Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[colwyn500]

During the last year, my brother and I have become involved in regularity rallying in his 1934 Lagonda. We just finished the HERO Challenge 2 Rally in a fairly low place because of our naivety and a somewhat inappropriate car for driving-tests involving cones.

I'm the navigator and hence have a huge responsibilty. I'm finding the timed sections great fun and we are doing pretty well on them and getting better. But I have a blind spot for calling out the directions when typically driving around a marked course on a featureless runway, quarry or similar.

Ideally I'm looking for a source of training on this very specific topic; ie. someone to coach me on what to look out for and how to call it.

If anyone can tell me if there are organisations that will do this specific training it would be appreciated. Failing that, if anyone knows what I am on about it would be helpful if you could share experiences.

[alastairq]

Well.....I used to enter the MCC's so-called 'Testing Trial'....a summertime event, held in deepest darkest not-far-from-Glastonbury.
The MCC are noted for their long distance, Classic reliability trials...[and recently have started extending/expanding their ideas to be inclusive, so each trial will have a 'tarmac-only' class [class R]...and this year, a 'daylight-only' trial, running the route of the main trial, but from daylight, not the middle of the night...anyway, I digress...
The Testing Trial was originally conceived to allow regular competitors to try out their new-fangled 'developments' of their trials irons, usually done over the summer period [trialling is from Autumn to Spring, via winter]....
The event is held in a large field , [once a quarry], where a dozen or so 'routes' are laid out with poles & cones...with each competitor 'timed' over each section.
A bit like a driving test, but off road. [There is also always a village-provided burger tent too]...My most recent 'passenger'[cars & outfits must have a passenger]....in my Dellow, had really got the right idea. he would shout out 'your side', or 'my side' for each pole or cone we approached. Your side, my side my side your side.....and so on..not forgetting STOP.....as the finish of each observed section is 'astride' the line....not easy when screaming along in 1st gear? Ever tried stopping at the right point...on grass?

This event is non-damaging, as they say....as are, class R, class 0, on classic trials.
Obviously a classic trial isn't the sort of event one would want to enter in one's Lagonda......I mean...it's likely to get dirty!
_________________
Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
----------------------------------------------
Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[mikeC]

I used to navigate on historic rallies about twenty years ago. I am happy to help in any way I can - which aspect are you having difficulty with?

The first thing is to be consistent with your terminology: for instance, you must establish with your driver whether he wants to know whether to keep to the right of bollard, or keep the bollard on the right!



If you want to talk things through with me, message me and I'll give you my phone number.
_________________
in the garage: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
Recently departed: 1953 Lancia Appia, 1931 Austin Seven, 1967 Singer Chamois, 1914 Saxon, 1930 Morris Cowley, 1936 BSA Scout, 1958 Lancia Appia coupe, 1922 Star 11.9 ... the list goes on!

[Riley Blue]

You'll have read this I'm sure https://heroevents.eu/navigator-co-driver/ but doesn't HERO also have training days a couple of times a year - typically I can't find a link right now!
_________________
David

1963 Riley 1.5
1965 Riley 1.5

[mikeC]

The HERO training days are good, but they concentrate on the navigation, regularity sections and rally timing, rather than the driving tests.
_________________
in the garage: 1938 Talbot Ten Airline
Recently departed: 1953 Lancia Appia, 1931 Austin Seven, 1967 Singer Chamois, 1914 Saxon, 1930 Morris Cowley, 1936 BSA Scout, 1958 Lancia Appia coupe, 1922 Star 11.9 ... the list goes on!

[colwyn500]

[alastairq]

As i tried to point out in my last post....[agreed communication between driver and passenger is a big help?]....my passenger would shout out which side [of the car] the cone/pole/etc should be..hence 'your side, my side'...
Lefts and rights can sometimes be confused in the heat of the moment, with some drivers.
Somehow, 'your side' or 'my side' seemed more to the point.
We never 'wrong slotted'...which doesn't mean to say I didn't clip cones [thus attracting, often, 10 second penalties]...in my determination to take the 'shortest' route between two points...

The Dellow has lively handling [being ideally suited to this 'round the cones' game]....sometimes its handling is too 'immediate'.....Hardest task was getting stopped astride the finish line....ie, not having to reverse back to the line, having overshot with all wheels locked...or being so sideways at the finish line, there is doubt about whether it was astride or not....'Astride' meaning, the finish line is between front and back wheels...not the two front wheels!
The steering wheel is quite large by modern standards...not a lot of arm twirling, as it has all but one-&-a-bit turns, lock to lock...but there isn't a lot of room in the cockpit..and my usual passenger had not long since had heart surgery....so getting a regular thump in the chest from my elbow did not go down very well.
I do have a knob to clamp to the rim..one day I might fit that..but I'd find it getting in my way during normal driving....
Cable-ing up the outside handbrake [not parking brake, that's something else].... as it left the factory may liven things up a bit [forwards,locks the front wheels, backwards, locks the back wheels...]. At the moment, I only have the back wheels connected to it....Not that there's 'time' to indulge in fancy handbrake turns on these events.....Every tenth of a second counts...
_________________
Dellow Mk2, 1951 built, reg 1952.
Fiat 126 BIS
Cannon special [1996 registered. Built in 1950's]
----------------------------------------------
Ford Pop chassis, Ashley 1172 bodyshell, in pieces.

[mikeC]