December 17, 2024 • 29 mins
Wayne talks about classic rally cars, what it takes to have one, what it means to share the experience and how to do it.
My favourite quote of the episode is "So it might sound silly that we get into a race car and go belting through the forest with big trees at 200 Ks plus an hour and feels relaxed. But, I guess if you ask anyone who does any type of speed event, everything slows down. You get used to it very quick, and it's, I don't play golf, so it is an out, for me, it's a way of relaxing and clearing the head and, stopping the black dog from chasing me around"
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
Welcome to Forrest.Chat , wherewe talk about individual
endeavour in Western Australia.
What it takes, what itmeans, and how you do it.
I'm your host, Paul van der Mey, andin today's episode, we're talking with
Wayne Turner about Classic Rallying.
Wayne started Classic Rallying about20 years ago, a couple of years
as a service crew member, and thenabout 18 years worth of competition.
(00:29):
Welcome to Forrest.Chat, Wayne.
Thank you, Paul.
It's a pleasure to be on your show.
Great to have you here.
Wayne, what is Classic Rallying?
Basically, it's having a car fromthe 60s, and tearing around on
country roads that are closed.
So we can officially, uh, race.
So they actually shut the road down and
they shut the roads down, allowspectators to come in and watch for
(00:52):
free it's, big in Western Australia,Eastern States and worldwide.
And how many events do theyhave around here in WA?
in Western Australia, we have, twomajor events being Tarmac West in Perth,
which has been running for close on 18years, 20 years, and Tarmac South West
in Pemberton, which has been runningfor about 15 years and in between we
(01:14):
have what they call Rally Sprints, whichis a sprint down the road, or around a
track, or around a car park or something.
What you'd think of as a single venue.
yeah, a single venue, justdoing one Tarmac stage.
Over and over again.
In both directions
Yes, both directions, the differencebetween rally sprints and Tarmac, with the
Target West, Target South West, do up to20 stages, 30 stages over different areas.
(01:38):
Tarmac West starts in Perth, goes out toKalamunda hills, then out to Toodyay and
back into, North Wanneroo, Malaga areaon a Sunday, then, then the Riverside
Drive for the Sunday afternoon finale.
Targa South West is basically theroads around Pemberton that have been
picked out, all sealed tarmac roads.
, The sealed tarmac roads makes theevent very consistent, I would imagine.
(02:01):
It does, it it throwsup its own hairy ones.
Pemberton, as you can appreciate, doesn'tget a lot of sunshine down there, through
the big Karri trees, so if it does rain,we get a lot of moisture on the road
and obviously oil from the trees, That'sgot a few people, including myself off,
but, one Tarmac West in Perth, there'sdifferent road surfaces, the quality
of roads you get in Perth, then you gofurther out into the local government
(02:23):
shire, like Toodyay they haven't got thefunding, but they offer up some very good
circuits, or very good stages, the roadsare good, not goat tracks, they're well
done within the subdivisions up there,if anyone's ever been up Toodyay way.
so you're rallying past people's houses?
That's the fun part about it, whichis they're out barbecuing and, some of
the places you go in Toodyay there'llbe 30-40 people sitting out the front
having a barbecue, and you have yourFord fans, and your Chev fans, and
(02:47):
yeah, your Mitsubishi and Evo fans.
But yeah, that's it in a nutshell.
It's all controlled.
All cars are roll caged.
You have to wear safety harness andhelmets and proper driving suits.
It's pretty restricted in in theclassics and what you can do with it.
you can't just buy an old classiccar and go whack a big modern Chev
motor in and have 700 horsepower.
It's technically not in the rules.
(03:08):
Some have tried it, but they'rerestricted, What you can do and
what you can't do and, got tokeep it reasonably period correct.
So
how does a car become a classic rally car?
What criteria do you work with?
They're based on age of the car, so,mine for instance, that's 1964, so we're,
We're now in late classic, and there'searly, I think the three events they
(03:29):
do is modern, which is the modern carsnow you can buy, and then there's early
modern, and then we go into the classics,I think classic cars now end at 1985,
so anything 1985 and below is classedas classic, and then they break those
down into early, late, or into years.
Tarmac events have, Awards for 1960s,70s and 80s, so that's their three
(03:54):
classic, Categories, So, you choosewhich compete over all those classics,
but then they break it down into those,
You compete within your own class?
Within your own class, I mean,yeah, that's how they do it, so.
Uh, recently the classic carnumbers have dropped off.
I think most of the guys that can affordto run them now realise that, they're
getting rarer and rarer and costing alot more to repair and get parts for,
(04:16):
and parts to climb is not really thereto, uh, To build them now, it's uh.
Now, your car's the same age as I am.
Yeah.
And I can't find any spare parts.
it's getting that way, isn't it?
I think we're all feeling that.
Your car is a
1964, Ford Sprint, from America, so,it's a Falcon, I had one before, and,
we crashed that and broke it, so webrought this one from South Australia.
(04:38):
Guy brought it off,imported it from America.
to do historic racing and it got knockedback because it didn't meet the regs for
circuit racing in historics at that stage.
So we brought it off him andchanged a few things in it and
turned it into a tarmac car.
As a race car from America?
Yes, as a race car from America.
So just to go back alittle bit in America.
They, um, built what they calledthe Rally Sprint, which is all
(05:00):
fiberglass with a steel roof.
And they competed in theMonte Carlo Rally, which had
the Italians and Americans.
the English had the Minis, and, the FalconSprints actually won the event, but,
the Minis protested on a technicalityand they lost first place to second, so.
they only built.
Probably, I'm not sure exactlyhow many, but there's only a
(05:23):
few true rally sprints built.
and I think the ones that aregoing around now are selling up
around the million dollar mark, so.
Wow.
Mine's not a rally sprint, it's justa Ford Sprint, It's similar, I guess,
for people in Australia, when I compareit, to the XP's we had over here, 2
door XP, Futuras and what not, exceptthey had the early V8 motors in which
(05:44):
were 260cc or something like that.
Had the piston about the size of a 20cent coin, and they were 3 speed, but.
So the Australian spec was lower?
Australian specs had a, six cylinderengine, when they were built.
It wasn't until a guy in Melbourne,imported the V8's from America and put
them in to the cars to race, but theywere right hand drive, so the Australian
(06:06):
version of it, with the V8 engine.
Not many raced as historics and it'spretty hard to get them registered.
I think we register them as categoryfive cars if we want to compete.
I can't of mine because I've modified theengine and gearbox and diff and radiator
housings So we race as invitational only.
so you don't meet the letter
No, we don't get points, so we justget there to make up the numbers and
(06:29):
put it at the back of the grid butthat's fine, it's not about winning,
it's just about having fun and
All right, now that you've gotonto that side of things, I'll
ask you the next question.
What does it take you, Wayne,to go Classic Rallying?
An understanding wife.
We have a guy in Bunbury, PeterMay Autos, looks after the
mechanical side of the car for us.
(06:49):
And yeah, we just go out and have fun.
It's not about winning or doing anything.
It's about having fun andinteracting with the public doing it.
You've mentioned before thepodcast about some of the, public
interaction things that you've done.
Do you want to give us an idea of what?
when Tarmac started, the GTFabrication Sprint in Bunbury.
