Kevin Hoff wrote:
But is there such a thing _without_ W2W for us solo wussies?
--Kevin H.
Kevin,
I've held off expecting a response from one of the hardcore rally guys but since none have commented yet: In my young and foolish days in the San Jose, CA days I used to drive my ONLY car in high speed public backroad rallys with no pace notes on roads I had never seen before in the dark with just normal headlights. Was usually one of the fastest (elapsed time) cars (in a stock 260Z) but never wrecked. I'm not sure that driving on a controlled course and doing enough laps to learn the corners very well will do you much good on a rally . . . assuming that the most you may have is pace notes.
For me the key was being able to "read" a corner and to get a good feel for the "flow" of the road and to use various "visible in the dark" hints about what the road was going to do before I could actually see what it did. Since the Z was fairly slow, top speeds weren't super high but then the brakes and cornering weren't great either. A late apex line was critical but then the roads were so narrow that if you stayed on your side of the road there was only one line anyway. What you might do is just find some new to you relatively empty twisty backroads when kids, dogs, drunks, cops, etc. aren't likely to be around and just get a feel for what it is like to drive them quickly in the dark.
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