Saru

Hi,

REACT is holding our first two CAMS affiliated events.

The Three Lakes Touring Assembly, 14 November, 2004
The Three Lakes is an untimed navigational rally held on public roads around Canberra.

Crews will need a driver and navigator, at least one of whom will need a basic CAMS licence. Entry fee is $20 per crew. The fee goes towards preparing the road book and purchasing numbers for cars and trophies for the winners, as well as obtaining the CAMS permit and insurance cover.

For more information, see: http://www.react.org.au/wordpress/index.php?p=36

SaruSeven Motorkhana, 23 January, 2005
A motorkhana is an event composed of a series of "tests" designed to test the acceleration, braking and manouverability of a car. It takes place on a large flat area (tarmac in this case) and the course is marked with "flags", witches hats or traffic cones.

You may be familiar with the North American term "Autocross". A motorkhana is like an autocross but is typically held on shorter, tighter layouts.

Entrants will need a car and a CAMS licence. No special preparation of the car is necessary and helmets are not required in closed-roof cars. Entry fee is $35 per driver before 17 December and $40 after 17/12 and before 14 Jan 05. The fee goes towards the book of tests that each driver will receive and venue hire, as well as obtaining the CAMS permit and insurance cover.

For more information, see: http://www.react.org.au/wordpress/index.php?p=38

regards

Saru

*bump*

This could be you:

Note: CAMS motorkhanas do not require helmets in closed-roof cars.

pepe

Not unless you get your car converted to LHD

I'd go, but just put new hoops on it and really don't want to wear them out so soon...

Saru

We are now accepting late entries for the Touring Assembly on the 14th of November - $30 on the day*.

We have one RX-8 entry so far!

*plus $44 for a CAMS licence (if you don't have one) that you can also use for other REACT events (or even other club events).

RRS

Looking forward to it Saru.... specially after missing Natcap last week

Rowds

takahashi

There you go PEPE, a RHD version

RRS

OMFG!... how challenging was that!!!!!!!! But mostly fun! D

We went down to Canberra and met Saru on the morning of the event, and all the usual suspects (- ie. rally friends, who incidently we had spent most of the night before drinking with ) as well as a couple of MX-5 club members in an SP , a car from the MG club, a bridge ported RX 4, and a new Mini Cooper S - nice. We won't mention the Old Jag heapa!..

We were given 30 minutes before the start to plot out the route instructions on the provided maps - the first section being a 'herringbone' navigation( see Section 4) for a description) - which was annotated to make it easy.. we just used the annotations (street names) to work it out, which would be our undoing later!)

the Second section was a signpost chase- stay on the named road til you see another named road, then turn into it.. stay on that til you see the next one. - We plotted this also, and found it very straightforward to complete, and to get the information boards along the way

The third section was a modified route chart-- so you get drive 2.3 km, then turn right @ roundabout, drive 1.3 km then straight on etc. You couldnt' plot it, so the RX-8's dual trip meters came in really handy.. one for the interval, and one for the cummulative.This is what we are used to from special stage rallying so it was a doddle! That was until we got out of synch with the instructions leaving a carpark mid run, and followed the RX-4 owners the wrong way, cos they did the same thing, but we hung around til the MX-5 SP arrvied and followed them!... but easy as on the whole!

Section 4 was the most challenging, and frustrating thing I have ever done... imagine a vertical line on a page, with horizontal lines (either left or right or to both sides) of the vertical line at 8 mm intervals. Each horizontal line represents a road that you are to 'leave' ie.. not go down, and the vertical represents the road you are on at any given point in time. So if the first horizontal is to the left.. you leave the road to the left---so if there is a sideroad to the left, you don't go down it, and stay on the road you are currently travelling on, If there is not a road to the left, but a road to the right, you take that road. If you come to a T intersection you would also Turn right in this case. Every road that is on the route is represented.

Sounds easy??No it sounds really really confusing.. It is! and then some new roads aren't on the map, and once you are out of synch with it, you end up eventually in a cul de sac or the roads just don't line up anymore! The only way to be sure you're on the right track is to start again!!!! We started again 4 times!!!!!!! Our cause wasn't helped by 1) plotting it on the map wrongly, and ending up at the 2nd Information board( which was our 1st!) before people who had left the control 20 minutes before us, then realising we'd ballsed up big time, so going back to the start again., and my nav starting on the 2nd page of the herringbones when we 1st left!...

After about 60 minutes of driving the same 5 km 4 times, and some heated discussion I decided that really all I was gaining was higher blood pressure and a strong desire to strangle the dude who thought herringbones up!!!!!!!, so I pulled the pin and we drove straight to the finish- only to discover that we were th 3rd ones there!.. everyone else was still out there and still lost!!! We lead the event for a little while only to be beaten by 3 crews who made it mostly to the end of the section. The winning crew took over 2 hours to complete this section! Talk about determined! .. we'd all had a BBQ by the time they arrived.. and they still wanted to go back out and try some more!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!

Still a great day out, some wicked drivers sunburn to be had, and a huge thanks to Saru and fro for putting the show on, and to everyone who came out and officialled, we had a lot of fun.

my partner and Nav is uber keen to do another one, especially with herringbones! she's mental, ! completely totally mental!!


I would enourage lots of people to have a go at this type of event. Good fun, no speed involved but plenty of skill, and you get to meet a huge variety of people

Cheers

Rowds

Saru

No. Every road that is on the MAP is represented. :D Roads exist on the map that don't exist in real-life and roads exist in real life that don't exist on the map. :p

I'm glad you had such a good time

Fro and I have an idea for the next one - we'll get some day-licences so that people not in a car club can join in, too.

Oh, here's a Herringbone demo I had lying around:



For what it's worth, if you're in Brisbane, the Marque Sports Car Club runs these kind of events all the time, under their Night Run series:
http://www.msccqld.org.au/

In Sydney, Melb, Adelaide, I'm sorry, I don't know which clubs run similar events.

RRS

you missed this bit in my post " and then some new roads aren't on the map "... I didn't realise that you could have roads on the map that didn't exist too!! EEK!!!!!!!

Cheers


Rowds

Saru

Ah, sorry, yes I did.

Anyway, apparently the HRA events are heaps harder again. The maps they use are quite old so roads that are on their maps may still be there but might not be main roads any more or might follow new routes!