We, um, had to get across to the shirethat to get some benefit for the shire
(07:12):
and the community and for Bunbury weorganised what we called a grab a granny
ride and, went to Ocean Star Villas andasked them if we could bring the race
cars in and take their, uh, Residentsfor a drive around town they loved it.
So, we put the word out to allthe competitors coming down and
I was only expecting that stageto get four or five cars turn up,
(07:32):
but we had about 30 cars turn up.
we, had a good afternoontaking the residents for a run.
the classic cars were great because a lotof them remember those cars from the area.
And we talked to peoplein their 80s and 90s.
we had a good weekend thereand then obviously, we have the
show and shines down in Manjimupsorry, Pemberton and up in Perth.
Ross organized a, charityevent for Pemberton.
(07:53):
So we could take the residents for aride up a hill for a nominated fee.
paid the fee and all the money wentto nominated charity in Pemberton.
So.
it doesn't sound a lot, but I thinkwe've raised, each time we do it,
around a couple of grand, it wentto something that needed some money
Yeah, that couple of grand for, thenumber of people that you're able
to put through on something likethat is a pretty reasonable amount.
(08:15):
Yeah, it's pretty good.
I think that we do it, you probably, getfour or five runs in, up on their stages.
Not at full speed but, for some ofthem there's probably never been over
a hundred k's an hour at that age.
you know, a full bred race car.
We're talking some pretty quick cars.
A couple of guys we've run withhad Mustangs and they had some
grunt and they used to go up there.
It's just fun.
So that's a great socialelement of what you do.
(08:38):
Do you also get to thingslike, coffee and cars?
Yes, we take the cars, well Itake mine now, these days too.
there's one on this Sunday, 15thof December at the foreshore
at Eton, it's called Shannon's.
Shannon's Coffee and Cars.
So it's $5 entry for a car, spectatorsare free and people in the car are free.
The money goes to a nominatedcharity for the year.
(09:00):
this past 12 months The money'sbeen going to the Variety Club.
and they, the guy that organisedit picks a new charity each
year, so everyone gets around.
Five bucks once every three months totake the cars down there, It's a great
day to catch up with people you probablyhaven't seen for those three, four months.
Have a chat and see what's outthere and who's changed what and
who's got what hidden in the sheds?
(09:20):
Yeah, the what's hidden in the sheds.
That's a big one.
Yeah, we've only been down here 18months and we've been walking along
the estuary and we've been seeingquite a lot of Classic Cars going past.
Yeah.
Many more than I expected.
Yeah, with the opening a couple yearsago of the Car Museum in Bunbury, and
the Bike Museum as well in Bunbury.
that's brought a lot of cars out, you cango to the Classics, you're getting people
(09:44):
Restore them and they've got to be periodcorrect or then you get guys who like the
modifier muffin whatnot, which is fine.
I don't worry me either way I've got anold 1958 mainline Ute in the shed, which
is reasonably rare, that's all originalat the moment, but, needs work and, I'm
going to spend a lot of money on it, butI'm going to leave it as it is because
that's how it was, not worry aboutsticking big fat tyres on it and whatnot.
(10:08):
In days past, one of the thingsthat people did was stick.
Big tires on it and a tiny littlesteering wheel, it was probably way too
small for it, and changed engines orcarburettors and all that sort of thing.
there's a whole group of people thatthat's what they did with their cars.
Yeah, we done it when wewere young blokes didn't we?
We'd have the old EH Holden with aset of radials on the back and go
(10:29):
down to Scarborough Beach Car Parkand do drags or go out to Freemantle
and take on the uh, Italian migrantsout there and their valiants it
was all good fun in those days.
Yeah, absolutely.
So there's a whole group ofcars that, let's just say,
it's authentic for them to be.
Displayed like that these days.
And then like the mainline you've gotin the garage is in Original as it
(10:52):
was driven type state, I would imagineand then you've got the concourse cars
the ones that have been buffed withina moment of their life, so to speak.
so it's good, right?
I mean, everyone's got different ideasof what they want i've got a good mate
who owns GT Fabrication He, restoresclassic cars, and does a good job.
He doesn't bring them back to theiroriginal patina and original, you know,
(11:14):
tyres He puts modified parts on them, butthey're show cars and that's his hobby.
I'm not a chef but he does excellentwork and it's a hobby for him.
it's good to see him around.
I guess compared.
To the guys coming through nowwho are Evo or Mitsubishi fans, or
Subaru fans, when they get to ourage, they'll talk about the Imprezas
and whatnot as being classic cars.
(11:35):
to me, I'm a V8 petrol man, so this fourcylinder turbo stuff's not my cup of tea.
I'm sure it's good fun,but it's not my cup of tea.
That's it.
And you've got to go wherethe, things are that excite you
Yeah, we do.
originally in Tarmac West.
Tarmac Events was set off as, ClassicEvents or something, it was just small
classic cars and then it migrated overthe years and changed it's name and
(11:59):
modern cars started coming in I guessthe classics still draw crowds in, where
the modern stuff's not, it draws crowdsin, but it's not as big as the V8s.
yeah, back at Toodyay or even upat Mundaring, through the weir
there, you can hear the V8s comingfrom five, ten k's away, where just
here rolling through the forest.
I mean, I guess it's your day when you hadthe escorts racing through the forest and
(12:22):
you can hear 'em from miles away coming.
And that's what you can hear with the veights on the tarmac is the same feeling.
I remember we, we'd done fromeminent to, uh, coming the name
place in North Cliff, as a stage,which is something 10 odd occasion.
it was pretty quick.
And one of my mates was stuck on the sideof the road and we came down the road.
We were flat chatted about 200k's an hour and we had a black
(12:42):
Commodore come up behind us Iwasn't going to let him overtake.
we had about a kilometer of straight road.
So we had a bit of a drag down there.
my mate thought it was thebest thing he's ever seen.
Seen two V8s chase eachother along the road.
So, it's tough.
Really good fun to be out there and Iremember one of the first dinky cars I
had was an Escort World Rally ChampionshipEscort from 1980 or whatever it was.
(13:04):
that was my introduction to rallying,really, was to have one of those
die cast metal cars, I didn't reallyget to hear them in the forest at
that point, it was years later.
Yeah, well, they're iconic nowin the forest, the escorts, I
mean, they're the way to go.
And so, I think it's taken a fullcircle now, the dirt rallying,
they've gone from the big V8s.
Down to the quicker, more nimble,four wheel drive, two litre
(13:25):
cars with the turbos on them.
getting back to tarmac rallying,my brother in law had been
doing it for quite a while.
He'd done, I think 20 Classic Adelaides.
I think he's probably done 15,16 Targa West, if not more.
he's been doing it for a while.
He'd done dirt rallying in 70s.
And, um, yeah.
Unfortunately, we had some freak accidentsin Tasmania a couple of years ago.
(13:45):
We found a couple of deaths inthree separate instances over there.
So, it got shut down a coroner's inquiry.
And our governing body at thatstage, Motorsports Australia,
wouldn't license any of the events.
So we basically had hiatus in Australiafor a couple of years and tarmac events.
We've only just got going again this yearofficially with, the, uh, new governing
body for us is the AASA, AustralianAutomotive Sporting Association.
(14:10):
So they've taken on the insuranceside of things and that's it.
A lot of difference between them andMA, probably a bit easier to work with
from what MA are and the restrictionsfor us older people aren't as bad.
