New to rally and have some questions!

[s_t_r_o_b_e]

Hey everyone,

My name is Mike and I'm from Bendigo. I just turned 28 and my girlfriend got me a "Rally Experience" for my birthday. And after just 6 short laps, I'm hooked!

Since then, I've been looking around to see what's available for amateurs and new people to the sport, and I've really taken a liking to Khana Cross. I love that it's essentially 'rally', but short course and speed limited (so that it's a cost-effective entry to the sport).

I've currently got a manual Hyundai Excel (2000) that I'm not using as my main car, so I thought I'd jump on here and ask a few questions.

I guess first up - what changes would you have to make to a standard Excel to make it a 'rally' car (fit for Khana Cross or the like). Do most of you race them stock standard, or have you changed a pile of things?

And secondly, what's the best way to get into the sport? Any tips or tricks would be really helpful. I don't want to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to.

Cheers, looking forward to your responses!

[thommo 73]

Thats one good girl you have there :clap: good start to have a supporting partner/family,

being new to the Excels myself you will find alot on here to do with the cars and the required perp work for rallying, never looked into khana but it will be less work.

what i could never seem to find was all the other stuff to get into rallying, like what licence, clubs, log books etc. sounds bad but it's not as bad as you first think.

there is a rally on in two weeks in Avoca and if you would rather rally over khana (i do) it would be the best start to go down and have a look and talk to some of the competitors and see what has been done to the excel's.

if not, joining a car club(with rally or khana people in it) will be the best way to find out whats needed.

and as far as cars go its fairly limited in what you can change, but basicly saftey and suspension, there are regs on this site that will help you and on the CAMS site under the PRC class ( i think).....have a look at the build ups on here to give you an idea of what people are doing.

Cheers
Andrew

[Col Vic]

Hi Mike,

There is a very good Rally Car Club in Bendigo - Bendigo Car Club - who have a couple of Excel Competitors as well as a number of others who will be able to give you good information.

Tony Moore will probably be on here soon and can give you more info, or google the Bendigo Car Club and make contact direct.

Col

[Mooa42]

Hi Mike,

Welcome to beginning of the best years of your life!

You?ve picked a good place to start, firstly an Excel, secondly Bendigo and depending on where you did your 6 lap drive you may even had one of us as your instructor or hotlap driver. The local car club has a motorkhana circuit, Khanacross track, autocross track, long course autocross track and a rallysprint track, all of which are the perfect way to start into rallying, (we will explain what they all mean later). On top of this, the winners of the 2009 and 2010 Victorian Excel Series both come from the Bendigo club as well as many other Excels in standard form running in the club on a regular basis, (see the link below for a picture I took of all the Excels competing at Bagshot at the June club day).

http://excelrally.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=2393

Missing from the pics are Stephen's and my rally cars, so plenty of people to talk to and plenty of cars to look at to see what we all have done.

If you want to have a run in your Excel you can bring it out this weekend, (Sunday 10th July 2011) and pay $35 and have a run if you like? It is the clubs monthly club day which is a combined motorkhana/khanacross, just turn up about 8:30am with your car and a helmet and fill in a few forms and we can get you started. (there is a map on the club site at www.bendigocarclub.com.au or google "Bendigo car club Bagshot motor sport complex"). Don?t worry about not having any or much experience, that?s half the reason we all wear helmets, so no one knows who we are when we make a mistake:). Most of the Excels running on the day will be completely standard and running on road tyres so yours is already good to go.

As Andrew has mentioned above, the following weekend, (Saturday 16th July) most of us will be in action in Avoca, which is about 20ks out of Maryborough and about an hour and a bit from Bendigo, so come and have a look see, most of us are pretty friendly. The start and main service will be in the main street of Avoca and there will be a number of spectator points where you can watch us in action.

If you have any questions ask on here or feel free to call me on 0 4 2 9 3 5 1 4 2 9.

Tony

[s_t_r_o_b_e]

I wish I had checked here earlier! I've just moved house and don't have the net at home so haven't had access to the forums or anything.

Firstly, thank you for your replies - a lot more information than I was expecting. And I have to say, I'm totally surprised that there are so many people so close to home driving stock standard Excels as rally cars, haha.

Bendigo Car Club sounds great. The fact that there are so many different tracks sounds great. I'll check the website and make sure that I head along to then next club day to check it out. Not sure if I'll be allowed to race the Excel yet because we haven't got our two new cars, but fingers crossed they come through before the next monthly meet.

I have a sneaking suspicion that my girlfriend has totally opened up a whole new can of worms...

P.S. Tony, I did the 6 laps at Rally Drive in Bacchus Marsh - is that where you instruct? We're both heading back to do 18 laps on Saturday 3rd September. I've convinced my girlfriend that she should give it a go. I'm sure she'll love it, and I'm sure she'll be much more open to me destroying our Excel if she gets to join me :>