So you want to run the Targa - a primer for beginners

Running a Targa is a thrill of a lifetime, and you want to do it. There are two ways to do it: prepared, and unprepared. The more prepared your car is, the greater its chances of running at the end of the rally. The same is true for the driver and co-driver/navigator – together.

The Targa is a rally – so the navigator can lose the rally or worse just as easily as the driver.

This article tells you, an absolute beginner, how to prepare for the Targa. Everything may not apply in your situation, but this is how I would do it if I had the budget J . In other words, your mileage may vary. Good luck, and see you at Targa! – Craig #701 Porsche 944S2

Preparing the crew

You want to concentrate on running the Targa, not learning to rally – or drive.

First, join your local affiliated rallysport car club right away. (You have to do this anyway to run the Targa. You will quickly learn that racing means paying fees.) Second, apply for your rally license as soon as you have club membership. (You have to do this anyway too, and you need the rules, and a set is usually included with your license. Another fee.) Read and understand the rules. Both driver and navigator must know all the rules and procedures. If you aren’t Canadian, you also have to get/read/understand the CARS rules (www.carsrally.ca). Volunteer to help in a road rally. Do Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) road rallies (ask the organizer if it is a "Drivex" or a "Navex" TSD. "Navex" rallies are Mensa tests for navigators. Stick to "Drivex.") Volunteer to marshal at performance rallies.

Experience in performance rally is very important, but isn’t cheap. I didn’t have any for the first Targa. However, marshalling is excellent experience, and attending a co-driver’s/navigator’s school would be invaluable – for both driver and co-driver. Rallyx/RallyCross/RallySprint/Hillclimbs, although run primarily on gravel and snow, also offer invaluable experience.

Now I’ve only met two people in my life that didn’t think they were good drivers. Driving is part-skill and part-talent. Talent is from God, but skill can be enhanced. To do that, run every single autocross(Solo2) you can afford. Autocross is cheap and introduces the most important skills. Try to autocross in the rain. In the Targa, you have to be able to drive in the rain. Attend the first day of the Evolution autox school if you can. (See their website for locations – they travel around the US. and Canada) Do some go-karting. Go to a driver’s school at a road racetrack. Marque clubs often run driving schools and lapping days for very reasonable rates, and you get to use your own car. Do as many as possible. Rallyx and time trials (Solo1 or hillclimb) are also excellent.

Preparing the car

Signing up for an event and being ready for it are two different things. On the surface, it looks like you can just put in a rollcage and go. In reality, the Targa requires a reliable car – which means preparation, and lots of it.

Preparing a rally car is just like preparing a racecar – only more of it. Besides all the additional safety equipment, a rally car has to survive rough roads. If things like the oil pan are vulnerable, underbody skidplates for protection are desirable. In addition, there is a co-driver/navigator to worry about. Thus, two seats, two sets of belts, two window nets, and an intercom are needed. (The window nets are optional, but if you don’t have them, then the windows have to be rolled up.) The co-driver also needs his own instruments and controls, and these have to be installed, wired, and tested.

The most important co-driver instrument is the rally computer, or odo. Instructions are given to 1/100 of a kilometer (10 metres, 33 feet). Running without a rally computer is possible but unwise. For example, the navigator would have no idea where routebook instructions like "CAUTION. Right tightens. Exposure on left." was. ("Exposure on left" could mean if you go off to the left, the Coast Guard divers pluck you out of the Atlantic Ocean. See below.)


Right tightens, exposure on Left – Prologue Two, Outer Cove. After the car at the top of the photograph negotiates the right turn, there is an unseen downhill left turn linking the two sections of road visible in this photograph. That left turn caused an anxious moment for many crews, including us, and claimed a Sunbeam Tiger.

The most commonly used rally computer in Canada is the Terratrip. Brantz, Alfa, Timewise are other reputable brands, and there are others. Make sure to get a remote-zero switch. Learn how to use the computer, and make sure it will work all day long.

Do everything possible to ensure the car will last the event. For example, as a minimum:

Sample regular maintenance list from Ken Beard

Remove shields and plates, check for leaks

Clean car

Inspect for stress cracks; repair

Inspect for weld breaks; repair

Check torque of all critical fasteners

Check rubber and clamps

Change oil, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter

Check suspension and drivetrain

Look for wear and rub marks everywhere

Check and change brake pads. Inspect seal condition, master cylinder.

Flush and new brake fluid

Change transaxle fluid – INSPECT OLD FLUID

Clean harnesses, seats, interior, glass (rainx it)

Clean uniforms, clothes

The list is from Ken Beard’s web site (www.rallylights.com). The Internet has a number of pages devoted to starting rallying and car preparation.

