So, we're going to run our first TSD rally on Saturday with PCA UCR. Now, my odometer just died this week (typical VDO odometer failure - plastic gears). So, my question is, now what. I've never done this, but I'm pretty sure keeping an eye on the odometer is an important part of this. Any suggestions?
Also, any recommendations or tips for my first TSD? I don't want to kill my navigator...
GPS?
Don't worry about the odometer for your first TSD. I ran for a year without a speedometer (just used the tach) and actually won a couple outright. For your first event:
1) communication is key - speak clearly to each other, and don't get flustered.
2) Don't get lost. On time and off course is way worse than on course but off time.
3) Drive around 3 mph faster than the designated speed to make up for stop signs, etc.
4) Don't get lost.
5) Have fun - you're out there driving your car. The fate of the free world doesn't hang on how well you do.
6) Remember your mistakes (you will make some), ask questions to understand what you should have done, don't make the same mistakes next time (noble goal - but will take a few iterations to make this happen).
7) Don't get lost.
8) Show up early, read the general instructions thoroughly a couple of times - both of you - and if you have questions, ask.
Thanks!
I always used the GPS odometer, it's way more accurate too.
Getting ready to do a TSD with my Opel GT. Just replaced the cigarette lighter with a newer style to use as power for a GPS. Also have 2 apps on my phone that will do the same thing. After restoring the GT, I was never sure of the accuracy of the speedo which also incorporates the odometer. So with either phone app or GPS I can be sure. Also the 1970 Opel GT doesn't have a tripmeter, GPS and phone app does. Of course, probably overkill as this is my first TSD rally. Even dragging along a friend that's a drag racer & muscle car guy to be my co-driver/navigator.
Don't worry about not having an odometer. Nobody's ever won a TSD rally anyway.
I don't know what kind of TSD's you guys have done, but realistically, for 99% of TSD's, a functioning odometer (or GPS) is a must. When you have to decided to turn down two, unmarked roads that are 100 yards apart, it becomes fairly important.
ALSO! Keep in mind with a GPS that they do NOT factor in elevation change (hello trigonometry) for your odometer reading. If you are in the mountains, this can have serious affects on accuracy.
Eh, I navigated one in a car WITH a working odometer, and came second to last IIRC. But it was a E36 M3load of fun.
HiTempguy wrote: ALSO! Keep in mind with a GPS that they do NOT factor in elevation change (hello trigonometry) for your odometer reading. If you are in the mountains, this can have serious affects on accuracy.
Are you sure? I know GPSs don't work unless they have detected three satellites. Thats how they can triangulate your position, which means they DO know your altitude.
In reply to Slippery:
I have a handheld Garmin for Geocaching, and I know it knows my altitude. Not sure my car GPS does.
I've got a old (circa 2006? maybe as new as 2008?) Garmin unit that I use in the Neon since the speedo gear in the transmission is nonfunctional. While it seems to know my elevation if I ask it, I do notice that if I'm going up or down a steep hill at a good rate of speed -- say, over about 40mph -- it will usually get really wonky on the speed output. If I'm using Waze or Dashboard Pro on my phone, it seems to be a little more accurate on hills, but both Waze and Google Maps (and the Garmin, for that matter) are always trying to self-correct themselves to put me on the closest road that they know about. So, sometimes, if two roads run parallel to each other under heavy tree cover, I'll be bounced back and forth between the two roads on my display.
But, I've never done a TSD rally before, so I don't know how any of that would effect you. It always sounded like a lot of fun, but I don't know that they do them down here, and I've never known anyone that expressed any interest in either driving or co-driving.
If it's a proper TSD rally , and not some sort of fun rally, you need to have an odometer of some sort. If I give you an instruction that takes you 6.3 miles down a road and there are a couple of side roads close together you'll have a problem. In theory you only need to have two pieces of data (from speed,distance, or time) to calculate, but having the odometer is the easiest. Do that and run 3-5 mph over the average speed in the notes and you should do fine.
Jim Pettengill wrote: Don't worry about the odometer for your first TSD. I ran for a year without a speedometer (just used the tach) and actually won a couple outright. For your first event: 2) Don't get lost. On time and off course is way worse than on course but off time.
I would be worried about the odometer as it relates to this, not as it relates to timing. Not getting lost is going to be the biggest hurdle initially. Not having an odometer may be a (potentially severe) hindrance depending on the area, the route, and the directions.
I've never run a TSD rally that didn't involve me going specified distances. Don't see how you could really do one without it, or a time piece for that matter.
If it's really your first, use a GPS or such, and don't worry about what class it bumps you into. Your mission, is just to stay on course. Which is a heck of a lot harder than you think. The concept of "go straightest" will bite you, repeatedly.
If you're driving, turn off your hot-rod inclinations. Going faster will just worsen your times, and bolox up the navigator. When the instructions say "53 miles per hour for 72 seconds, turn left", going faster doesn't help.
Or this :
http://www.terratrip.com/home.htm
We just ran a TSD rally last Sunday - a lot of fun. Almost none of the instructions included mileage and on those that did it was fairly irrelevant. The only issue I see is that on the check leg you won't have a way to calculate how far off the speedo is.
On the rallies I've run, the first leg included precise mileage so you you could compare official numbers against your car and use that to judge speedo error. That's how I know that my wife's TSX is very nearly 100% accurate, but my 325i is almost 10% optomistic about how fast / far you're going.
In my experience most of the time you can get away with not using the odometer...but it's not ideal and if you're seriously competing you'll need it to do well.
If your rallies use mileage-based turns, than yeah, you need an odo, but most that I have run don't, except for the odo check leg at the beginning of the rally. You're not going to be calculating at first anyhow - if you stay on course and run a little faster than the designated speeds, you can do remarkably well. In the "seat of the pants" or "unequipped" class, may wife and I regularly were within 10 seconds a leg, often within 5 seconds a leg with no calculations at all. Just be aware of your speedo error (which is often different from your odo error), and you can get a handle on this by measuring your time through mile markers before the event.
Just keep your cool and you'll do fine.
My dad and I did one TSD rally.
one.
Got so lost, in the dark, on dirt roads, we weren't even sure how to get home. This was pre- cell phone GPS.
We get along great, but it was a trying night.
I'll stick to autocross & track days, thankyouverymuch.
I've done one TSD, as prep for the Targa Newfoundland. We showed up in a stickered race car with a Coralba rally computer and well-scrubbed R compound tires. Nobody believed we were novices - until we turned left instead of right as we left the parking lot. 
The guy who had the best time was running an old Triumph. He had no navigator and no working speedo. He'd find someone, follow them for a while as they trundled along at 2 mph under the posted speed limit, then get bored and go blasting off into the distance. I envied him. Be like Triumph guy, go and have fun and screw keeping score.
We learned what we needed to learn, but I'd only want to do it again in a really, really, really slow car.
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