TorontoTim Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Hi All, Just wanted to give you a quick insight into the next rally that I will be taking my TR4 on. It's the second rally in the Ontario Road Rally Championship (the first was in January) and this seems to be a favourite amongst competitors. The location is about 3 hours north of Toronto (Bancroft) - yes, where the snow is - and is an overnighter as it starts at 10pm and finishes around 6am for breakfast. There's no historic/classic rally movement here (although there was a classic section for the stage rally championship a couple of years ago) so we get to compete against modern cars - mostly Subarus with their fancy 4-wheel drive and grippy, modern snow tyres... Anyway, we haven't competed in this rally before so we will be taking it fairly steady - at least to start with. To give you an insight on what it might be like, here are two video links. One is from a car actually on the rally two years ago (at night) and the other is from the organisers checking this year's route. http://icerace.net/triangle.wmv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4vBNIWCKF4 Anyone in Canada want to come out and join us????? Cheers, Tim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stuart Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Hi All, Just wanted to give you a quick insight into the next rally that I will be taking my TR4 on. It's the second rally in the Ontario Road Rally Championship (the first was in January) and this seems to be a favourite amongst competitors. The location is about 3 hours north of Toronto (Bancroft) - yes, where the snow is - and is an overnighter as it starts at 10pm and finishes around 6am for breakfast. There's no historic/classic rally movement here (although there was a classic section for the stage rally championship a couple of years ago) so we get to compete against modern cars - mostly Subarus with their fancy 4-wheel drive and grippy, modern snow tyres... Anyway, we haven't competed in this rally before so we will be taking it fairly steady - at least to start with. To give you an insight on what it might be like, here are two video links. One is from a car actually on the rally two years ago (at night) and the other is from the organisers checking this year's route. http://icerace.net/triangle.wmv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4vBNIWCKF4 Anyone in Canada want to come out and join us????? Cheers, Tim Definitely need your studded tyres and a big bag of sand in the trunk! Stuart. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest ntc Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Nice one enjoy drive with your feet not the steering wheel, the car will come to you Quote Link to post Share on other sites
North London Mike Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Hi All, Just wanted to give you a quick insight into the next rally that I will be taking my TR4 on. It's the second rally in the Ontario Road Rally Championship (the first was in January) and this seems to be a favourite amongst competitors. The location is about 3 hours north of Toronto (Bancroft) - yes, where the snow is - and is an overnighter as it starts at 10pm and finishes around 6am for breakfast. There's no historic/classic rally movement here (although there was a classic section for the stage rally championship a couple of years ago) so we get to compete against modern cars - mostly Subarus with their fancy 4-wheel drive and grippy, modern snow tyres... Anyway, we haven't competed in this rally before so we will be taking it fairly steady - at least to start with. To give you an insight on what it might be like, here are two video links. One is from a car actually on the rally two years ago (at night) and the other is from the organisers checking this year's route. http://icerace.net/triangle.wmv http://www.youtube.c...h?v=S4vBNIWCKF4 Anyone in Canada want to come out and join us????? Cheers, Tim Hi Tim I'll fly out I'm in Jasper, Alberta via Calgery on the 17th, Skiing for 10 days....................where are you Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TorontoTim Posted February 5, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 (edited) Hi Tim I'll fly out I'm in Jasper, Alberta via Calgery on the 17th, Skiing for 10 days....................where are you The rally's overnight on the 20th/21st, so all you've got to do is pop across the country to Toronto for the weekend, ship over your lovely works replica.................... Yeah, ok, maybe not. Or perhaps you could rent a Subaru from Hertz Edited February 5, 2010 by TorontoTim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest ntc Posted February 5, 2010 Report Share Posted February 5, 2010 Or perhaps you could rent a Subaru from Hertz No thanks enjoy the rally you will need to be a lot quicker than the first video but stay safe Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TorontoTim Posted February 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 24, 2010 Update: We had a fantastic time on the rally which was a true test for the TR: 9 hours in pretty remote areas of central Ontario (10pm - 7am) in temperatures starting at around minus 5 and dropping to about minus 10. The route was ~400km of which about 70% was loose surface - much of it with patchy ice. One road (maybe 25 km) was heavily snow-covered but otherwise there was generally SOME grip to be found... The TR was perfect all night. We run "standard"-size snow tyres (Vredestein Snow+ 165/80 - had to get them shipped in from Europe) which are phenominal providing decent grip in the cold and the loose plus nice, early, progressive break-away which promotes easy, predictable drifting on the slippy stuff. It just shows how right they got the design, because I felt totally confident in the car's ability and handling no matter how much the corners tightened, nor how bad any sudden ice-patches were. As I suggested, the vast majority of the field was modern AWD Subarus with GPS and modern rally computers (maybe 20+ of the 30-odd field) and yet on one long, twisty backroad we caught a couple of 20(ish)-year-olds in a Subaru WRX. Ok, so they caught us again on the snowy road, but no-one passed us - and we're talking 40+ years of development :-) Final result: 3rd in the "Novice" class (out of 20) by only 2 minutes. We made calculation errors totalling 4 minutes of our 15.2 penalties (doh!) so could have won the class if we were better at maths. But, most importantly, we had a great time and the other competitors LOVE having the TR out on events. There was even the beginnings of a discussion about promoting a classic class which is, of course, my goal. So - if there are TR (or other classic) owners in Ontario who want to DRIVE their cars as a sportscar is intended, you don't HAVE to start with an all-night winter rally - there are plenty of daylight, spring-summer-fall events. But drop me a PM and we can talk about building a group of road-rallying classic-owners. There's a lot of fun to be had, and there's nothing better than beating a Subaru WRX STi on the loose in a stupid old car!!!! And those of you in the UK - count your blessings for the historic rallying movement. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stuart Posted February 24, 2010 Report Share Posted February 24, 2010 Well done that man! Just goes to show what a great rally car the 4 is especially to keep with the scooby-doo,s. Dont suppose you managed to get any pictures. Stuart. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TorontoTim Posted February 25, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2010 (edited) There's a few videos popping up, but nothing with the TR in it. I'll check on photos... Oh, and after two events we are leading the Ontario Road Rally Championship in Novice class. Ok, so there's seven more rounds to go............................... Edited February 25, 2010 by TorontoTim Quote Link to post Share on other sites
TorontoTim Posted March 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 A little taster from the event, for those who are curious... This section was run at an average speed of ~40mph (61km/h) and, as it was fairly late in the rally, we were running second car on the road. Some of this snowy section had had VERY little traffic so it was quite a bit of fun in the TR - even with snow tyres. We did hop onto a snow bank at one point, but managed to drive straight back off it. This was shot from one of the Subaru STi's entered. All I can say is that it was a HELL OF A LOT more busy in the TR!!!!!!!!!!!!! And here's a shot of the TR ready for the trip home. Yes, I know - trailering. But it was 3 hours each way around 9 hours of rallying and no sleep. We needed SOME comfort. BTW - the photographer runs yet another Subaru and won the intermediate class. But on the Subaru forum he still captioned the photo as "the best looking rally car in Ontario". Gotta love a TR ;-) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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