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W.R.C - The Jargon ?
We Offer - Flexible Travel Packages
Escorted Tours - just relax and hassle free
Fly-Drive - giving you the freedom to do as you wish
Self Drive - Camper Van Hire or use your own car
Coach Tour - ex London UK - V I P Travel
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| '00' and '0' Cars |
Cars driven along every Special Stage by rally officials to ensure that the course is clear.
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| Active Differential |
Computer-controlled differential that distributes the engine's power to those tyres with the best grip, thus maximising performance.
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| Ditch-hooking |
When drivers drive a trail with their inside front wheel over a road-side ditch.
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| F.I.A |
Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, the Geneva-based governing body for worldwide motor sport which regulates and controls the World Rally Championship.
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| Flying Finish |
A flying finish marks the end of a stage - so called because the cars 'fly' across it at full speed.
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| Gravel Cars |
Special cars are sent through the stages before the start to report news of weather and surface conditions to the WRC drivers.
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| Gravel Settings |
The suspension adjustments made to optimise the handling of a car for rough surfaced Special Stages.
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| Intercom |
The radio system that allows the navigator to read out the pace notes to his driver above the engine noise.
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| The Reccie |
Driver and navigator familiarise themselves with the stage beforehand. They drive the leg in a standard road-car (fitted with extra safety equipment) in the three days preceding the rally. It is here that the navigator jots down detailed pace notes for use on the stage itself.
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| The Stages |
The Special Stages are the competitive sections of the rally - where the drivers and navigators drive as fast as possible to achieve the quickest time. They take place on private roads or public roads closed to the general public while the rally is in progress. A typical World Rally will have about 25 Special Stages over 3 days. The stages are linked by public roads, on which competitors must obey all traffic laws. Each day is known as a leg and contains about 400km of competitive rallying - a third of which are Special Stages. Stages vary in length from five to 60kms but the combined event distance is closer to 1200km, the cars' times being recorded after each stage to the tenth of a second.
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| The Clock |
Forget about 'first across the line' - WRC cars compete against the toughest opponent of all, time. They don't race directly against each other - cars start at one or two minute intervals, racing against the clock, their times monitored and entered into the FIA computer. Unless they run into trouble (or a snow bank), rivals rarely see each other during a stage. At the end of an event, the driver who's taken the least amount of time to complete all the stages is the winner.
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| The Points |
Results achieved during each of the 14 rallies count towards the two FIA World Championships - for Drivers and Manufacturers. Point scoring is the same as in Formula One Grand Prix racing. Drivers get 10 points for coming first, six points for second place, four points for third, three points for fourth, two for fifth and one for sixth. A Manufacturer can add up the points tally from two cars.
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| The Time Controls |
A rally itinerary is governed by a strict timetable. Drivers get time penalties for being late (or early!) to clock in to the start of the Special Stage and at the entry and exit of Service Parks. Late arrival at these controls is typically penalised with 10 seconds on every minute over and is added to the overall time of the driver.
Drivers can be excluded from a rally if they are 15 minutes late for a Time Control, 30 minutes late for a leg or 60 minutes for an entire rally.
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| The Service Parks |
After each stage is completed, the cars can visit a designated Service Park where repairs may be carried out by the teams under strict supervision and timing controls (20 minute periods). At the end of each day the crews are allowed a longer time to work on the cars (45 minutes) before they are locked away in the guarded 'Parc Fermé' until the following morning's restart. Again, the cars are seeded to reflect that day's leaderboard.
One 20 minute service is allowed each morning for fuel and tyre changes; two (or sometimes three) 20 minute services are allowed during the day and a 45 minute workover in the evening. Crews must not exceed these allocated times.
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Preparations for the hard-fought season begin months before the first rally. The governing body, the FIA approves routes, stages and final locations of the 14 rallies spread over four continents worldwide, and passes on a copy of the proposals to the manufacturers.
Each rally must allow three days for the reconnaissance (or recce), one day for technical checks (or scrutineering) and three days for competition. The rally is divided into three legs, and typically has between 15 and 25 Special Stages.Usually a manufacturer will enter two cars each and they will arrive on location weeks before the start of a rally for on-site preparation. The competing World Rally Cars are seeded and start the event according to their ranking, with the leader of the Championship setting off first. Often there are more than 150 cars taking part - the rest of the field made up of private teams.
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World Rally Cars are not ordinary cars. Far from it. They are the super-heroes of cars, capable of extraordinary feats. Cars with enough horse power under their bonnets to literally fly round the most punishing terrains in the world and then stop in a second.
Sure, they look pretty similar to the car you hired on holiday last year, but underneath that familiar exterior lies £400,000 of high-tension steel, carbon fibre and titanium packed with the most sophisticated technological hardware available.
They have 2.0 litre turbo engines that produce over 300bhp, 6 speed gearboxes and 4-wheel drive. The extensive safety measures include a 'roll cage', welded into the car to protect driver and navigator in case of an accident.
They're familiar because the FIA stipulates that every World Rally Car must originate from its fourseater road-car and be available to the general public (so at least 25,000 of them must have been built). But that's where the similarities end...
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Building a World Rally Car
To make it rally-fit, the car has to undergo a World Rally Championship makeover. Teams start by stripping it down to its very barest of essentials, its panels, and then work up from this blank metallic canvas. Usually, it will take 100s of back-wrenching man-hours just to turn these bare panels into a chassis on which the World Rally Car can be built. And this is no normal chassis. It's 2-3 times more rigid than a normal road car and comes complete with an ultra-stiff roll-cage and acres of safety tubing (40m if laid out fully).
The car starts life looking like its suburban counterpart, but teams are allowed to re-shape the noses and add a rear 'wing'. The aerodynamics at the front produce less drag and the 'wing' (like an aircraft wing, only upside down) at the back generates a down-force which helps the car balance on the road.
All this technology requires a huge investment of time. It takes six mechanics working flat-out for three weeks to create a World Rally Car.
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Contact Times
Monday - Friday :
09:00 to 17:30 and
Evenings 19:00 until 21:00
Saturday : 08:30 until 12:30
If you get the answer machine
please leave a message, we
are only making a 'Pit Stop'
and will call you back.
Thank you Donna & Kevin. |
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