Yiannis197
Paid Member
So I came back from my Transiberian - Transmongolian railway adventures and headed straight to Wales for the weekend. I always had an itch for some rally driving but had totally zero experience, Phil Price rally school came to change that!
For the ones who don't know him, Phil is a legend and a highly respected individual in the rally industry. Not only he has trained (and still does) several WRC drivers including various big names but drivers and teams use his facilities to develop and test their cars. The way he talks about rallying makes you realise how passionate he is about it, I could go for hours listening to his stuff.
Finished work on Friday and departed soon after, it's definitely not close, nearly 4 hour drive from central London but hey, it's all about Wales' B roads Arrived late at night at a gorgeous B&B in the middle on nowhere and wake up to this;
DSC00399 by YiannisR27, on Flickr
Fogy morning, full of green, promising weather, and lots of sheep as expected. After being treated to a lovely full English we headed for the stages, 6 miles away. We were the last to arrive - without being late - so we got around meeting all the attendees. 8 drivers (maximum number per day), 7 men and a woman (who was quicker than me at the timed sessions and I'm not even embarrassed to admit it!). Introduction, basic coaching over videos, coffee and off we went to get ourselves in gear. The day consisted of trying to make the car slide, to then maintain the slide and then flip it from one side to the other. God that was fun! Whilst waiting for our turn we had the chance to go to the main rally stage for a blast with an AWD Impreza and Phil as a co-driver. The task was to blindly follow his instructions - having digested all the code presented to us in the morning - and drive on a specific configuration of the stage. I think I got the 50% of it, it was not easy! That's my excuse anyway
The other cars were 2 rally prep'd RWD Subaru Imprezas, going around with instructors literally shouting at us, in a good way of course! It really was awesome. They kept watering the track so as to make it easier for us but the mud was gradually drying through the day making the whole thing trickier as you'd go along. We had totally about 10 runs each plus 3 runs for the competition (clockwise, anti-clockwise and a final go for trying to improve the slowest run). What I did notice was how competitive people became when the timer was up and running! Up until that point everyone was spinning, hitting cones, sliding etc, during the timed sessions they were literally driving around with all wheels on full traction lol, which I found hilarious. On the contrary, I was giving it full beans trying to slide and perform the Scandinavian flick (unsuccessfully) on totally dry gravel, taking several tyres and cones on the way (and time penalties of course). Did I care? Obviously not, did I have fun? God I did!!
Highlight of the day was when Phil took his Group A Subaru out to take us all for a ride in the rally stage. And it was scary. You can't really tell from the video but it was nuts, especially when you don't know/see where the roads goes, when the car is flying and dancing and when there is a drop next to you without barriers. That was my first experience in a proper rally car with a proper driver, and it was the best thing I've ever done in regards to motoring experience.
A couple of pics and a video with Phil driving;
DSC00403 by YiannisR27, on Flickr
DSC00411 by YiannisR27, on Flickr
DSC00406 by YiannisR27, on Flickr
For the ones who don't know him, Phil is a legend and a highly respected individual in the rally industry. Not only he has trained (and still does) several WRC drivers including various big names but drivers and teams use his facilities to develop and test their cars. The way he talks about rallying makes you realise how passionate he is about it, I could go for hours listening to his stuff.
Finished work on Friday and departed soon after, it's definitely not close, nearly 4 hour drive from central London but hey, it's all about Wales' B roads Arrived late at night at a gorgeous B&B in the middle on nowhere and wake up to this;
DSC00399 by YiannisR27, on Flickr
Fogy morning, full of green, promising weather, and lots of sheep as expected. After being treated to a lovely full English we headed for the stages, 6 miles away. We were the last to arrive - without being late - so we got around meeting all the attendees. 8 drivers (maximum number per day), 7 men and a woman (who was quicker than me at the timed sessions and I'm not even embarrassed to admit it!). Introduction, basic coaching over videos, coffee and off we went to get ourselves in gear. The day consisted of trying to make the car slide, to then maintain the slide and then flip it from one side to the other. God that was fun! Whilst waiting for our turn we had the chance to go to the main rally stage for a blast with an AWD Impreza and Phil as a co-driver. The task was to blindly follow his instructions - having digested all the code presented to us in the morning - and drive on a specific configuration of the stage. I think I got the 50% of it, it was not easy! That's my excuse anyway
The other cars were 2 rally prep'd RWD Subaru Imprezas, going around with instructors literally shouting at us, in a good way of course! It really was awesome. They kept watering the track so as to make it easier for us but the mud was gradually drying through the day making the whole thing trickier as you'd go along. We had totally about 10 runs each plus 3 runs for the competition (clockwise, anti-clockwise and a final go for trying to improve the slowest run). What I did notice was how competitive people became when the timer was up and running! Up until that point everyone was spinning, hitting cones, sliding etc, during the timed sessions they were literally driving around with all wheels on full traction lol, which I found hilarious. On the contrary, I was giving it full beans trying to slide and perform the Scandinavian flick (unsuccessfully) on totally dry gravel, taking several tyres and cones on the way (and time penalties of course). Did I care? Obviously not, did I have fun? God I did!!
Highlight of the day was when Phil took his Group A Subaru out to take us all for a ride in the rally stage. And it was scary. You can't really tell from the video but it was nuts, especially when you don't know/see where the roads goes, when the car is flying and dancing and when there is a drop next to you without barriers. That was my first experience in a proper rally car with a proper driver, and it was the best thing I've ever done in regards to motoring experience.
A couple of pics and a video with Phil driving;
DSC00403 by YiannisR27, on Flickr
DSC00411 by YiannisR27, on Flickr
DSC00406 by YiannisR27, on Flickr
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