Motorsports Australia at our age, wantus to do a full medical every year which
is $800 plus the license fees for usolder guys has gone through the roof For
(14:32):
those who can afford it, it's probablyfine, but for those that can't, it's a
big hit every year, $800 to do a medical.
They want us to jump in andout of cars in 30 seconds.
it takes me 30 seconds to getout of the chair in the morning.
I don't know how they're going to do that,but yeah, they just brought in some rules
that have made it hard for, especiallythe classic cars, having the wing seats on
(14:52):
so we can't see outside the classic cars.
Very restrictive forreview with the roll cages
Yeah, cars have grown over, over time.
Like, you think about a Corolla,used to be quite a small car.
But the Corollas that are outthere now are probably as big as
the original Holdens that werecoming off the production line.
the more modern cars tend to be biggerand that means that the, an older car
(15:17):
that's probably more competitive because,it's maybe a bit smaller They get very
tight when you want to squeeze in, seatsthat have wings around your helmet.
I'll just give you an example,a good mate Paul Crute.
And Paul Gusson, they runa 1964, Mustang Coupe.
both are very big men,height wise and body wise.
when we were helping build theircar, we had to modify the seats so
(15:40):
they could, actually get them in
Now these weren't wing seats, just normal,racing seats and harnesses There was
quite a bit of modification on the tunnelsand the seats trying to get them in.
To get them in so the guyscould fit into the car.
into the cars and be safe inside them.
It's not just rip the seat out,let's put a race seat in and go.
I've had to put mine on a slide and adjustit because I can't reach the pedals, so.
(16:01):
where the seat needs to be to get into it.
You can't reach the pedal from there.
if I have the seat up where I'm in aracing position, I can't get into the car.
that's a bit of a compromise.
and in tarmac because we have anavigator sitting next to us, we
have to adjust the seats so they canget in, so we were lucky we had the
same navigator for quite a few years.
recently we've got a new one, butit's good because he's my size,
(16:22):
so you don't have to adjust hisseat too much, only his seatbelt,
Much easier when it'sthat built in adjustment.
Yeah, it is.
. We've had a good chat now about what it takes to go classic rallying.
We'll have a break, and after thebreak, we'll look at what it means.
(16:43):
We've had a good look at what it takes.
Now, let's have a look at what it means.
Wayne, what does it mean to you,your family, or the community that
you're able to go Classic Rally?
Paul.
I thought about it when youmentioned we're going to do this.
On a personal note it's a wayof unwinding and, relaxing.
So it might sound silly that we getinto a race car and go belting through
(17:05):
the forest with big trees at 200Ks plus an hour and feels relaxed.
But, I guess if you ask anyonewho does any type of speed
event, everything slows down.
You get used to it very quick,and it's, I don't play golf.
so it is an out, for me, it's a wayof relaxing and clearing the head
and, stopping the black dog fromchasing me around to the family.
(17:26):
Well, you'd have to ask my wife that.
I guess I've been pretty, uh, selfish inbuilding the car going to these events and
spending money she's been asking for a newkitchen for a few years, and she finally
got it, then I moved house, so, it'scompromise, and I've probably compromised,
well, she's compromised more than I have.
To the community, oh, again,it's an interesting question.
(17:46):
I guess the older fellas around now.
Remember the old classic cars andso do the girls and they get a kick
out of seeing them on the road andwhatnot they can argue about what
it was and what it's got in it andwhat it is and for the youngest
young kids coming up we've always.
Allowed them to sit in the race carsand get their photos taken they get
a kick out of sitting in a race car.
a bit of bragging rights when theygo to school and tell the mates.
(18:08):
We used to do a lot of posters for thethree race cars that we were involved
in with Frank's Classics Garage.
that way, give back to thecommunity a bit I hope.
my car's got a bit of a followingin Perth, I think there's only three
in Australia, the other two are inthe eastern states, hopefully we can
give back to the community somehow.
Yeah, so, when we first started going, wegot a team going called Frank's Classic
(18:30):
Garage, originally Kim Stewart in theMustang, Frank Huber, who built both
cars, built, Kim's car and, serviced mine,actually drove mine, I navigated for him.
we had a team running for, uh, closeto 10 years with sponsorships, the
sponsorship covered stuff like evententries and, accommodation for motels,
because most of us had to come fromthe country for going to Perth or for
(18:51):
going down to Pemberton, we neededaccommodation, so we had all that covered.
So all we had to pay for ourselves wasthe maintenance on the cars, Yeah, it
was a good 10 years, as COVID came alongand stopped that, now we've got to pay
for any ourselves, it gets a bit tightat times, but we still managed to do it.
And it's well worth doingbecause of what it does for you.
It definitely does, we've metsome fantastic people out of it,
(19:12):
Tony's Autorecords, Paul Bocelli.
He's top notch.
We wouldn't have known him if it wasn'tfor this stuff and his co driver.
yeah, Ross and Jan Tapper who run allthe events and they're brilliant people.
They're just everywhere.
It's a real rally community And I thinkyou guys find it with Dirt Rallying too,
that you do it and you know everyone.
You've heard of different peopleand you get to meet them at
(19:33):
a gala dinner or something.
It's just, it's a good company.
Volunteers, the family, you know,we couldn't do these bits without
volunteers, as you well know.
And we've seen the same faces every yearThose people go beyond whatever they do
to get these events running It's what wedo, and we have fun doing it, and they
have fun setting up and watching us.
To give you an example, if we weredoing Tarmac West, I left at, three
o'clock in the morning to set a stageup and close it off so no traffic
(19:56):
can come through it and whatnot.
And we'd turn up here two hourslater and belt through there in three
minutes and go off to the next one.
I think, oh gee, that was fun.
So, I mean, we just couldn't do it.
the volunteers, arethere, they're doing it.
They're getting a lot out of it as
well.
I hope I hope they are,I see them come back.
it'd be nice to have, have some moresponsors where we could, you know,
sponsor the volunteers for fuel or havetheir own official dinner or something
(20:18):
there's so many involved it's a hugeexercise and very costly I would say.
so we, we try and help out wherewe can with it, so it's not what
you do, you might, you know, thankyou in a good pattern and recognise
that, that theirs is a main thing.
So,
I think
they enjoy it.
So there's a whole range of people that,that really get a lot out of doing events.
Yeah, I think, I don't know the exactnumbers, but Sundown Riverside Drive
(20:42):
for Tarmac West, it's one of thebiggest free sporting events I've seen.
They have different car clubs downthere and display, and all sorts
of different things involved inmotorsport or motors down there.
Riverside Drive is packed with people.
It's great to see the crowds gettingout there, and it's a free event
You can go there and watch the cars yeah,it's an all day thing down there so it's
(21:03):
good.
And that sort of thing you provideencouraging and exciting things
for the kids to do as well.
we hope some of these kids that have satin our cars and mustangs, are, sitting
in the modern cars, you know, the,14 year olds and whatnot get excited
enough to say, go buy me a go-kart.
I want to go-kart racing, or go buy mea bunkie so I can go speedway racing.
And they've got natural talent.
They'll develop, or they've gotlove for it, they'll develop.
(21:25):
I don't think you have to be exceptionallybrilliant or good at driving to enjoy it.
I'm no Buddy Peter Brock far from it.
But I enjoy it.
We go at our pace.
I'm not competitive these days.
I never have been.
So, I just like going outthere and driving to the best
of my ability and enjoy it.
you've got another personsitting next to you.
