The Golden Years of Rallying

[Sota]

by Al Hufnagel
(originally written in 1986. some dates changed to make the time references current.)

Chapter 1 - The Environment

"THOSE WHO CANNOT REMEMBER THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT." - Santayana

Forty years ago in New Jersey there were over fifty auto sports clubs. These clubs sponsored well over 200 rallies a year. About 75% of these events were TSDs with the remaining 25% being an assortment of gimmick events.

Rallies could occasionally be found on Wednesday nights and always on Friday nights. On any given Sunday, between three (during the winter) and seven (during the summer) rallies were being held across the state. So many rallies wre held on one particular day in 1967 that rallists on a Triumph SCC event found themselves stopping at a checkpoint for a Mustang Car Club event which was running on the same road at the same time.

Night rallies were usually 35 to 50 miles in length, day rallies were usually 100 to 120 miles long. All-nignt rallies, covering 300 miles and having 12-20 checkpoints occurred several times a year, with smaller clubs sometimes banding together to hold a single event. The TRI-CLUB ALL-NIGHTER, for example, was held by Harbor SCC, South Jersey SCC, and Delaware Valley SCC. New Jersey's entry into the SCCA National Rally Series was the JERSEY 500. As its name implied, it was 500 miles long. Split over two days, it had over 25 checkpoints.

The typical night rally could expect 25 to 35 cars, although Triumph SCC's Wednesday night rallies were known to double that number. Less than 45 cars on a Sunday rally was rare unless many other events occured on that day. Council events (read on to find out who they were) always had 60+ entries, with as many as 12 of them being Equipped Class (now known as Class A.)

Two dozen of the larger clubs had formed the N.J. Council of Sports Car Clubs (commonly known as the "Council"). Twelve TSD rallies were held each year as Championship events with the overall winner becoming the accepted State Champ. The largest of these events (and traditionally the first of each year's series) was the MONTI CARLO, an all-nighter which consistantly drew its maximum of 180 cars.

New Jersey was not alone in this level of rally activity. Other areas of the country were equally active. There even was an intercouncil championship series. The JERSEY DEVIL RALLYE by South Jersey SCC was one such event with the councils from New Jersey, Long Island, and Connecticut participating.

As the 60s came to a close, no one expected that the next few years would bring dramatic changes to the rally scene. What happened in the next decade is the topic of chapter 5.

--------------------------------

Glossary:
TSD... time, speed, distance

Equipped... having electrical or mechanical aids to monitor and/or control speed and
distance covered.

SOP... Seat Of Pants, having none of the aids of any other class. Calculators were allowed (once they became available to the masses... remember it was the 60s!)

[Sota]

Chapter 2 - The Rally

A TSD rally in the late 60s had many outward similarities to those held today. The General and Route Instructions looked identical to their 1986 counterparts. But differences exist in both the concepts and execution of the events.

The average rally of 1966 would today be called a "trap" rally (in which the rallymaster tries to trap you into doing something wrong.) These traps coupld be a simple "well placed" sign, an easy logic problem (CAS 32 two miles before next checkpoint), or the nasty second-order logic problem (R after Dead End Road.) In any case, these traps were well thought out and well checked prior to the rally. Night events were generally easier than Sunday events, which often pulled one trap every 15 miles or so.

Speeds were slower than today. In 1966, one of the best ways to limit the number of entries in your rally was to advertise "brisk speeds." Most events averaged only 30 MPH while running (less if you counted checkpoint delays.) The driver's function was to stay on-course, being on-time was the easy part. The requirement to go even modestly fast rarely arose to the better teams.

In addition to the usual methods of presenting rout instructions, some unique ways were also used. One rally became famous for using photographs of the rallymaster's car running the route ("simply" follow the rallymaster.) At least one Council event presented the instructions incorporated into a narrative history of the region. (The route instructions were single-spaced and 26 pages long.)

Precision was mandatory in 1966. A checkpoint was once thrown out because a rallymaster wrote "Jones Rd." instead of "Jones Rd". Clubs which produced flawed events found their attendance dropping. (Note that there is no such thing as a "little flaw" to a rallyist whose total score for the last 10 checkpoints is 27.)

Sixties rallies were events in which Novices may not have done well, but their errors could be explained in great detail. The Old Pros either won, or came to the finish muttering to themselves how stupid they were to have missed "such an easy instruction." Those Novices who learned from their mistakes soon found themselves winning, since after all, there were only so many variations on a trap possible.

