/COURSES Rally is unique in its choice of where and when to race. Rallies take place on all surfaces and in all conditions: asphalt (tarmac), gravel, or snow and ice.

• Rallies are held in any season of the year, in any climate, bitter cold to monsoon rain.

Rally Roads are chosen to provide an enjoyable challenge for the crew and a test of the car's performance and reliability.

• This contributes to the notion that top rally drivers as some of the best car control experts in the world.

• A typical rally course consists of a sequence of relatively short (up to about 30 kms.), timed "special stages" where the actual competition takes place, and untimed "transport stages" where the rally cars must be driven to the next competitive stage within a time limit.

PACENOTES AND RECCE are a unique and major tool in modern rallying.

Pacenotes

These pacenote provide a detailed description of the course and allow the driver to predict conditions ahead and prepare for Various course Conditions such as turns and jumps.

• During reconnaissance, the co-driver writes down shorthand notes (the pacenotes) on how to best drive the stage. Usually the drivers call out the turns and road conditions for the codrivers to write down.

•These pacenotes are read aloud through an internal intercom system during the actual race, allowing the driver to anticipate the upcoming terrain and thus take the course as fast as possible.

RALLY DRIVING TECHNIQUES • The Scandinavian flick, Finnish flick, Manji Drifting, or Pendulum turn, is a technique used in rallying

• In approaching the turn • Simultaneously brake and steer slightly in to the opposite direction of the turn, • Balancing the car by the steering, brakes and speed of the car until the apex of the turn, • then steer into the turn, while lifting off the brakes, • Then accelerate out of the turn.

• This technique is used to help the rally drivers get around corners that had an increasing radius, it is also used as a maneuvering technique to overcome understeer.

Origin of name It is named after the Scandinavian rally racers of the '60s who widely used it. The "flick" part comes from the technique of "flicking" the wheel in a direction opposite of the turn to build up inertial energy.

SAAB, the Swedish automaker, changed its car’s handbrake operation from operating on the rear wheels to the front wheels following the philosophy of the “Scandinavian Flick”.

The Science in the Flick Every time you turn, the centrifugal force attempts to cause your vehicle to continue moving straight. The force is directed towards the outer side of the turn (e.g. right when you turn left). This is partially neutralized by the friction between the tires and the road, so the vehicle rather tilts than slides.

As you abruptly flick the steering wheel in the opposite direction, the inertia of the vehicle that has been trying to slide in the opposite way is added to the force applied by the engine and the friction of the front wheels, thus exceeding the force necessary to break traction between the tires and the tarmac.

• If the traction between the tires and the tarmac is too great, the effect would be the vehicle rolling over instead of sliding. Rally cars have hardened suspensions to ensure this would not happen. The harder the shocks, the more force is needed to tilt the body enough to roll over, hence there's greater chance that the wheels would break traction before the body passes the critical point of lateral stability.

Real Life Usage

Most cars today are FWD and prone to understeer. This can be very dangerous at high speeds. Skilled drivers are able to correct understeer by using a maneuver similar to the Scandinavian flick, though with less steering input and control the possible slide by using an opposite lock.

In the best of cases, the driver would use the inertia of the feint to make the car enter the bend without initiating a slide. This requires excellent knowledge of the specific car.

• However, less skilled drivers must not attempt to use this technique, as it can prove more dangerous than the understeer itself.

Usage In Drifting In terms of drifting, the Scandinavian flick is classified as a weight transfer drift. It is also known as a Feint drift or Inertial drift.

It's widely used in rally racing, because it is simple to perform and does not require engine power, nor does it cause a loss of speed at the exit of the corner.

Dangers There are two basic dangers when performing the Scandinavian flick

1. If the center of gravity is too high (as in a SUV), there's a great chance the vehicle would roll over instead of sliding.

2. It takes practice to learn how to control the vehicle during the slide. A less experienced driver would be prone to overcompensating for the slide and driving off the bend.

THE HANDBRAKE TURN • The handbrake turn is a driving technique used to deliberately slide a car sideways, either for the purpose of negotiating a very tight bend quickly, or for turning around well within the vehicle's own turning circle.

• The driver starts by using steering input to transfer weight to the outside tires; the handbrake is then used to lock the rear wheels, thus upsetting the adhesion between the tires and the road surface.