So if you crash badly, you'vegot a chance of loosing them.
(21:49):
That's not something thatreally goes through your mind.
If you can avoid it, yeah.
Obviously there's times you can'tthrough mechanical failure or whatever.
And that's why we spend a lot oftime keeping them running, but most
of them have got modern gear on tobe honest with you, but you've still
got to keep them going and whatnot.
All those parts have lives.
They do, they do.
A bit like us.
(22:09):
You wear them out pretty quick.
Well there's, quite a lot ofpositive meaning comes out
of going Classic Rallying.
We'll have another breaknow, and after the break,
we'll talk about how you do it.
So I've looked at a lot ofpositive meaning that comes from
competing in classic rallying.
(22:31):
Wayne, how would somebodygo classic rallying?
Well, if you want to go doclassic rallying, the first
step is to buy a classic car.
It's not a matter of just buying oneand jumping into it, there's Certain
regulations and rules in place so youcan still have your classic car and do
it but to to do the uh tarmac eventsthere's three categories there's what
(22:52):
they call a challenge so you don't needas much safety gear but your speed's
restricted to I think 130 k's and thenthere's another category called 160 k's.
And then there's Open Competition,which is in WA a maximum of 200Ks.
I think in the eastern states,Target Tasmania is an Open
Speed thing, which is fine.
so you get yourself a classic car, startoff in Challenge and, do Challenge And
(23:14):
then you do other events like the rallysprints to get driver experience they're
held at Motorplex every couple of monthsget used to it, understand pace notes
and the rules and regulations if youdon't like it, you haven't spent a lot
of money an old car to do a challenge.
And when I say old, I mean, things areup to 1985 now, so there's things like
Toyota Celicas and the old Toranasand Commodores around, There's cars
(23:36):
there that you can buy and do it in.
and then once you go above thatstage, you get more into the um, the
safety side of things with roll cagesproper harnesses and stuff like that.
And then, maybe you go into theterminal case now, safety wise,
you've got to have everything.
there's No two ways about it.
And they have just introduced anothercategory called TDS time, distance speed.
(23:58):
So you're given a time to do a stagingyou know the distance and you've gotta
work out your speed to do it in that time.
So in that, you canbasically enter any car.
But if you want an old, classiccar you wanna take for a run
without hurting it, you can do it.
They're pretty slow, but whatI've heard, I haven't done one.
But you've got a nominated timeto start and finish the stage, so
It's a different challenge altogether.
(24:18):
Oh, totally different, yeah, yeah.
So, I've never done one.
I believe in the early daysof rallying they used to do
it, but I've never done one.
So I think you need to know that.
How fast you've got to go to getfrom point A to point B has an
average speed and try and get there.
And obviously they award points,so you get points awarded for
(24:39):
being late and for being early.
whoever finishes the event withthe least number of points wins.
I think that's a good training groundfor people who want to do classics.
it's all about safety.
It's no point going out and doingit if you're going to kill yourself,
or someone else, or a spectator,or something like that, so.
But, to do it.
They're not cheap, I'll be honest withyou, to build a car that you feel safe in.
(24:59):
it's probably around 100, 000mark, probably more nowadays.
So there's a lot of cars running aroundin WA that are classics that, well
over 150, 000, 60, 000 spent on them.
And because they're more competitive,they get them or they throw at it.
And all of a sudden, some of theseold cars are, Managed to produce 700
horsepower out of a motor when it wasbuilt, but it was only 200 horsepower.
That's what it's all about.
(25:21):
But yeah, it's worth doing.
there's a few different levelsthat you could go at it.
Heaps of different levels.
Obviously the deeper and faster you'regoing, the more it's going to cost you.
Yeah, Yeah, bigger, longerpockets, shorter pockets
you've got, more money you got.
And there's openings to get into it.
They run a, what we used to call theLF Performance Speed Event, which
was a, ground routes thing for peopleto get into racing, and, you can
(25:42):
rock up there with any car you likeand they'll put you into category
and you do laps around the circuit.
I enjoy doing that.
I'd done that for probably two,three years before I got into racing.
The tarmac stuff, so it's goodgrounding And obviously you've got
to have competition licenses, sothere's different stages you get
competition licenses at so it's good.
So there's a gradingsystem for the licenses?
(26:03):
There is, yeah, depending onwhat you want to do, and maybe
there's circuit and tarmac.
licenses, and then, build up yourexperience with that, and the more
experience you've got, the better you go.
Hopefully.
Hopefully, yeah.
Oh, we've seen people come and go, rock upin these great big souped up cars, do two
or three years of racing, and then they'vedisappeared most guys don't do that.
When we started, done 10 yearsand hung up the boots and
(26:25):
young guys have come through.
It's got a few young guys comingthrough now, with classics,
in the Commodores and whatnot.
So that's good to see.
There's a few Porsches running aroundnow that are in the classic categories.
So, 240Z Datsuns.
There's cars out there, you don't haveto buy a fully built car to do it.
You can get your own andgradually build it up.
I guess if you're goingto do that, you need to.
Go to someone who knows the regulationsor speak to one of the scrutineers
(26:48):
who knows the specs on what you cando and what you can't do and go from
there.
where would someone look for that info?
Initially you'd probably talk to theguys at tarmac events and they'll put
you in the direction of who to speak to.
They've got, people that knowthe rules and regulations,
what you can do and can't do.
plus, on the website, AASA, have alist of what you can do and can't do
(27:11):
So does Motorsports Australia.
When you build a car, you can changethem a little bit as long as they're
within the guidelines they set down.
And there's things liketyres engines and horsepower
and can you just show up in anevent and talk to some people?
you can show up at, any event you likeand if you see a car you like most guys
we know in, in tarmac rallying are opento talking to people about their cars
(27:32):
and whatnot, most people are like totalk about their cars, you can approach
them, they'll put you in contact withguys that dedicate themselves to building
these cars, or know somebody who cando it for you you just talk to them
and they'll put you in the right place,
So there's a bit of a networkIf you ask someone, they
might go, oh, not me, but him.
Yeah, well there's guys thatfabricate the roll cages.
(27:54):
There's two types ofroll cages you can have.
There's what they call the bolt in.
So it actually is bolted in the car.
You can unbolt it.
Or there's the welded in ones,which, I mean, I quite prefer
them because they're built solid
So there's a couple of guys aroundPerth that can do that modification.
I won't mention names in case Iupset someone I haven't mentioned,
but Yeah, there's people outthere that will help you.
(28:15):
and there's guys that willgive you great advice,
And then there's things like helmets,they have to be within a certain code.
and race suits, they have to be withina certain expiry code and what not.
Alright, well thank you very much Waynefor being on Forrest.Chat . And all
our Forrest.Chat listeners wish youall the best in your future endeavours.
What's coming up foryou in Classic Rallying?
(28:36):
Well, Hopefully things are going theway I would like, our next one will be
Tarmac South West down at Pemberton.
in March, I think it is next year.
that would be our next one.
with my way of things going, fourdays of rallying is too much for me
these days, especially in the heat.
So, yeah, Tarmac SouthWest will be our next one.
all the best for that one.
thanks for having me.
You've been listening to Forrest.Chat, where we talk about individual
(28:58):
endeavour in Western Australia.
What it takes, what itmeans and how you do it.
I'm your host, Paul van der Mey, andin today's episode, we talked with
Wayne Turner about Classic Rallying.
