Something BIG! Road Rally / Race / Documentary Film

[JackMcCornack]

Originally Posted by Ladogaboy

This is something that I would be interested in. I like the locking gas cap idea.

Another anti-cheat idea is to carry a portable GPS, sealed and out of range of the pilot...I mean driver; I said "pilot" because this is pretty common in aviation competitions. A Garmin eTrex does fine, the scorer can download the data onto a laptop upon arrival, it goes pretty fast and smooth. But something needs to be done if we want to publicize our results and have the press take it seriously, and have actual bragging rights in years to come.

Despite how honorable we are, the honor system is a Bad Idea if we're looking for public plaudits, because if cheating is an option then the public will explain away spectacular results with "maybe he cheated." One thing I think organizers of <any> motorsport owe the participants is a solid scoring system that convinces the audience that yes, the winners (and every finisher) deserve the plaudits they are given because the won/finished fair and square. I think a locking gas cap would be sufficient to verify no fueling outside the box, but there are plenty of other ways. Like, give everybody a GoPro to mount on the dash and pointed at the fuel filler, and set it to shoot one frame every ten seconds.

Originally Posted by Ladogaboy

Normal rally races judge by times through legs of the race. However, since we judging based on fuel economy, not speed, we should focus on something other than time.

The big question here is, do we want a fun rally that we participants all enjoy, or a competition that interests the muggles, and speed is something that spectators understand. The best blend of these I've ever participated in was Escape from Berkeley (Berkeley to Vegas without fossil fuel) and despite it being a cross country race on public roads, the challenge of conserving fuel kept us to legal speeds...but there was no question that it was a race and it was pretty dang exciting.

I think an Ecomodder Cannonball is perfectly feasible--a rally in name but a race in practice--without drawing the ire of the police. It could have three key features that spectators value: every day's event gets individually scored, everybody starts at once, and the winner of each day's event is the first car to the finish line.

The kicker is, you can't drive any faster (in mph) than your fuel economy (in mpg). If you do, you're a DNF and score zero for the day.

My proposal for a "Something BIG! Road Rally / Race / Documentary Film" is the Greenball Sea-to-Shining-Sea Trophy Dash. One leg per day, one fillup per day, each day's start line is the previous day's finish line, overall results are the cumulative of each days' results, start at one coast and finish at the other.

[spacer]

The kicker is, you can't drive any faster (in mph) than your fuel economy (in mpg). If you do, you're a DNF and score zero for the day

That's a nifty twist on time rallies and bicycle prediction rides. Cool.

How about something more distributed? Say... a core race of folks who are willing and able to run it from start to end, and the checkpoints would be events in and of themselves, organized by local volunteers. That way, folks could come in and make a day or weekend of it without diving headfirst into the big enchilada, and the racers will get lots of local exposure along with 'em. Challenges would be as diverse as the people and terrain will allow, from hilly San Francisco to the flats, and even mountain courses.

Scoring, like with many bicycle races, will allow for winners in several categories, from fastest overall (times would be logged on departure/arrival), best economy, overall points (earned in local challenges), etc.
If you're wanting to make the challenge as visible as possible, I think the extra exposure gained by making the event accessible to the checkpoint locals would be a huge win.
Also, there are organizers who would be very pleased to bring in entertainers, and car show/swap folks. Mix in some of these specialty cars with the normal car show fare, and I'm pretty sure some gearheads might start liking what they see in person.

I think the "main" race could be kept pretty simple, while allowing local talent to pull the load at the checkpoints, making it interesting in their own ways.

[FXSTi]

I just did this really quick, but I have been thinking a lap around Lake Michigan would be really cool. Time it to run through St. Ignace during their summer classic car show (June I think).

This map I laid out on Google Maps shows 1014 miles, but would need a ton of fine tuning to keep to the lake shore as much as possible. Could make a great two or three day event.


St Ignace, MI to St Ignace, MI - Google Maps

[bennelson]

You could call it "Loop the Lake".

Looks like there would be some rural areas that would make it challenging for an EV, but really good use of a Plug-in Hybrid.

[bennelson]

Thank you all for your input!

I believe I now know what the "BIG THING" is, and it's at this thread:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post279472