• In a rear-wheel drive manual transmission vehicle, it is also necessary to operate the clutch to prevent the handbrake from stalling the engine.

Physics Involved The reason the rear wheels follow the front ones during a turn is that the resistance in forward direction (i.e. where the wheels turn) is significantly less than the sideways path caused by the centrifugal force. When you lock the wheels both directions have the same resistance, hence the rear tires try to keep moving straight instead of following the front ones into the turn. Since the front wheels keep rotating, this causes the rear end to slide out.

Real Life Usage Handbrake turns are primarily a technique used to negotiate tight turns in motorsport but can also be used in certain other applications. • For stunt purposes. • In pursuit driving.

Usage In Drifting Whereas pulling the handbrake is the easiest way to start a drift, it's rarely used in racing, because it causes significant loss of speed at the exit of the corner.

• Racers use handbrake turning only to negotiate tight 180 degrees bends that would require three-point maneuver to go through.

Dangers Unlike other methods of inducing a drift, the handbrake turn does not pose a serious risk of the vehicle flipping over.

The basic danger lies in bad judgment of surroundings, resulting in the sliding vehicle hitting an obstacle (another vehicle, a guardrail or a tree), or bad judgment of speed, resulting in the vehicle driving off the road rather than sliding.

HILL JUMPING • Hill jumping (also known as ramping) is an activity that involves driving an automobile at high speeds up a hill in an attempt to get the car airborne at the hill's crest.

• Hill jumping is popular in rallying. Many rally cars have upgraded tires, rims, suspension, and frames that can more safely survive the stress of landing.

In rallying, the driver usually gives the steering wheel a small flick as the car leaves the ground. This makes the car lean to one side, as if it were about to start turning. The result is that the car does not fly straight in the air, but rather is higher on one side than the other.

The reason for this technique is to reduce the shock on the suspension components and axles when landing.

LEFT-FOOT BRAKING • Left-foot braking is the technique of using the left foot to operate the brake pedal in an automobile, leaving the right foot dedicated to the throttle pedal

• The basic purpose of left-foot braking is to decrease the time spent between the right foot moving between the brake and throttle pedals, and can also be used to control load transfer or car balance.

Usage in Race/Rally • In rallying, left-foot braking is very beneficial, especially to front-wheel drive vehicles. It is closely related to the handbrake turn, but involves locking the rear wheels using the foot brake.

• It is not as necessary to use this technique with Rear-wheel drive and All wheel drive rally cars because they can be easily turned rapidly by using excess power to the wheels and the use of opposite lock steering, however the technique is still beneficial when the driver needs to decelerate and slide at the same time.

• In rear wheel drive, left foot braking can be used when the car is at opposite lock and about to spin. Using throttle and brake will lock the front tires but not the rears, thus giving the rears more traction and bringing the front end around.

HEEL-AND-TOE • Heel-and-toe is a driving technique used mostly in performance driving, although some drivers use it on the road in everyday conditions in the interests of smoothness.

• It involves operating the throttle and brake pedals simultaneously with the right foot, while facilitating normal activation of the clutch with the left foot. It is used when braking and downshifting simultaneously (prior to entering a turn), and allows the driver to "blip" the throttle to raise the engine speed and smoothly engage to lower gear.

Usage of heel-and-toe Heel-and-toe double-declutching is used before entry into a turn while a vehicle is under braking, preparing the transmission to be in the optimal gear to accelerate out of the turn.

1. Benefit: downshifting before entering a turn is to eliminate the jolt to the drivetrain, or any other unwanted dynamics. 2. Benefit: allows you to downshift at the last moment before entering the turn, after you have started braking and the car has slowed down even when engine rev is still high.

Procedure First use the ball of their right foot (toe) to depress the brake pedal. Then fully depress the clutch pedal, and then shift to neutral, release clutch and rotates their right foot to operate the throttle with the outside edge of the foot (heel). Then, depress clutch pedal again and select the correct gear, then release clutch. Places the right foot back onto the accelerator, releasing the brakes.

• It is worth noting that shifting to neutral may not be necessary. The driver can blip the throttle when the clutch pedal is depressed, then shift to the lower gear and release the clutch. While a modern synchronized transmission does not require double clutch shifting, a driver may choose to perform it in order to lessen wear on the synchronizer.

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