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(29:22):
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Until then, enjoy making it happen.
Welcome to Forrest.Chat , wherewe talk about individual
endeavour in Western Australia.
What it takes, what itmeans, and how you do it.
I'm your host, Paul van der Mey, andin today's episode, we're talking with
Wayne Turner about Classic Rallying.
Wayne started Classic Rallying about20 years ago, a couple of years
as a service crew member, and thenabout 18 years worth of competition.
(00:29):
Welcome to Forrest.Chat, Wayne.
Thank you, Paul.
It's a pleasure to be on your show.
Great to have you here.
Wayne, what is Classic Rallying?
Basically, it's having a car fromthe 60s, and tearing around on
country roads that are closed.
So we can officially, uh, race.
So they actually shut the road down and
they shut the roads down, allowspectators to come in and watch for
(00:52):
free it's, big in Western Australia,Eastern States and worldwide.
And how many events do theyhave around here in WA?
in Western Australia, we have, twomajor events being Tarmac West in Perth,
which has been running for close on 18years, 20 years, and Tarmac South West
in Pemberton, which has been runningfor about 15 years and in between we
(01:14):
have what they call Rally Sprints, whichis a sprint down the road, or around a
track, or around a car park or something.
What you'd think of as a single venue.
yeah, a single venue, justdoing one Tarmac stage.
Over and over again.
In both directions
Yes, both directions, the differencebetween rally sprints and Tarmac, with the
Target West, Target South West, do up to20 stages, 30 stages over different areas.
(01:38):
Tarmac West starts in Perth, goes out toKalamunda hills, then out to Toodyay and
back into, North Wanneroo, Malaga areaon a Sunday, then, then the Riverside
Drive for the Sunday afternoon finale.
Targa South West is basically theroads around Pemberton that have been
picked out, all sealed tarmac roads.
, The sealed tarmac roads makes theevent very consistent, I would imagine.
(02:01):
It does, it it throwsup its own hairy ones.
Pemberton, as you can appreciate, doesn'tget a lot of sunshine down there, through
the big Karri trees, so if it does rain,we get a lot of moisture on the road
and obviously oil from the trees, That'sgot a few people, including myself off,
but, one Tarmac West in Perth, there'sdifferent road surfaces, the quality
of roads you get in Perth, then you gofurther out into the local government
(02:23):
shire, like Toodyay they haven't got thefunding, but they offer up some very good
circuits, or very good stages, the roadsare good, not goat tracks, they're well
done within the subdivisions up there,if anyone's ever been up Toodyay way.
so you're rallying past people's houses?
That's the fun part about it, whichis they're out barbecuing and, some of
the places you go in Toodyay there'llbe 30-40 people sitting out the front
having a barbecue, and you have yourFord fans, and your Chev fans, and
(02:47):
yeah, your Mitsubishi and Evo fans.
But yeah, that's it in a nutshell.
It's all controlled.
All cars are roll caged.
You have to wear safety harness andhelmets and proper driving suits.
It's pretty restricted in in theclassics and what you can do with it.
you can't just buy an old classiccar and go whack a big modern Chev
motor in and have 700 horsepower.
It's technically not in the rules.
(03:08):
Some have tried it, but they'rerestricted, What you can do and
what you can't do and, got tokeep it reasonably period correct.
So
how does a car become a classic rally car?
What criteria do you work with?
They're based on age of the car, so,mine for instance, that's 1964, so we're,
We're now in late classic, and there'searly, I think the three events they
(03:29):
do is modern, which is the modern carsnow you can buy, and then there's early
modern, and then we go into the classics,I think classic cars now end at 1985,
so anything 1985 and below is classedas classic, and then they break those
down into early, late, or into years.
Tarmac events have, Awards for 1960s,70s and 80s, so that's their three
(03:54):
classic, Categories, So, you choosewhich compete over all those classics,
but then they break it down into those,
You compete within your own class?
Within your own class, I mean,yeah, that's how they do it, so.
Uh, recently the classic carnumbers have dropped off.
I think most of the guys that can affordto run them now realise that, they're
getting rarer and rarer and costing alot more to repair and get parts for,
(04:16):
and parts to climb is not really thereto, uh, To build them now, it's uh.
Now, your car's the same age as I am.
Yeah.
And I can't find any spare parts.
it's getting that way, isn't it?
I think we're all feeling that.
Your car is a
1964, Ford Sprint, from America, so,it's a Falcon, I had one before, and,
we crashed that and broke it, so webrought this one from South Australia.
(04:38):
Guy brought it off,imported it from America.
to do historic racing and it got knockedback because it didn't meet the regs for
circuit racing in historics at that stage.
So we brought it off him andchanged a few things in it and
turned it into a tarmac car.
As a race car from America?
Yes, as a race car from America.
So just to go back alittle bit in America.
They, um, built what they calledthe Rally Sprint, which is all
(05:00):
fiberglass with a steel roof.
And they competed in theMonte Carlo Rally, which had
the Italians and Americans.
the English had the Minis, and, the FalconSprints actually won the event, but,
the Minis protested on a technicalityand they lost first place to second, so.
they only built.
Probably, I'm not sure exactlyhow many, but there's only a
(05:23):
few true rally sprints built.
and I think the ones that aregoing around now are selling up
around the million dollar mark, so.
Wow.
Mine's not a rally sprint, it's justa Ford Sprint, It's similar, I guess,
for people in Australia, when I compareit, to the XP's we had over here, 2
door XP, Futuras and what not, exceptthey had the early V8 motors in which
(05:44):
were 260cc or something like that.
Had the piston about the size of a 20cent coin, and they were 3 speed, but.
So the Australian spec was lower?
Australian specs had a, six cylinderengine, when they were built.
It wasn't until a guy in Melbourne,imported the V8's from America and put
them in to the cars to race, but theywere right hand drive, so the Australian
(06:06):
version of it, with the V8 engine.
Not many raced as historics and it'spretty hard to get them registered.
I think we register them as categoryfive cars if we want to compete.
I can't of mine because I've modified theengine and gearbox and diff and radiator
housings So we race as invitational only.
so you don't meet the letter
No, we don't get points, so we justget there to make up the numbers and
(06:29):
put it at the back of the grid butthat's fine, it's not about winning,
it's just about having fun and
All right, now that you've gotonto that side of things, I'll
ask you the next question.
What does it take you, Wayne,to go Classic Rallying?
An understanding wife.
We have a guy in Bunbury, PeterMay Autos, looks after the
mechanical side of the car for us.
(06:49):
And yeah, we just go out and have fun.
It's not about winning or doing anything.
It's about having fun andinteracting with the public doing it.
You've mentioned before thepodcast about some of the, public
interaction things that you've done.
Do you want to give us an idea of what?
when Tarmac started, the GTFabrication Sprint in Bunbury.
We, um, had to get across to the shirethat to get some benefit for the shire
(07:12):
and the community and for Bunbury weorganised what we called a grab a granny
ride and, went to Ocean Star Villas andasked them if we could bring the race
cars in and take their, uh, Residentsfor a drive around town they loved it.
So, we put the word out to allthe competitors coming down and
I was only expecting that stageto get four or five cars turn up,
(07:32):
but we had about 30 cars turn up.
we, had a good afternoontaking the residents for a run.
the classic cars were great because a lotof them remember those cars from the area.
