An interesting find.

In Steve McKelvies blog the other week he gave mention to an old Rallye book. "Sports Car Rallies, Trials and Gymkhanas" by David Hebb and Arthur Peck.  It's a book that was first published back in 1956 and outlines the motor sports mentioned in the title for those interested in getting started in them. Of course the language used in the text in the book is from a different time and reflects some social attitudes from then. Some might say that some bits might seem to be just be a tad sexist looking at them with a 21st Century eye. But that's not what I'm writing about.

I was impressed enough with Steve's write up to seek out the book from an online used book retailer for myself. 

When it arrived I was treated to a surprise, for when I opened the book up some pieces of paper fell out from inside the dust jacket. 

This particular one I thought I'd share with you. Dated from 1959, and nicely typed on some vellum is the first owner of the books critique of his performance in the Bristol Rally. There are some very interesting comments on there. Many of which are quite relevant to the beginner even today. 

I particularly like number 8. "After each rally, take the time to run it again theoretically... Try to see what we could have done better... Where we goofed." I did this after the Summer Solstice Rally and found a turn that we missed that tacked on perhaps half a dozen miles to our driving and caused us to arrive at a control from the wrong direction, thus scoring some penalty points.

Of the other comments number 4 resonates with me as a plea for clear concise instructions. Keep it simple. Sometimes it's hard enough just to keep going on the route at the prescribed average speed, without having the navigator perform complex calculations, wading through baffling instructions. I recently saw some rally instructions that were presented as a flow chart. Right now I can't conceive that we would be able to run a rally like that.

From what I can gather many (not all) Rallyists are Rocket scientists, Computer Programmers, Engineers and Biochemists all with incredible abilities with numbers without thinking. Alas, Team Holmes Rallye is not so gifted. But we cope and we bear in mind point 7. "Ask the stupid questions". Sound advice for anything.

Finally, comment number 6 is worth a mention of. "Learn Rally definitions." A comprehensive list of rally terms and definitions for instructions wasn't published by the SCCA until 1963 or thereabouts. Before then you were very much at the mercy of the Rallymaster and his use of the English language in instructions. So this seems to be an appeal for consistency in terminology. A point that is borne out in some of the other letters that fell out of the dust jacket covering this very issue.

This piece of paper was a delight to find and along with the other letters, has provoked some interesting discussions among some of my Road Rallying friends. I hope you all get something out of it too.