An SCCA safety steward would E36 M3 a brick....sideways at this.

I didn’t want to E36 M3 up the ‘Rollover Protection’ thread any more, but I thought people would get a kick out of this. Here in the US and Canada we have TSD’s, timed rally’s on open public roads. In England they have 12 car rally’s which are the same thing, but as the name suggests are limited to 12 cars but tend to be much much faster and really push the concept of obeying road traffic laws to a laughable extent. Apparently over in Ireland they have something called Lanes Rally’s. These are kinda sorta like TSD’s with rally crosses added as ‘tests’ . To comply with road laws there the road sections are super super easy with very very low average speeds meaning there is zero chance or need to break any laws. You can pull up, wait minutes then roll into a control. But it’s the tests that blow my mind. I say they are like rallycross in the loosest terms. U understand crash helmets are specifically banned, but the courses they drive would send an SCCA official or Insurance underwriter into apoplexy.

First here’s some pics.

Not enough?

What about some vid clips.

In car, remember no helmets, but nice soft things to hit!!!!!!

Another.

One more

Think about the children.

David S. Wallens wrote: Think about the children.

Yes, I'd love my kids to try this :)

More, as you can see they are taking it nice and easy, not pushing too hard or anything

that right front could use a touch more tire pressure

Rear tire appears to be spitting gravel, is that Mini 4WD?

It doesn't look any worse than rush hour on I26 and it's a lot slower. I don't usually wear a helmet on the way to work either.

At 16, I was doing much worse in a Chevy truck, bombing around the dirt roads near my house. I just wish there was something like that around here now.

Doesn't have to be. Tire kicks gravel, car moves forward, gravel makes a line.

Tire pressure... could use more but it's amazing how much tires flex, especially if you photograph them at just the "right" time.

Here's a demo of both of these, since I know it exists:

Check the folding-under of the R/R rally tire at 35psi. And the spray coming off of the fronts on this not 4WD car.

Why cant we have this stuff here!

Uncoiled wrote: Why cant we have this stuff here!

Because the event organizers, property owners, and everyone that had any affiliation with the event would get named it a lawsuit when some dweeb ran out of ability and hit a tree.

Blame the lawyers.

In reply to Uncoiled:

Nobody ever told me motorsports may be dangerous, now my forehead is shaped like the steering wheel. I'm sueing the car manufacturer, all my fellow competitors, the event organizers, the land owners and the spectators.

Edit; Toyman beat me to it

Hey, that Miata does at least have the windows rolled up.

My favorite was the time someone showed up in a Solstice. "You have to have a hardtop." "Oh, I do have a hardtop. It's at home."

"Helmets are specifically banned" - this part confuses me.

If you have helmets you might think it's okay to crash, duh!

Makes sense to me

I drive my cars hard. I've raced them in the SCCA and numerous track days. Totaled more them my share, and never been upside down. They are just rolling the dice man. Just like going on a roof without a harness, swimming with sharks, golfing in the rain, texting while driving.... But yea, thats pretty stupid, especially since everybody knows cars with cages look cool.

Sounds a lot like how the Safari series I compete in started out way back when. People used to enter in rally cars (which was pretty crazy considering the offroading and "tests"), but the offroading got more extreme and eventually it shifted to 4x4s.

ssswitch wrote: If you have helmets you might think it's okay to crash, duh!

Makes sense to me. Why don't we put a jagged spike facing the driver on the face of the steering wheel and see if that driver even blinks while the car is moving. My guess is no and texting would be out of the question.

Indiana Rallycross (not scca), I hear operates well beyond what SCCA would sanction but they do require helmets.

I'm guessing (information pulled from where the sun don't shine) that the lack of helmet rule IS some kind of insurance thing, it could be a helmet indicates a race and their insurance coverage prevents this.

It is Ireland after all!

BTW, I'm just reporting this, not advocating it.

I wish there was something like this here, but most certainly WITH a helmet requirement. I'd ray convertibles need a roll bar, but wouldn't insist on the factory hard top thing, just make sure the soft top (if fitted) was up. I'd also allow factory roll protection like NC Miata's, S2000's and Boxsters, but I'm not the underwriter either. Want to lanes rally a Caterham 7 with a roll bar. Go for it.

kazoospec wrote: "Helmets are specifically banned" - this part confuses me.

If they're Irish, drinking and beating your wife between stages is probably mandatory......lol Ireland.

This seems relatively tame, seeing as Ireland is the last bastion of road racing in the literal sense. Whereas the Isle of Man is a time trial on public roads, not wheel to wheel racing, Irish roadracing is literally road racing, wheel to wheel racing on public roads - that often seem barely wide enough to fit one car width. They qualify, grid up, and race. True madness. Would really love to see it in person someday. Just google vid: skerries, killalane, ulster gp, etc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NapquX_EXA

grpb wrote: This seems relatively tame, seeing as Ireland is the last bastion of road racing in the literal sense. Whereas the Isle of Man is a time trial on public roads, not wheel to wheel racing, Irish roadracing is literally road racing, wheel to wheel racing on public roads - that often seem barely wide enough to fit one car width. They qualify, grid up, and race. True madness. Would really love to see it in person someday. Just google vid: skerries, killalane, ulster gp, etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NapquX_EXA

Holy moly, never heard of that one before

Survived!!!!

Bringing my own thread back from the dead. I thought I'd post these pics.

Over here in the USA the generally held belief is that if you have a roll cage or roll bar in a street car without a helmet you will die and explode in flames as soon as you engage first gear and that the baby Jesus will start eating live kittens while watching internet Pron.

I've long argued against, especialy when you look at things like Jeep Wranglers with roll cages right next to peoples heads, so want to add some more pics.

Road Rallying is huge in the UK. Like TSD's here but faster. It's limited to a max 40mph average speed, but if you've seen many British country roads you'll know that trying to maintain 40mph is just a fantasy. Please remember that helmets are BANNED in these events as they are on OPEN public roads. Many, not all, but many competitors have roll bars or roll cages and MANY have accidents, sliding sideways into things, rolling into ditches etc. Guess what? People aren't getting hurt, I've heard of no Porn being downloaded in heaven and I'm not aware of baby kittens being eaten by the big J.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6rwBHezP-A

BTW, the blue Fiesta that's the first picture above went sideways into a solid granite gate post with no harm to the occupants. Here is it's roll cage and padding. Now personally I would have real FIA padding and on the A and B pillars too, but you get my point.