And we talked to peoplein their 80s and 90s.
we had a good weekend thereand then obviously, we have the
show and shines down in Manjimupsorry, Pemberton and up in Perth.
Ross organized a, charityevent for Pemberton.
(07:53):
So we could take the residents for aride up a hill for a nominated fee.
paid the fee and all the money wentto nominated charity in Pemberton.
So.
it doesn't sound a lot, but I thinkwe've raised, each time we do it,
around a couple of grand, it wentto something that needed some money
Yeah, that couple of grand for, thenumber of people that you're able
to put through on something likethat is a pretty reasonable amount.
(08:15):
Yeah, it's pretty good.
I think that we do it, you probably, getfour or five runs in, up on their stages.
Not at full speed but, for some ofthem there's probably never been over
a hundred k's an hour at that age.
you know, a full bred race car.
We're talking some pretty quick cars.
A couple of guys we've run withhad Mustangs and they had some
grunt and they used to go up there.
It's just fun.
So that's a great socialelement of what you do.
(08:38):
Do you also get to thingslike, coffee and cars?
Yes, we take the cars, well Itake mine now, these days too.
there's one on this Sunday, 15thof December at the foreshore
at Eton, it's called Shannon's.
Shannon's Coffee and Cars.
So it's $5 entry for a car, spectatorsare free and people in the car are free.
The money goes to a nominatedcharity for the year.
(09:00):
this past 12 months The money'sbeen going to the Variety Club.
and they, the guy that organisedit picks a new charity each
year, so everyone gets around.
Five bucks once every three months totake the cars down there, It's a great
day to catch up with people you probablyhaven't seen for those three, four months.
Have a chat and see what's outthere and who's changed what and
who's got what hidden in the sheds?
(09:20):
Yeah, the what's hidden in the sheds.
That's a big one.
Yeah, we've only been down here 18months and we've been walking along
the estuary and we've been seeingquite a lot of Classic Cars going past.
Yeah.
Many more than I expected.
Yeah, with the opening a couple yearsago of the Car Museum in Bunbury, and
the Bike Museum as well in Bunbury.
that's brought a lot of cars out, you cango to the Classics, you're getting people
(09:44):
Restore them and they've got to be periodcorrect or then you get guys who like the
modifier muffin whatnot, which is fine.
I don't worry me either way I've got anold 1958 mainline Ute in the shed, which
is reasonably rare, that's all originalat the moment, but, needs work and, I'm
going to spend a lot of money on it, butI'm going to leave it as it is because
that's how it was, not worry aboutsticking big fat tyres on it and whatnot.
(10:08):
In days past, one of the thingsthat people did was stick.
Big tires on it and a tiny littlesteering wheel, it was probably way too
small for it, and changed engines orcarburettors and all that sort of thing.
there's a whole group of people thatthat's what they did with their cars.
Yeah, we done it when wewere young blokes didn't we?
We'd have the old EH Holden with aset of radials on the back and go
(10:29):
down to Scarborough Beach Car Parkand do drags or go out to Freemantle
and take on the uh, Italian migrantsout there and their valiants it
was all good fun in those days.
Yeah, absolutely.
So there's a whole group ofcars that, let's just say,
it's authentic for them to be.
Displayed like that these days.
And then like the mainline you've gotin the garage is in Original as it
(10:52):
was driven type state, I would imagineand then you've got the concourse cars
the ones that have been buffed withina moment of their life, so to speak.
so it's good, right?
I mean, everyone's got different ideasof what they want i've got a good mate
who owns GT Fabrication He, restoresclassic cars, and does a good job.
He doesn't bring them back to theiroriginal patina and original, you know,
(11:14):
tyres He puts modified parts on them, butthey're show cars and that's his hobby.
I'm not a chef but he does excellentwork and it's a hobby for him.
it's good to see him around.
I guess compared.
To the guys coming through nowwho are Evo or Mitsubishi fans, or
Subaru fans, when they get to ourage, they'll talk about the Imprezas
and whatnot as being classic cars.
(11:35):
to me, I'm a V8 petrol man, so this fourcylinder turbo stuff's not my cup of tea.
I'm sure it's good fun,but it's not my cup of tea.
That's it.
And you've got to go wherethe, things are that excite you
Yeah, we do.
originally in Tarmac West.
Tarmac Events was set off as, ClassicEvents or something, it was just small
classic cars and then it migrated overthe years and changed it's name and
(11:59):
modern cars started coming in I guessthe classics still draw crowds in, where
the modern stuff's not, it draws crowdsin, but it's not as big as the V8s.
yeah, back at Toodyay or even upat Mundaring, through the weir
there, you can hear the V8s comingfrom five, ten k's away, where just
here rolling through the forest.
I mean, I guess it's your day when you hadthe escorts racing through the forest and
(12:22):
you can hear 'em from miles away coming.
And that's what you can hear with the veights on the tarmac is the same feeling.
I remember we, we'd done fromeminent to, uh, coming the name
place in North Cliff, as a stage,which is something 10 odd occasion.
it was pretty quick.
And one of my mates was stuck on the sideof the road and we came down the road.
We were flat chatted about 200k's an hour and we had a black
(12:42):
Commodore come up behind us Iwasn't going to let him overtake.
we had about a kilometer of straight road.
So we had a bit of a drag down there.
my mate thought it was thebest thing he's ever seen.
Seen two V8s chase eachother along the road.
So, it's tough.
Really good fun to be out there and Iremember one of the first dinky cars I
had was an Escort World Rally ChampionshipEscort from 1980 or whatever it was.
(13:04):
that was my introduction to rallying,really, was to have one of those
die cast metal cars, I didn't reallyget to hear them in the forest at
that point, it was years later.
Yeah, well, they're iconic nowin the forest, the escorts, I
mean, they're the way to go.
And so, I think it's taken a fullcircle now, the dirt rallying,
they've gone from the big V8s.
Down to the quicker, more nimble,four wheel drive, two litre
(13:25):
cars with the turbos on them.
getting back to tarmac rallying,my brother in law had been
doing it for quite a while.
He'd done, I think 20 Classic Adelaides.
I think he's probably done 15,16 Targa West, if not more.
he's been doing it for a while.
He'd done dirt rallying in 70s.
And, um, yeah.
Unfortunately, we had some freak accidentsin Tasmania a couple of years ago.
(13:45):
We found a couple of deaths inthree separate instances over there.
So, it got shut down a coroner's inquiry.
And our governing body at thatstage, Motorsports Australia,
wouldn't license any of the events.
So we basically had hiatus in Australiafor a couple of years and tarmac events.
We've only just got going again this yearofficially with, the, uh, new governing
body for us is the AASA, AustralianAutomotive Sporting Association.
(14:10):
So they've taken on the insuranceside of things and that's it.
A lot of difference between them andMA, probably a bit easier to work with
from what MA are and the restrictionsfor us older people aren't as bad.
Motorsports Australia at our age, wantus to do a full medical every year which
is $800 plus the license fees for usolder guys has gone through the roof For
(14:32):
those who can afford it, it's probablyfine, but for those that can't, it's a
big hit every year, $800 to do a medical.
They want us to jump in andout of cars in 30 seconds.
it takes me 30 seconds to getout of the chair in the morning.
I don't know how they're going to do that,but yeah, they just brought in some rules
that have made it hard for, especiallythe classic cars, having the wing seats on
(14:52):
so we can't see outside the classic cars.
Very restrictive forreview with the roll cages
Yeah, cars have grown over, over time.
Like, you think about a Corolla,used to be quite a small car.
But the Corollas that are outthere now are probably as big as
the original Holdens that werecoming off the production line.
the more modern cars tend to be biggerand that means that the, an older car
(15:17):
that's probably more competitive because,it's maybe a bit smaller They get very
tight when you want to squeeze in, seatsthat have wings around your helmet.
I'll just give you an example,a good mate Paul Crute.
And Paul Gusson, they runa 1964, Mustang Coupe.
both are very big men,height wise and body wise.
when we were helping build theircar, we had to modify the seats so
(15:40):
they could, actually get them in
Now these weren't wing seats, just normal,racing seats and harnesses There was
quite a bit of modification on the tunnelsand the seats trying to get them in.
To get them in so the guyscould fit into the car.
into the cars and be safe inside them.
It's not just rip the seat out,let's put a race seat in and go.
I've had to put mine on a slide and adjustit because I can't reach the pedals, so.
(16:01):
where the seat needs to be to get into it.
You can't reach the pedal from there.
if I have the seat up where I'm in aracing position, I can't get into the car.
that's a bit of a compromise.
and in tarmac because we have anavigator sitting next to us, we
have to adjust the seats so they canget in, so we were lucky we had the
same navigator for quite a few years.
recently we've got a new one, butit's good because he's my size,
(16:22):
so you don't have to adjust hisseat too much, only his seatbelt,
Much easier when it'sthat built in adjustment.
Yeah, it is.
. We've had a good chat now about what it takes to go classic rallying.
We'll have a break, and after thebreak, we'll look at what it means.
(16:43):
We've had a good look at what it takes.
Now, let's have a look at what it means.
Wayne, what does it mean to you,your family, or the community that
you're able to go Classic Rally?
Paul.
I thought about it when youmentioned we're going to do this.
On a personal note it's a wayof unwinding and, relaxing.
So it might sound silly that we getinto a race car and go belting through
(17:05):
the forest with big trees at 200Ks plus an hour and feels relaxed.
But, I guess if you ask anyonewho does any type of speed
event, everything slows down.
You get used to it very quick,and it's, I don't play golf.
so it is an out, for me, it's a wayof relaxing and clearing the head
and, stopping the black dog fromchasing me around to the family.
(17:26):
Well, you'd have to ask my wife that.
I guess I've been pretty, uh, selfish inbuilding the car going to these events and
spending money she's been asking for a newkitchen for a few years, and she finally
got it, then I moved house, so, it'scompromise, and I've probably compromised,
well, she's compromised more than I have.
To the community, oh, again,it's an interesting question.
(17:46):
I guess the older fellas around now.
Remember the old classic cars andso do the girls and they get a kick
out of seeing them on the road andwhatnot they can argue about what
it was and what it's got in it andwhat it is and for the youngest
young kids coming up we've always.
Allowed them to sit in the race carsand get their photos taken they get
a kick out of sitting in a race car.
a bit of bragging rights when theygo to school and tell the mates.
(18:08):
We used to do a lot of posters for thethree race cars that we were involved
in with Frank's Classics Garage.
that way, give back to thecommunity a bit I hope.
my car's got a bit of a followingin Perth, I think there's only three
in Australia, the other two are inthe eastern states, hopefully we can
give back to the community somehow.
Yeah, so, when we first started going, wegot a team going called Frank's Classic
(18:30):
Garage, originally Kim Stewart in theMustang, Frank Huber, who built both
cars, built, Kim's car and, serviced mine,actually drove mine, I navigated for him.
we had a team running for, uh, closeto 10 years with sponsorships, the
sponsorship covered stuff like evententries and, accommodation for motels,
because most of us had to come fromthe country for going to Perth or for
(18:51):
going down to Pemberton, we neededaccommodation, so we had all that covered.
So all we had to pay for ourselves wasthe maintenance on the cars, Yeah, it
was a good 10 years, as COVID came alongand stopped that, now we've got to pay
for any ourselves, it gets a bit tightat times, but we still managed to do it.
And it's well worth doingbecause of what it does for you.
It definitely does, we've metsome fantastic people out of it,
(19:12):
Tony's Autorecords, Paul Bocelli.
He's top notch.
We wouldn't have known him if it wasn'tfor this stuff and his co driver.
yeah, Ross and Jan Tapper who run allthe events and they're brilliant people.
They're just everywhere.
It's a real rally community And I thinkyou guys find it with Dirt Rallying too,
that you do it and you know everyone.
You've heard of different peopleand you get to meet them at
(19:33):
a gala dinner or something.
It's just, it's a good company.
Volunteers, the family, you know,we couldn't do these bits without
volunteers, as you well know.
And we've seen the same faces every yearThose people go beyond whatever they do
to get these events running It's what wedo, and we have fun doing it, and they
have fun setting up and watching us.
To give you an example, if we weredoing Tarmac West, I left at, three
o'clock in the morning to set a stageup and close it off so no traffic
(19:56):
can come through it and whatnot.
And we'd turn up here two hourslater and belt through there in three
minutes and go off to the next one.
I think, oh gee, that was fun.
So, I mean, we just couldn't do it.
the volunteers, arethere, they're doing it.
They're getting a lot out of it as
well.
I hope I hope they are,I see them come back.
it'd be nice to have, have some moresponsors where we could, you know,
sponsor the volunteers for fuel or havetheir own official dinner or something
(20:18):
there's so many involved it's a hugeexercise and very costly I would say.
so we, we try and help out wherewe can with it, so it's not what
you do, you might, you know, thankyou in a good pattern and recognise
that, that theirs is a main thing.
So,
I think
they enjoy it.
So there's a whole range of people that,that really get a lot out of doing events.
Yeah, I think, I don't know the exactnumbers, but Sundown Riverside Drive
(20:42):
for Tarmac West, it's one of thebiggest free sporting events I've seen.
They have different car clubs downthere and display, and all sorts
of different things involved inmotorsport or motors down there.
Riverside Drive is packed with people.
It's great to see the crowds gettingout there, and it's a free event
You can go there and watch the cars yeah,it's an all day thing down there so it's
(21:03):
good.
And that sort of thing you provideencouraging and exciting things
for the kids to do as well.
we hope some of these kids that have satin our cars and mustangs, are, sitting
in the modern cars, you know, the,14 year olds and whatnot get excited
enough to say, go buy me a go-kart.
I want to go-kart racing, or go buy mea bunkie so I can go speedway racing.
And they've got natural talent.
They'll develop, or they've gotlove for it, they'll develop.
(21:25):
I don't think you have to be exceptionallybrilliant or good at driving to enjoy it.
I'm no Buddy Peter Brock far from it.
But I enjoy it.
We go at our pace.
I'm not competitive these days.
I never have been.
So, I just like going outthere and driving to the best
of my ability and enjoy it.
you've got another personsitting next to you.
So if you crash badly, you'vegot a chance of loosing them.
(21:49):
That's not something thatreally goes through your mind.
If you can avoid it, yeah.
Obviously there's times you can'tthrough mechanical failure or whatever.
And that's why we spend a lot oftime keeping them running, but most
of them have got modern gear on tobe honest with you, but you've still
got to keep them going and whatnot.
All those parts have lives.
