Stupid question. Why not rally?

[Holland375]

Besides the hill climbs, has anyone ran a roadster or cobra coupe or 65 coupe in a rally?
I know one of the main guys died racing a 65 coupe in australia, but it seems like a very nimble car???

[GThompson]

What kind of rally are you talking about? Road rally (TSD or scavenger hunt)? Or “performance rally” (SCCA ProRally or WRC)? They’d be great for road rally until the snow falls, then they’d be a real challenge. I’m in western NY and we have a winter road rally series that’s fairly popular but, knowing the roads that are regularly used, I would not take my Daytona out to one. I’ve taken my M3 to a few and the local rallies can beat the crap out the cars. For performance rallies you’d need to check the rule books of the sanctioning body running the event to see if the cars would be legal. Worst case they’d just say no because it’s not “based on a production vehicle”. Best case, they’d let you run but the roll cage would have to meet their specs (or the current FIA rules) and you may need to have a metal roof. I’m planning on adding a TerraTrip 303 rally odometer to my Daytona so I can do summer road rallies with it.

Thankfully the Peter Brock that died racing a Superformance Daytona wasn’t the same Peter Brock that designed the car our Type 65 replicas are based on.

[J R Jones]

We built a 1954 Corvette to replicate the Von Esser car that ran La Carrera Pan America in 1954. It had to comply with FIA regulations in 2010, a full cage and fuel cell plus, plus plus.
The event is a seven day schedule of rally stages in Mexico traffic and speed stages at WOT on semi-closed roads. There are always cattle and armadillos.
The event is brutal, no one comes away unscathed and cars are destroyed every day. The environment of an open cockpit car like ours is also brutal.
Last year a seasoned Mexico team lobbied for a GT40 in historic class and entered an RCR replica. They finished but the chassis was twisted. They are developing the car to run again.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/2021/07/07/with-a-gt40-now-in-the-mix-could-a-mid-engine-revolution-be-on-the-horizon-for-la-carrera-panamericana?refer=news&utm_source=edaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-07-20

BTW we raced a Mitsubishi EVO in SCCA National Championship and were the highest finishing EVO two years. The car was detuned for ralling in Greenland and won it's first (seven day) event against the factories. It was also a FIA spec car.
jim

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[Presto51]

I think I remember one of the forum members with his dad took the type 65 onto the one lap of America. Something to think about, I hear it's a blast.

https://www.onelapofamerica.com/

[mmoen]

Wasn’t a ffr coupe entered in a rally in South America that caught fire? It had stopped at a border or a stage and went up in flames. The car was ablaze and kept lurching forward. It’s been a few years but there is a video of it out there.
Mike m