A few weeks ago, my co-driver Josée and I participated in a navigation rally called "La Grosse Ride", which covered a couple of hundred kilometers in the Laurentians. This would be our third time running this rally. Since I sold the Saabaru, I don't really have a car that would be suitable for an event of this type held in winter (I would love to use the Civic or M3 for a summer event). I offered to co-drive for Josée in her Subaru Impreza, but she preferred that I drive, in her car. This seemed like a fun idea, so I signed us up.
I drove the Impeza on the way to the event and I could tell the car would do just fine in the rally. A very large percentage of participants were driving Subarus, as usual. There was to be a change in the way the rally was run this year: when you reached a checkpoint, your out time would be the same as your in time, so your average speed was calculated as if you had never stopped at the checkpoint. This meant that we were frequently running "late" and there was less risk of incurring penalties for early arrival. This worked out well for us, because the penalties for early arrival are twice as severe as those for late arrival, and that was the kind of penalties that usually moved us down in the results.
As we set off in the rally, I was quite enjoying this standard Impreza. The lack of a turbo did not seem at all like an inconvenience. The car's acceleration was more than enough for the winter conditions on these twisty country roads. We were not using any special GPS apps to track our average speed, just seat-of-the pants and rough calculations, focusing on having fun. It all worked out in the end, as we finished third over all, not too far off the winners (we were third out of 5 teams in the expert class). Josée's nephew, whose co-driver was Josée's partner Guy, was not so lucky, ending up deep into a snowy area off the road. We went to meet them just as a tow truck had finished extracting his WRX. After all this, we arrived home in the middle of the night. Still, it was a fun event and I'm really grateful that Josée and Guy let me drive their car. (Sorry I forgot to photograph the Impreza!).
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Cool E46 rally beater
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Subaru cylinder head on display at Lachute Performance, the rally HQ
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| Cool variety of Subarus at Lachute |
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Best-looking new WRX I've seen so far
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Eric in front of the hole made by his off-road excursion
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Josée and her nephew Eric
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| Josée and I, tired after a long night. |