They do, they do.
A bit like us.
(22:09):
You wear them out pretty quick.
Well there's, quite a lot ofpositive meaning comes out
of going Classic Rallying.
We'll have another breaknow, and after the break,
we'll talk about how you do it.
So I've looked at a lot ofpositive meaning that comes from
competing in classic rallying.
(22:31):
Wayne, how would somebodygo classic rallying?
Well, if you want to go doclassic rallying, the first
step is to buy a classic car.
It's not a matter of just buying oneand jumping into it, there's Certain
regulations and rules in place so youcan still have your classic car and do
it but to to do the uh tarmac eventsthere's three categories there's what
(22:52):
they call a challenge so you don't needas much safety gear but your speed's
restricted to I think 130 k's and thenthere's another category called 160 k's.
And then there's Open Competition,which is in WA a maximum of 200Ks.
I think in the eastern states,Target Tasmania is an Open
Speed thing, which is fine.
so you get yourself a classic car, startoff in Challenge and, do Challenge And
(23:14):
then you do other events like the rallysprints to get driver experience they're
held at Motorplex every couple of monthsget used to it, understand pace notes
and the rules and regulations if youdon't like it, you haven't spent a lot
of money an old car to do a challenge.
And when I say old, I mean, things areup to 1985 now, so there's things like
Toyota Celicas and the old Toranasand Commodores around, There's cars
(23:36):
there that you can buy and do it in.
and then once you go above thatstage, you get more into the um, the
safety side of things with roll cagesproper harnesses and stuff like that.
And then, maybe you go into theterminal case now, safety wise,
you've got to have everything.
there's No two ways about it.
And they have just introduced anothercategory called TDS time, distance speed.
(23:58):
So you're given a time to do a stagingyou know the distance and you've gotta
work out your speed to do it in that time.
So in that, you canbasically enter any car.
But if you want an old, classiccar you wanna take for a run
without hurting it, you can do it.
They're pretty slow, but whatI've heard, I haven't done one.
But you've got a nominated timeto start and finish the stage, so
It's a different challenge altogether.
(24:18):
Oh, totally different, yeah, yeah.
So, I've never done one.
I believe in the early daysof rallying they used to do
it, but I've never done one.
So I think you need to know that.
How fast you've got to go to getfrom point A to point B has an
average speed and try and get there.
And obviously they award points,so you get points awarded for
(24:39):
being late and for being early.
whoever finishes the event withthe least number of points wins.
I think that's a good training groundfor people who want to do classics.
it's all about safety.
It's no point going out and doingit if you're going to kill yourself,
or someone else, or a spectator,or something like that, so.
But, to do it.
They're not cheap, I'll be honest withyou, to build a car that you feel safe in.
(24:59):
it's probably around 100, 000mark, probably more nowadays.
So there's a lot of cars running aroundin WA that are classics that, well
over 150, 000, 60, 000 spent on them.
And because they're more competitive,they get them or they throw at it.
And all of a sudden, some of theseold cars are, Managed to produce 700
horsepower out of a motor when it wasbuilt, but it was only 200 horsepower.
That's what it's all about.
(25:21):
But yeah, it's worth doing.
there's a few different levelsthat you could go at it.
Heaps of different levels.
Obviously the deeper and faster you'regoing, the more it's going to cost you.
Yeah, Yeah, bigger, longerpockets, shorter pockets
you've got, more money you got.
And there's openings to get into it.
They run a, what we used to call theLF Performance Speed Event, which
was a, ground routes thing for peopleto get into racing, and, you can
(25:42):
rock up there with any car you likeand they'll put you into category
and you do laps around the circuit.
I enjoy doing that.
I'd done that for probably two,three years before I got into racing.
The tarmac stuff, so it's goodgrounding And obviously you've got
to have competition licenses, sothere's different stages you get
competition licenses at so it's good.
So there's a gradingsystem for the licenses?
(26:03):
There is, yeah, depending onwhat you want to do, and maybe
there's circuit and tarmac.
licenses, and then, build up yourexperience with that, and the more
experience you've got, the better you go.
Hopefully.
Hopefully, yeah.
Oh, we've seen people come and go, rock upin these great big souped up cars, do two
or three years of racing, and then they'vedisappeared most guys don't do that.
When we started, done 10 yearsand hung up the boots and
(26:25):
young guys have come through.
It's got a few young guys comingthrough now, with classics,
in the Commodores and whatnot.
So that's good to see.
There's a few Porsches running aroundnow that are in the classic categories.
So, 240Z Datsuns.
There's cars out there, you don't haveto buy a fully built car to do it.
You can get your own andgradually build it up.
I guess if you're goingto do that, you need to.
Go to someone who knows the regulationsor speak to one of the scrutineers
(26:48):
who knows the specs on what you cando and what you can't do and go from
there.
where would someone look for that info?
Initially you'd probably talk to theguys at tarmac events and they'll put
you in the direction of who to speak to.
They've got, people that knowthe rules and regulations,
what you can do and can't do.
plus, on the website, AASA, have alist of what you can do and can't do
(27:11):
So does Motorsports Australia.
When you build a car, you can changethem a little bit as long as they're
within the guidelines they set down.
And there's things liketyres engines and horsepower
and can you just show up in anevent and talk to some people?
you can show up at, any event you likeand if you see a car you like most guys
we know in, in tarmac rallying are opento talking to people about their cars
(27:32):
and whatnot, most people are like totalk about their cars, you can approach
them, they'll put you in contact withguys that dedicate themselves to building
these cars, or know somebody who cando it for you you just talk to them
and they'll put you in the right place,
So there's a bit of a networkIf you ask someone, they
might go, oh, not me, but him.
Yeah, well there's guys thatfabricate the roll cages.
(27:54):
There's two types ofroll cages you can have.
There's what they call the bolt in.
So it actually is bolted in the car.
You can unbolt it.
Or there's the welded in ones,which, I mean, I quite prefer
them because they're built solid
So there's a couple of guys aroundPerth that can do that modification.
I won't mention names in case Iupset someone I haven't mentioned,
but Yeah, there's people outthere that will help you.
(28:15):
and there's guys that willgive you great advice,
And then there's things like helmets,they have to be within a certain code.
and race suits, they have to be withina certain expiry code and what not.
Alright, well thank you very much Waynefor being on Forrest.Chat . And all
our Forrest.Chat listeners wish youall the best in your future endeavours.
What's coming up foryou in Classic Rallying?
(28:36):
Well, Hopefully things are going theway I would like, our next one will be
Tarmac South West down at Pemberton.
in March, I think it is next year.
that would be our next one.
with my way of things going, fourdays of rallying is too much for me
these days, especially in the heat.
So, yeah, Tarmac SouthWest will be our next one.
all the best for that one.
thanks for having me.
You've been listening to Forrest.Chat, where we talk about individual
(28:58):
endeavour in Western Australia.
What it takes, what itmeans and how you do it.
I'm your host, Paul van der Mey, andin today's episode, we talked with
Wayne Turner about Classic Rallying.
Remember, there are four waysto get involved with Forrest.
Chat.
Share the domain Forrest.Chat with yourfamily and friends and people you meet.
When you subscribe to the emails, youget early advice of coming episodes.
(29:22):
Listen to the episodes atForrest.Chat slash episodes.
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I'm looking forward to joiningyou with our next guest.
Until then, enjoy making it happen.
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