1988 Changes
In the mid-1980s, road rallies were starting to cause a good deal of concern for the police and others, who felt that speeds had become too high. At this time, road rallying was still very much based on speed and driving skill with much less emphasis on the navigation than there is today. A variety of proposals were discussed in the motorsport press for a number of years about how to address these concerns while keeping the sport viable. These included a proposed maximum engine capacity limit. In the meantime, cars were being prepared to an ever greater degree and speeds were rising. Commercial sponsorship was permitted and despite the sport's relatively low profile, many of the top crews did acquire sponsorship. Police started to monitor events more closely, and in a series of highly publicised 'fact finding' episodes, revealed that some cars had been regularly 'clocked' travelling at over 120 mph (190 km/h), and in one case, 150 mph (240 km/h) on rural country lanes. While the police made no arrests regarding this, they did voice their concerns publicly and insisted that the MSA do something about it. Proponents of the sport argued that the police's case was weak, since in practice accidents were extremely few, and where they did occur rarely involved members of the public not involved in the event. Third-party property damage was already fully insured under the existing rules. Injuries were extremely uncommon, since most cars featured the same safety devices (roll cage, full harnesses, firewalls, etc.) as fully prepared stage rally cars. Insurance for competing crews was cheap and easy to obtain, reflecting the good safety record of the sport.
In 1988, the rule changes came into force, having a dramatic impact on the popularity of the sport, though largely achieving the police's aims at reducing speeds. These changes included:
- No signwriting or other "motorsports" decals on the vehicles, except for the organisers' rally plates (this effectively removed commercial sponsorship from the sport).
- Rally plates to be small (30 cm x 10 cm approx) showing the event name and competitor number only
- "Bogey times" outlawed
- Targa timing banned - all events must be timed using ordinary time of day (this rule gives greater accountability for the speeds set for the event)
- A maximum average speed of 30 mph for every section of the course
- "Preplot" route information outlawed except for forbidden zones ("blackspots") and essential safety information
- Maximum four cylinder engine permitted
- Fuel injection only allowed where fitted as standard
- New rules regarding maximum tyre and wheel sizes
- Signature of awareness from all residents affected by a route to be obtained in order to obtain an event permit
- All route information to be submitted and approved by the police prior to the event
- Stricter noise level limits
While these changes were not as draconian as many had feared (for example, one of the most popular cars for road rallies at this time was the Mk II Ford Escort, usually fitted with a 2-litre+ high performance engine - many thought these would be banned in favour of a maximum capacity limit of 1300cc or even 1100cc), the changes had a dramatic impact. The loss of targa timing for example meant that organisers were forced to make the navigation much more difficult, and by eliminating preplot (decoding and plotting all route information prior to the start) in favour of so-called "plot 'n' bash" navigation, shifted the focus of the competition onto the navigation. This did not eliminate the high driving speeds since once the route was deciphered and plotted, it had to be driven - and the route plotting was now "against the clock" too. Another device to achieve the 30 mph rule was to use much tighter, twistier routes and green lanes (known in some areas as "whites", since such roads appear as white roads on Ordnance Survey Landranger maps) that could not be driven at high speed. Despite this, speeds were still high, and organisers developed a number of methods whereby the new rules were met, but some of the flavour of the older style events was retained (e.g. "restart" sections where competitors were held in a queue for a time in order to allow the slower crews to catch up - this dead time counted towards the overall 30 mph average, thus the rest of the rally could proceed at a higher speed without breaking the rules). Note that a 30 mph average is still quite high when the type of roads used is considered, especially as this average includes non-competitive link sections that may be timed at a very low average, such as 15 or 20 mph. However, with the elimination of commercial sponsorship, less money came into the sport and over time this had an impact on the degree to which cars were able to be prepared by the average competitor. Many of the top road rally crews quickly moved into stage rallies - notable among them was one time Welsh road-rally demon Gwyndaf Evans.
Road rallies still make up a significant popular element of amateur motorsport in the UK, but most crews graduate to stage rallies, or start with stage rallies rather than serve the traditional road-rally 'apprenticeship'. However, with their emphasis on map reading and navigational skills, they remain a very competitive, fun and worthwhile pursuit for many.
Read more about this topic: Road Rally