A Teen's Introduction To Rally

"Justin Hughes" (justinhughes54) 02/04/2015 at 14:30 • Filed to: rally

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It was the mid-1980s. I was growing up in a small town in the suburbs of Boston. I was a teenage car nut, but too young to drive, so I bicycled everywhere instead. A local Porsche dealer was holding a car show on the lawn of a museum across town. I really liked my Matchbox 911 Turbo, so on the basis of that toy I decided to bike over there and check out some real ones.

I didn't really know what I was looking at. My memory may not be reliable mumble mumble years later, but I don't even recall seeing any 944s, 924s, or even 356s – it was all 911, all the time. And there were all sorts of 911s. I liked the looks of them, but I didn't know anything about the individual models. I couldn't tell a Turbo from a 911SC from a Carrera RS. I do remember seeing a slant nose, because I'd recently built a model kit of one. But there was one car, unlike all the others, that really stuck out at me.

It was clearly a 911. And it was clearly a race car, with all the stickers and numbers and the roll cage and such. But this wasn't some lowered, lean, mean track machine. It was jacked up several inches above all the other 911s there. Between the headlights, four additional lights had been mounted in a pod unit. It had much larger wheels, and the tires were thick and chunky. Their similarity to my mountain bike's tires told me that these were meant for use off pavement, rather than on.

I thought to myself, "What idiot would take a Porsche 911 on dirt?"

What can I say? I was young and foolish. I knew nothing of rally. I was missing out on the glory days of Group B as it was happening. We didn't have cable channels dedicated to racing coverage. (Wait a minute – we still don't.) We didn't have YouTube videos showing simple European hatchbacks with huge engines stuffed into the back and all wheel drive systems screaming down gravel roads and flying through the air over jumps. Racing, as I knew it, consisted of NASCAR, Indy Car, and Formula 1, because that's what I occasionally had the chance to see on TV.

Later on, reading books about cars and racing, I would sometimes see a picture of this car, or one like it, doing what it was made to do at a rally. I didn't know much, but I did know that in order to be flying through the air that high, or causing that huge of a water splash, that car must've been moving pretty fast.

Eventually, once the worldwide web came along, I started reading more about rally on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! forum (then known as i-Club). Someone on the forum was selling, er, "backup copies" of the year's World Rally Championship coverage, so I bought a set. When I watched them, I discovered the coolest form of racing I'd ever seen. No tracks. Real roads. And, though obviously highly modified, they were real production based cars. And once YouTube became a thing, I could go back in time and finally see the Rothmans 911 in action.

Since then, I've volunteered at rallies many times, especially since finding out how useful my amateur radio license (which I've also had since the 1980s) is at rallies. I've been a stage marshal. I've helped run timing controls on occasion. I've co-driven sweep vehicles many times, and that experience landed me a gig in car 0, the course opening car, a few years back. More recently I've started !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as well, with my rally enthusiast girlfriend as my co-driver. In fact, pretty much the only role I haven't held at a rally yet is being a competitor, and we hope to do that someday as well.

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Though I didn't know what it was at the time, I now look back on that day at the Porsche show, seeing a famous Group B World Rally Championship car, and appreciate the opportunity to have seen a piece of rally history.

(Photo credits: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! )

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Justin Hughes 02/04/2015 at 14:49

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In fact, pretty much the only role I haven't held at a rally yet is being a competitor, and we hope to do that someday as well.

2016 Black River stages - Should be up there by then with the A-Dub, and none of my friends or family in New York are into motorsport at all, so I'll probably be looking for a co-driver.

Justin Hughes > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 02/04/2015 at 15:01

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Iiiiinteresting... I just confirmed that my girlfriend would NOT kill me for taking the opportunity. In fact, if she gets her ham radio license by then, we can set up rally car to service crew communications. And that gives me enough time to save up and acquire the suit, helmet, etc. Hmmm...

Boxer_4 > Justin Hughes 02/04/2015 at 15:10

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That's a really cool story. The Group B era was a very interesting time. One that I missed out on. I grew up in the late Group A and World Rally Car era. One of my first Matchbox cars was an Escort RS Cosworth . However, my interest in rally only really got started around 2001.

I got my first game console that Christmas, a PlayStation 2. My uncle gave me a copy of a game called Gran Turismo 3. I had never heard of the Gran Turismo series before (I was 8 at the time), but it looked interesting. It turned out that my favorite game mode was rally. I really enjoyed driving the courses, and found the cars with the loud graphics and big wings exciting.

The funny part was that I seem to remember almost always choosing the Subaru rally cars. This was well before I knew much about Subaru, or was really a big fan of them.

Later, when I got my PlayStation 3, my uncle got me Colin McRae: Dirt. I also really enjoyed that game. I think my uncle was trying to turn me into a rally fan, either on purpose or by accident.

Justin Hughes > Boxer_4 02/04/2015 at 15:16

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I spent way too much time playing Gran Turismo 2 and 3 myself. I picked the Subarus as well, because my wife at the time had a 96 Impreza L that I very much liked. It was interest in that car that led me to NASIOC, which led me down the slippery slope I described in the article.

And now, when I got a BRZ, it had to be World Rally Blue. I dipped my stock wheels gold, and have picked up a set of used gold Ultraleggeras for summer. Eventually, I want an unequal length header - not for any performance gains, but to get the stereotypical Subaru burble back in the exhaust note, because in my mind that has "rally car" written all over it.

Why didn't I just get a WRX? Last March there were no 2014s available, the 2015s weren't out yet, and I needed a new car immediately because my old one wouldn't pass inspection without four figures worth of work - money better put into a new car.

Apex Assassin > Justin Hughes 02/05/2015 at 00:09

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Hell yeah! Loved this story!!! Passion! That's what it's all about.

I recall feeling the same when I saw the Dakar 959s. Totally made me wonder wtf the rest of the world was doing with "911s". Seemed insane to me! In a really awesome kind of way!

Thanks!

Justin Hughes > Apex Assassin 02/05/2015 at 09:20

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Thanks! I'd love to see the 959s. That's another car I drooled over when I was a kid.