Time, Speed and Distance

Posted on Dec 29, 2022
Now that our TIMSYBERIA Cayenne has been strutting around at various events we thought it was time it earned its stripes so to speak. Yes, it’s time it got some rally credentials. Now this thing, as great as it is proving to be, is no Paris-Dakar or stage rally worthy vehicle. Nor is it going to do the actual TRANSSYBERIA Rally (is that still a thing?) But it should be perfectly cable of handling a Time, Speed, Distance rally (TSD). “What’s that?” you might ask. Well, it’s more like the original style of rally whereby the crew (driver and navigator) are given a course to follow on public roads and an average speed at which to cover said course. The tricky bit comes because there are hidden checkpoints where the organizers check to see if you are ahead or behind schedule; to the second! So there’s a lot of pressure on the navigator to keep the crew on course and on time. The speeds are always below the posted speed limit but the challenge is in allowing for accelerations and decelerations necessary to safely get down the often narrow, twisty and unpaved roads that are typically used. We thought the TIMSYBERIA was more than up to the challenge. We, on the other hand, not so much.

Car prep is minimal. Just a solid, reliable vehicle but we did makes sure to load up the full-size spare, some tools and fluids and drinks and snacks for us.



The event we entered was one leg of a three-day National Championship round hosted by the Detroit SCCA. Unfortunately (for us) the style of this event was a “trap rally” whereby the organizer tries to trick you into going off course in such a way that you automatically end up back on course without realizing you went the wrong, and consequently longer or shorter route, with the inevitable penalty points for doing so. Well we fell for almost every trap and therefore scored what must have been a record number of points for a National level TSD! We are from now on going to refer to these types of events as “Gotcha rallies”.

Never the less we had fun driving around SE Michigan’s best scenic dirt roads and proved the TIMSYBERIA to be an excellent TSD weapon. It just needs a better crew to pilot and navigate it. Our next TSD is not a trap rally and should be on snow. Look out for that update in a few weeks. Here are some pics from the event. Unfortunately TSDs do not generate exciting media content but do come with great sunrises if you’re lucky: