Rally glossary
The key terms of classic car and regularity rallies, explained briefly. Handy before your first rally or as a reference for co-drivers.
A
- Average speed
- The set average speed in km/h that you are asked to hold over a section.
- Average speed table
- A table that shows, for a given average speed, when you should reach each distance.
C
- Calibration
- Calibration means setting your trip meter so it measures exactly the same distances as the organiser.
- Calibration route
- The calibration route is a section measured by the organiser, where you set up your trip meter before the rally.
- Chinese signs
- Chinese signs are simplified junction sketches without distances. You have to find them on the road in the right order.
- Classic car rally
- A rally for historic vehicles. Most of them are about regularity and navigation rather than speed.
- Co-driver
- The co-driver navigates with the roadbook, works out the times and tells the driver to speed up or slow down.
- Coefficient
- A factor that penalty points are multiplied by, usually to balance older cars or harder tests.
F
- FIVA
- The Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens, the international umbrella body for historic vehicles.
G
- GPS timing
- With GPS timing a device in your car logs your position. Your times at the timing points are calculated from that track.
H
- Herringbone
- A herringbone shows your route as one straight line, with side roads drawn as short strokes to the left and right.
- Historic vehicle
- An older vehicle preserved in historic condition. At rallies each organiser decides which years of manufacture may enter.
- Hundredth of a second
- The smallest unit of time used for timing and scoring in many regularity tests.
L
- Leg
- A larger part of a rally, often one day or the section between two time controls.
- Light barrier
- A light barrier takes your time when your car breaks a beam of light across the road, often to the hundredth of a second.
M
- Map reading
- In map reading you find the route with a map instead of tulip diagrams. It is typical of navigation tasks.
- Maximum lateness
- Maximum lateness is the most you may be late at a control. Go over it and you risk being excluded.
N
- Navigation rally
- A rally that mainly tests finding the correct route using sketches, symbols and maps.
O
- Odometer
- The odometer measures how far you have driven. In a rally it has to match the distances in the roadbook.
- Official time
- The binding clock time of the rally. All controls and timing follow it, often via radio clock or GPS time.
P
- Passage control
- A passage control only checks that you drove the set route. The time you pass usually does not matter.
- Penalty points
- The points you collect for deviations and mistakes. The crew with the fewest at the end wins.
- Pressure hose
- A pressure hose lies across the road and triggers the timing as soon as your front wheel rolls over it.
R
- Rally computer
- A rally computer measures distance and time and shows you all the time whether you are ahead of or behind the set average.
- Regularity rally
- A rally where the fastest crew does not win. The winner is the crew that sticks most closely to the set average speeds and times.
- Regularity test
- A scored section where you drive a set distance at a given average speed. Every deviation from the target time costs points.
- Roadbook
- The roadbook describes the rally route step by step, with distances, directions and controls.
S
- Secret check
- A secret check times you at a point you do not know in advance. It forces you to keep to the average all the way.
- Special stage
- A scored section of a rally. At classic rallies a special stage is usually a regularity test.
- Speed change
- A point within a test where a new average speed applies. From there you continue with a different speed.
- Stamp control
- At a stamp control you get a stamp on your time card. It proves you were at that point on the route.
- Start time
- The clock time at which your crew starts the rally or a test. All later due times are based on it.
- Stopwatch
- The co-driver's key tool. It measures the running time in a test so you can compare it with the target time.
T
- Target time
- The time you should take for a section, or the clock time at which you are due at a control.
- Time card
- The time card is the document where marshals record your times and controls. Without it you cannot be scored.
- Time control
- A time control is a point on the route where your arrival time is recorded and compared with your target time.
- Time deviation
- The difference between your measured time and the target time. Penalty points are calculated from it.
- Tripmaster
- A Tripmaster is a precise rally trip meter that measures via a sensor on a wheel or gearbox and can be calibrated.
- TSD rally
- TSD stands for Time, Speed, Distance. It is a rally format where you must match time, average speed and distance exactly.
- Tulip diagram
- A tulip diagram shows a junction from above. A dot marks where you come in, the arrow shows where you go.