Car Rallies

[QuickHitCurepon]

I was a tween when I started going on coursemarker gimmick rallies around 1970 with my sister in her Ford Cortina.

A large part of my favorite memories are how they always ended up at Straw Hat pizza parlor and they reviewed the course a little and the gimmicks, presented trophies and then there was the pizza. lol

I have always been very curious about when and where they started and why they stopped so abruptly. I know there was the energy crisis, but that doesn't explain the whole story.

Has anyone ever gone on a CMG rally or a time and distance rally or know much about them?

Coursemarker Gimmick Rallyes: A Blast From the Past

For many of you new to the sport of gimmick rallying, they may seem like a new invention. But, actually coursemarker gimmick rallyes have been going on for about 25 years now. It evolved from the glory days of sports cars and T&D rallyes. My first experiences with rallyes occurred before I was able to drive, in a special time that Jeff Trimble calls "The Golden Age of Rallying." Way back when I was in high school, a few of my friends took me on a Club-501 rallye which had a theme related to fish and birds. I don't remember how we did, except that we didn't win a trophy. But I do know that I was immediately hooked. Once I learned to drive, I began rallying weekly. I spent countless Saturdays and some Fridays rallying, winning some and losing rallyes, and moving from first timer to expert in about 8 months (not too difficult a task when you rallye 5 times per month). During the mid-70s the gas crunch, "recreational drugs" (a bad couple of words nowadays), high-tech, and discos came around, rallyes seemed to die, and I along with many other rallye enthusiasts moved on to other (better?) things. I began rallying again in the mid/late 80s after stumbling upon an ad in the San Francisco Chronicle for an upcoming gimmick coursemarker rallye. Ironically, it was another Club 501 rallye. However, this time it started from a place called FAR Performance. I was hooked again. However a few things had changed since that "Golden Age." It felt like a Twilight Zone episode where you return to a world where things are so similar, yet different. My how things have changed in the last 20 years and my how they have stayed the same.

 

[QuickHitCurepon]

This is the rally I went on, and it usually went through the central residential neighborhoods of Mountain View, and that rally at Straw Hat he is talking about on San Antonio is now a specialty food store.

Coursemarker Gimmick Rallyes: A Blast From the Past

The 70s rallyes finished at pizza parlors then, as they do now (surprise!), but otherwise were run very differently, and much more efficiently. The popular finishes seemed to be Straw Hat Pizza Parlors (most of which are now Round Table). The ones I remember were on San Antonio in Palo Alto, in Cupertino across the street from Target (which was then Gemco)

BTW I couldn't help but add that I visited my stepmom for a whole summer once in 1966 at her house on Fargo Dr. which runs parallel four streets behind the Target that was Gemco. And that year she had a brand new red 1965 Ford Mustang.