Sixties rallies were tests of mental concentration, not of machines or driving skill. Contestants battled with the cunningness of the rallymaster, but the battle had strict rules which were followed to the letter. In the high pressure world of the Northeast, such a battle drew a large and dedicated following.

--------------------------------

Glossary:
Points... a point is assigned for every second you are either late or early for the time you are supposed to arrive at a checkpoint. Other penalties are assigned for missing checkpoints or other required markers. The team with the lowest score for an event won.

[Sota]

Chapter 3 - The Rallyist

With rallies being run every weekend, it was easy for someone in 1966 to get hooked on rallying. Flyers announcing rallies were at every sports car dealer (numerous in 1966) and weekly schedules were published in major newspapers.

The sports car was the common thread of rallyists. Not the glorified four-passenger vehicle now called "sporty", but true two-seater ragtops. In 1966, two years before emissionscontrol, MGs and Triumphs were everywhere. Jaguar XKEs and Corvettes (list price $5000) held up the high end of Sportcardom. The first Alfa Romeo Spyder in the US found it's way to a NJ rallyist. Even Volvo was represented by the P1800. With the exception of the ever-present Volkswagon Bug, two seaters were the standard rally car.

Then, as now, rallyists came from all backgrounds. But in 1966, high tech careers were in vogue (in less than 36 months, man would set foot on the moon.) The mathematics and raw logic required for TSD rallying were magnets to people in these professions. Rallies held in North Jersey (close to NYC and Long Island) found engineers from Grumman Aircraft among the entries. South Jersey clubs found the Cherry Hill crew from RCA and Princeton academia at their events. Many folks were switch hitters in what class they ran. The state champion in SOP clas often ran in Equipped class (class A) in non-championship events. The opposite was true for some, as they ran "casual" rallies in SOP with girlfriends and spouses, and championship events in Equipped with another "pro."

The bottom line was that rallyists of 1966 were a very homogenious group - bound not only by a common vehicle, but also by education and experience. It was little wonder that Sunday rallies would consistantly bring out 50-60 entries, week after week. Rallies were as much a social event as they were a contest.

What happened when an engineer entered the workd of 1966 rallying? The next chapter will cover what devices the "really serious" rallyist could have in his car.

[Sota]

Chapter 4 - Rally Equipment

In 1966, the term "pocket calculator" refered to a round cardboard device on which was printed the conversion from feet to meters. Digital watches were still a dream, even to the wizards down at Texas Instruments. An electronic calculator capable of adding up to 4 16-digit numbers was the size of a large briefcase and cost the same as a Volkswagon ($1695.)

In rallying, being Equipped (now called Class A) meant one of two things - you had a CURTA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curta) or you had made a Rally Computer.
A CURTA was a mechanical adding machine the size and shape of a pepper grinder. A marvel of mechanical precision, it had tiny numbers and required superhuman dexterity to operate. At a cost of $300 (1966 price), the purchase of a CURTA was a decision not made lightly - fewer than 20 existed in the state.

Two commercial "Rally Computers" were available in 1966. The first, by HALDA, was the SPEEDPILOT, an all-mechancial analog device. If perfectly set, it could kep the car to within .50 minutes of the right time, roughly the same as a good SOP driver could maintain. There were no SPEEDPILOTs in NJ. The second, by CAPT THOMAS, was the TOMMY BOX. It was mostly mechanical, but produced electrical switch closures at its output. The readout device was left to the buyer to design and construct. There were no TOMMY BOXs in NJ either.

All rally computers in NJ (and in fact the whole Northeast) were homemade. Lacking today's digital electronics, most of which hadn't been invented yet, these were mostly electromechanical devices (relays to the non-electronic folks.) Upwards of 15 relays, mechanical counters, and stepper switches could be actuated simultaneously in these systems, creating sounds that could be heard even in the loudest Triumph. The designs ranged the gauntlet from an all-transistor machine (the owner would have been fired if his employer had found out where all their transistors had gone - its cost was estimated at several thousand dollars) to stepper switch models held together only by their massive wiring harnesses. It should be noted that these rally computers were all dial-in-factor models (minutes-per-mile not miles-per-hour.) The electronics to do either odometer correction or dial-in-speed were not yet within practical reach.

