I found this world through classic car rallying in Japan, and I only really learned the difference between a rally and a race after living through a great many of both myself.
This piece takes on the question I get asked often — “what’s the difference between a race and a rally?” — while telling you more about the classic car rallying I have driven.
The difference between a rally and a race
A race is two or more cars starting at the same time and competing to see who finishes first — Formula One is the famous example.
A rally sends cars off one at a time, staggered, and they finish the same way.
Within classic car rallying, a PC event on public roads is not about who arrives first but who arrives most precisely.
What is called a PC event in classic car rallying competes on hitting lines like the ones below to an accuracy of 0.01 seconds.
Here is what our PC event practice in classic car rallying looks like.
As for JAF-line rallying, you take a production car, modify it within the competition’s rules, and rally it.
The car I first prepared to enter a JAF-line rally was this Vitz.
There are various events within it; here is what a JAF round looks like.
This really was very early on — completely different from the rallying I had done before, so the weight of the driver’s and co-driver’s roles changes too.
What is a classic car rally?
Most of what I have driven is classic car rallying.
Within rallying, the classic car world is its own distinct category.
Driven on ordinary public roads
A rally is driven on ordinary public roads, so of course you keep to the legal speed limit and the traffic rules.
Unlike a circuit, the grip of the surface is completely different, and there is gravel and all sorts of other conditions.
Even in harsh conditions, concentrating on your driving with everything your body has, with fine attention throughout, is demanding — but the joy of driving through a landscape is something special.
Because it is driven on ordinary public roads, there is none of a circuit’s run-off, its safety margin.
On rallies abroad I have seen a single mistake send a car off a cliff or roll it over, so danger sits right next to it, as it does throughout motorsport — and even so I stay caught by the appeal of rallying.
A rally is contested in cars within a defined range of modification
Classic rallying includes an era limit, and cars compete within a defined range of modification. With safety equipment and the rest, a rally car built for public roads is thoroughly focused on safety while competing.
The appeal of rallying
Finally, the appeal of rallying is that it is a fight to master every kind of surface, condition and environment.
The driver has an appeal of their own, as in racing, but coming to know different categories of competition has really let me feel what makes rallying wonderful.
Rallying is a motorsport that takes courage too
Rallying is also a category that needs courage. You keep driving all sorts of public roads.
A small mistake could turn into a major accident, but driving on boldly with courage is, I think, part of the appeal for us drivers and for a lot of rally fans too.
Get the braking wrong and you can go straight into a wall, or through it and off a cliff — it is not unusual at all.
This is my Vitz, wheel off the road from a single instant’s mistake … (tears).
Retiring hurts, but simply driving without injury turned even the trouble into something I could enjoy.
Go off the course and there is no safety out there. But fear too much and the win never comes. It is a sport that demands a balance between attack and defence.
Official and non-official events
In motorsport, there are what are called official events, and there are events that are not. Most of the classic car rallying I entered in Japan was not official, so I did not need a licence.
There is naturally no set clothing, and no equipment rules either.
There is competition, but nothing binding about it in that particular way.
Getting the domestic Class A/B and international Class C rally licences
From that world of rallying, I moved towards entering rallies abroad — the Mille Miglia, the Monte-Carlo Classic, the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge — and first obtained the domestic Class A and Class B licences.
That starts with training on a circuit. Entering an official event requires the Motorsport Licence issued by the JAF.
And for official events abroad, as in my own case, you need what is calledan international Class C licence or an international rally licence.
In summary
A race and a rally are enormously different.
But what they share is that each is packed with its own appeal.
Motorsport runs very deep. I intend to keep taking it on, and keep enjoying it.