Boom boom.
Tell you all about it tomorrow, but right now it’s 11pm, I just got back to my room, and I’m so tired I look high, TTYT
(find all Targa posts under this tag – #NissanMicraTarga)
Targa Rally Day 3 – that’s Racing School Complete
More class room sitting-still stuff this morning, then we drove a stage in a convoy, stopping every so often to walk the road and learn.
One of the scariest, most crash-y corners
Whaddya doing Danny? Huh Danny? Danny!
My cockpit.
From what I can tell, this is a game of endurance and patience.
The former phft got it. The latter, oh no guys.
It’s pretty god-y here eh.
Thank you for a lovely lunch ladies!
Then we simulated a stage, with a timer and everything.
First helmet run for #TeamNissanTarga
At the day’s end, Michel and I unpacked and repacked our car, OCD styles.
That’s the cabin of a winning team there.
We also practiced opening our triangles like they told us to, but it really wasn’t that hard guys?!
Here’s to no one opening their triangles next week.
kk I’m off to search for a time distance speed app for my phone, TTYT
Targa Rally Day 4 – This is the Rally Racing Line
Right down the middle, on the yellow.
It’s different from a track, where you try get a couple wheels over the apex (which I recently discovered a knack for, when Pfaff invited me to track their Porsches [video])
And no wheels off the road, EVER.
Or in rally speak, “Do not cut”. Big points off.
Not just because it drags gravel onto the road, making it slippery for the following competitor, but because a pothole can make things go west real fast.
Even a small pothole like this.
Targa Rally Day 3 – Found my Formula
Confirmed: this game is ALL about navigational math.
You have XX minutes to travel XX km, at a speed of XX km/h, and a penalty is given for coming in sooner OR later than the alloted time.
D=distance S=speed T=time
D=S x T
T=D/S
S= D/T
And know how I keep saying I hope we learn more about it? Found out why we don’t.
My teacher Robert told me, “that’s like giving you a lesson on the transmission, or how your engine works”… as in… you should know this coming in, and that’s what separates competitors.
Here’s the formula:
(photo from BBC.uk)
We also learned that past winners have performed all this math using only an egg timer, and figure it can’t be that hard then.
Targa Rally Day 2 – How to Speak Rally
This is a page from a rally route book. It’s all about those symbols.
A Tulip – depicts the upcoming section of road, and how to drive on it. Start at the dot, finish at the arrow head.
The navigator’s job is to turn the tulips into words, and paint a picture inside the driver’s mind. A good navigator will increase the stage time by 7%, or about 6 places in the standings.
Minimal language must be used, including the least amount of syllables. Right up my alley, since I don’t really like talking.
There’s all types, on the right are bridges, gravel roads, more. The red arrow are the ones to pay most attention to, especially !!! which could kill you.
The words are carefully chosen for the sounds they’re composed of, clever eh.
1 – harsh-sounding words, for extreme actions
2 – soft-sounding words, for easy movements
This afternoon, we were sent to practice. 1.5 km in and I’d already got us going in the exact wrong direction.
But after that, I executed it excellently. Found the trick to this game is to be laser-beam focused for short bursts of time. Even found a mistake in the route book ha.
Our team in action.
I appear confident, Michel appears opposite… which is it?
Maybe we are actually terrible, but probably not, or maybe this is all nonsense, because strategy. Just kidding. Just ignore us.