For those in the Unequipped class, the only specialized odometer available was the HALDA. It was reasonably priced, and had all the necessary features, including the most important, the ability to run backwards (for those "occasional" off-course excursions.) All watches were by HEUER, since they were the only company that made a stopwatch with a dail that read in 1/100 minutes. Digital clocks existed only as part of the homemade rally computers and were run from small 400cps motors obtained from Navy surplus.

Technology was moving fast in 1966, for in less than seven years the $10 pocket calculator would be everywhere. But that wasn't the headline story in 1973. What was signaled the end of the Golden Years of Rallying.

[Sota]

Chapter 5 - Where Did It All Go?

Over fifty car clubs, hundreds of events every year, attracting thousands of entrants. Where did it all go? Several things occurred in the late 60s and early 70s which changed not only rallying, but life in general.

From an automotive perspective, emissions controls reared its omnipresent head in 1968, spelling the death of raw high performance cars and most sports cars. Almost all of the 1960-67 sports cars had engines which were designed for anything but pollution control. Most could not be saved even by using every add-on device known to man. As standards were raised, sports cars were slowly dropped from the US market. The Sunbeam Tiger was the first to go. The venerable MGB held on the longest, surviving until 1981. It had been reduced to a shadow of its former glory, with dismal performance, thanks to only one carburetor and a body three inches higher than its designers intended. At the same time as this decline, the Japanese imports were taking over. The cars from Japan were sedans, not sports cars (the Datsun 240Z was the exception.) The world flocked to these cars, further sealing the fate of the sports car. With that death, the glue that held rallyists together started to disolve.

In 1973, the first of two oil shortages struck. The shortage was over in six months, but the memories lingered on. Suddenly, driving for pleasure was near Un-American.

Vietnam was over in 1973, but its memory too, lingered on. All facets of life were affected. High-tech careers (many of which were not viewed as "military related") were out. Liberal arts colleges were in. Engineers were driving taxis just to bring home a paycheck.

Given all this, rallying didn't stand a chance. The sport faded quickly from its heyday. The flame didn't go out, but the fule that rekindled the fire later in the decade was not the seasoned hardwood used before. The lessons learned were lost; a new generation of rallyists, unguided by past experience, made errors that long ago had been corrected.

Can the Golden Years of Rallying return? In the final chapter, we'll look at a way out of this valley.

[Sota]

Chapter 6 - Rebirth

Can rallying return to the level of the late 1960s? Yes, but first we must ask what is different between then and now.

The cars are different. Chapters 3 and 5 covered this, and the old ways can't return. This is not good, but as long as the owner of a Tercel thinks he owns a sports car, it doesn't matter.
The people are the same. The high-tech engineer has been replaced by the high-tech programmer, or at least a person familiar with computers.
Technology has changed. Digital clocks and computers are commonplace and inexpensive. This can only help a sport like rallying.
The events are different. This is the one condition directly under the control of existing clubs and is theirs to change.

To perform the resurrection, several things must be done by rallyists and organizations holding rallies.

First, and most important, precision must return to rallying. The instruction "S at Stop." is redundant, and specifically forbidden in the generals, yet they exist. Misspellings abound and are sluffed off with the statement "well, submit a time allowance for it." That may work for experienced rallyists, but it will not help the novice who never finds the "right" sign (and also never finds the end of the rally.) Precision is obtained by checkrunning the route with experienced teams. Their purpose is to find errors, not check speeds or learn rallying. They must be ruthless and nitpicking.

Second, rallies must not be "carbusters" (sometimes called "pro rallies".) Remember that for all but a very few, the family car is the rally car. If there is the slightest hint that rallying requires risk-taking, the average person will not put his only car in the event. Pictures of airborn rally cars or ones plowing through mud hurt the rally image, not help it. The first statement in the generals saying "This is not a race." is not enough. It must be true, even for the person who slows at every intersection look for the sign.

Lastly, growth must be possible. Novices don't stay that way forever. While some never wish to enter more than SOP class, many would gladly enter Class A if they knew what it was and could obtain the right equipment. Most of today's rallyists don't even know what a rally computer is, or what it should do, much less how it works. Cars with specalized rally equipment should be at every event, even if they are the organizer's vehicle. Driving lights, helmets, and roll bars are not rally equipment. Digital 1/100-reading clocks, and electronic odometers are.

Will this work? The proof comes from a rally club in Kansas, the Mid-America Rally Club. They were decimated in 1973, just like every other club. But they had dedicated members of national rally fame and they implemented the concepts given above. By 197, their entries at rallies had doubled and was growing. A similar effort here in New Jersey could bring similar results.