 

Top Ten Targa Tips

  1. Get Fit. A week of competition will use your body up. If you aren’t fit, you either slow down, or make mental errors. Mental errors can be costly. This applies to both driver and navigator – and service crew.
  2. Skid Plates/gravel guards/mud guards. You don’t need them, but you’ll be slower due to worry without them. Note what’s lowest and where all the fuel/brake/oil lines are. Check the CV joint boots and other rubber daily.
  3. Suspension travel. This is not the place for a severely lowered car, but is a good place to exercise your bump stops if you don’t modify your suspension. Hitting bump stops disrupts handling characteristics and stresses components beyond their operational design limits.
  4. Service Crew. In Tasmania, where a similar event has run for over a decade, serious competitors have at least five support crew: two to meet you at major service points, two at each stage, and one co-ordinator. While a Targa can be done with no support (and most of the teams ran with no support), at least one support vehicle is extremely convenient. Otherwise, you’re stuck with the organizer bus or bumming rides or cabs between accommodation and event venues.
  5. Spare Parts. Bring lots. As an example, the closest Porsche dealer is two time zones away. For anything else, try the local Canadian Tire store. Think PepBoys plus NAPA plus all the good parts of Sears. Local dealers were uniformly helpful, but of necessity stock parts for only more recent models.
  6. Prepare for variable weather. Anything from sunny 70’s to foggy 50’s to hurricanes. Besides personal comfort, cold weather has quite an effect on road traction.
  7. Tires. Subject to what’s allowed in the supplemental regulations, either gamble on full-tread-depth R’s that will work in cold weather, and watch for hydro-planing on rutted roads, or go with the best rain tires. Remember that, for the entire event, you only get four tires in Modern, or six in Classic.
  8. Learn to rally beforehand. Rallying is a sport where only experienced crews win. Driving is only one-half of the equation; a navigator can’t win a rally, but can lose one.
  9. Drinking tubes. I don’t know what these things are really called, but bicyclists use them. The part that normally goes on one’s back is strapped securely to the roll-cage, and the tube is run through the seat’s shoulder harness hole and tied to a shoulder belt. Works fine with a full-face helmet, and as a bonus, the driver can pretend he is Richard Burns (British rally driver who is seemingly always drinking from a tube).
  10. Extra Nomex. Driving suits get awfully sweaty very fast. You do not want to wear a day-old Nomex balaclava. Trust me.

 

Top Ten Targa Driving Tips

  1. Vision. The farther you "see" down the road, the better able you are to position the car, adapt to changing conditions, etc.
  2. Late apex. Always. Running out of room on corner exit is not good. Remember "Hard left" means "HARD left," and "Acute right" means "ACUTE!!! Right."
  3. Car Control. Sooner or later, a corner will be mis-judged. Then, you’ll have to be able to dance with the car. Got an old set of tires? Wait for a rainy day and practice! You have to be comfortable with the car sideways, on low-friction surfaces, with the car half on gravel/half on tarmac, etc. Nobody’s perfect.
  4. Rain and cold. You can expect rain, on average, for two of the five competitive days. You have to be comfortable in the wet. Know what your tires are like on cold pavement and standing water.
  5. Autocross. The stage that is worth the most overall is Gander. The Gander special stage has many second-gear corners in quick succession. Autocross has lots of second-gear corners in quick succession.
  6. Yumps. There are very few of these, but you do not want to follow the WRC example. Bad landings from yumps break cars, and any landing can break a car without a gravel rally-spec suspension. A good landing is nose up, tail down. To get the nose up, you must always accelerate up a yump. This means you have to brake before a yump, and never at a yump. If necessary, the nose can be lifted higher by combining braking with acceleration to "bounce" the front end.
  7. Compressions. The opposite of yumps, but can also break cars. Do not brake into a compression.
  8. Terrain. Uphill and downhill terrain affects car balance, especially under braking. On steep uphills, braking can be left fairly late, but braking into downhill turns must be done early and gently.
  9. In slow, out fast. You only get one shot at each corner. It is better to go in too slow and get on the gas early than go in too fast and have to brake to a standstill or worse in the corner.
  10. Cut. Cutting corners is a lost driving skill. While not absolutely necessary to master, it is necessary to be able to handle a gravel-strewn corner, the result of other crews cutting that corner, or an error. Note the gravel around Leading Tickles was sharp enough to cut a competitor’s tire in the first year, causing him to spin, narrowly avoiding a deep ditch and rock wall. Clean and check your tires regularly.
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All images Copyright 2002 - Craig Hamm, Karen Hamm, and Craig Seko, as appropriate. All rights reserved. All text Copyright 2002 - Craig Seko. All rights reserved. To obtain copies of photos, please e-mail kchamm@sympatico.ca . For all other inquiries, please e-mail craig@seko.ca