Topic: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

Hi
I'm interested in joining a Rally either later this year or in 2020.
As I live in a pretty remote area far, far away from any Rallies, I was planning on flying in to around start area of one a few days in advance and buying a sub $1000 car sight-unseen there. After the rally I would flog/give-away the car and fly home.

Is this something that is possible/acceptable?
and is there issues with insuring a vehicle when you don't live in the state, or even the country you're insuring it in?

Thanks

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

Lots of people have done exactly what you want to do.  Insurance shouldn't be a problem. If you already have a car insured, just call your insurance company as soon as you have the VIN of the car you buy - they can add it to your policy.

Registration could be tricky, but in most states if you get pulled over you'll be fine if you show a (very) recent bill of sale and proof of current insurance.

3 (edited by Guildenstern 2019-04-10 09:17 PM)

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

You should be fine with a temp tag and calling your insurance when you get the car.

I unloaded my rusty Miata and flew back when I finished the RT-66 Rally and it worked out pretty well, although it's easy to unload a Miata no matter how rusty if the engine runs and the top is new.

Don't assume you'll get back what you pay, consider it the "rental" cost of the rally.

Speaking of, I need to start looking for another Miata.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

Lemons HQ will want to see insurance and registration documents at the start of the rally (also a valid driving license), so if you do buy something at the last minute make sure you have real documents with you. You probably can, for example, arrange insurance with just a phone call but that won't necessarily give you something sufficiently convincing to show HQ. A quick in-person visit to an insurance agent's office will. I understand there are some fancy, newfangled methods of displaying proof of insurance via smart phone but I have no idea how HQ would feel about that. Since you're coming from Canada it's probably worth calling a few US insurance firms well in advance to ask about their policies for foreign nationals just in case it takes extra time to get things going or if there's something specific you need to do. By the way, if you mention the word "rally" during the conversation, be warned that many insurance agents will immediately assume that means "illegal street racing and/or mass murder" and will not want to talk with you. Once they've reached that conclusion you won't be able to change their mind.

Similiarly, although a cop might let you slide with just a recent bill of sale and expired plates, HQ won't. You'll need actual registration. It can certainly be temporary registration, which is to say no current license plate but just a sheet of paper taped in the back window or however the state in question does things, but it does have to be current, real registration.

Having said that, the rally folks love to see people buy and drive, or attempt to drive, something entertaining, sketchy, or both, at the last minute, so go for it.

1982 MG Metro 1300: IOE 2015 Pacific Northworst GP, Longest Distance 2010 Cd'L Box Wine Country Classic
1980 KV Mini 1: Worst of Show and Fright Pig Supremo 2009 Concours d'Lemons
1978 H Special: Second-Round Elimination 2010 Lemons Pinewood Derby at Sears Pointless
1967 SAAB 96: IOE 2012 Pacific Northworst GP, Organizer's Choice 2022 Hell on Wheels California Rally

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

Which corner of Canada are you in? Because I don't see how it can be too far to drive to the rally start point, in your locally acquired heap.

But I don't like airplanes, so my view might be a bit wacko. Also we did over 5k miles in a 1940 LaSalle round trip last fall....so my view might be a bit wacko.

I Survived Hell on Wheels, Car Weeeak, Route Sucky Suck, etc.

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

Terrace BC.

We're a long way from anything here.
Example being, I can fly to Vancouver in 1 1/2 hours, when it's a 16 hour drive.
If I wanted to do Escape from Moscow, or Four Bangers, that's 4 days to drive there, then 4 days to drive home.
Not unreasonable, but not ideal.


As far as liking airplanes goes, I work in aviation

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

I'm considering coming from the UK with friends to do an event (possibly Retreat from Moscow) and have similar questions, but besides trying to get insurance as a non-resident I also have no idea how your registration system works as it seems to be completely different to the UK.

Here, you buy a car and the registration number and plates come with it, to change the registered keeper takes 2 minutes on the DVLA (same as your DMV) website and costs nothing but you need a UK address for them to send the registration document to (and any parking/speeding etc tickets). In another 2 minutes you can buy road tax to use it on the road (cost varies from £0 to £570 per year depending on the vehicle age, engine capacity, CO2 emmissions rating).  If the car is between 3 and 40 years old you need a valid "MOT" (annual roadworthiness test). Road tax and MOT show up online against the registration number so there's no need for any documents. Insurance is probably similar to the US and again, it shows online if it's insured (although covered drivers' names only show on the system the police use).

So, arriving in Maryland and buying a crap car for cash, please can someone walk me through what's required and how to get it (and costs)?

If anyone's got a crap car to sell, so much the better  - please provide details!

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

It's diffrent in every state. It's madness. And it usually involves too much leg work.

http://www.mva.maryland.gov/vehicles/re … htm#buying

You need to have a valid Driver's License, Registration, and proof of insurance IN the car. And Maryland requires an inspection to get a registration but there is a 30 day temp tag that technically is supposed to be used to go to an inspection with, but yea other states don't know or care. As long as the temp tag is current.

Also screw Escape from Moscow. RT-66 this coming June!!!!

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

thegoose wrote:

I'm considering coming from the UK

Make an American friend. Have them buy the car and insure it and go on the rally with you. Split costs accordingly.

FYI - I'm an American, I live in downstate Illinois (no vehicle inspections) and am thinking of doing the Route 66 Rally but have no "team" for rally events. I'm also a fan of most things British, so unless you're all Spurs fans we might be able to combine forces!

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

BlkRalliart wrote:
thegoose wrote:

I'm considering coming from the UK

Make an American friend. Have them buy the car and insure it and go on the rally with you. Split costs accordingly.

FYI - I'm an American, I live in downstate Illinois (no vehicle inspections) and am thinking of doing the Route 66 Rally but have no "team" for rally events. I'm also a fan of most things British, so unless you're all Spurs fans we might be able to combine forces!

That might be a better idea. I've just noticed you're from
Peoria and realised I know a petrolhesd guy from there, I met him when he lived in Switzerland but pretty sure he's back there now.  I'll see if he'd be up for this and could maybe help arrange stuff.

I was thinking late January might be easier to get a few of us to have the time off, and didn't fancy Texas in late June in case we end up with a shitty car with no aircon!  I've also been to Texas before.  Still, we should look at both I think.

I'm going to have to work out some costings and see who's up for it. What estimate would you give for car share costs based on say 3 people per car?  What sort of room rates are the hotels on the route?

A UK licence should be ok but if not an International Driving Permit is an over the counter job at the Post Office with your licence,  a photo and £5.50 (well under $10).

Oh, and regardless of which team, none of us have any interest in football I'm afraid!

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

The 66 Rally will go through the top of Texas, which is not the same as the southern (humid) parts of Texas. But being from UK, it's probably still hell for you. January in Maryland would be much more like home!

Hotels usually are somewhere around $100 a night per room. Plus or minus $50. Although there could be some surprises, so if you can't afford room money, perhaps you can find a car that is big enough to sleep in occasionally (such as a funeral car?).

Petrol costs can be substantial if you go on a long rally, but fortunately the last I checked, prices in Maryland were quite a bit less than Chicago, and especially California. Large American cars can get as low as singe digit miles per gallon, small cars do much better. The funeral car we took on 66 last year averaged 9 mpg. The LeSabre we plan to take to Texas next month should use only 1/3 as much, which will be a whopping savings of dollars

I Survived Hell on Wheels, Car Weeeak, Route Sucky Suck, etc.

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

Yeah, I never think much about the cost of gas (and compared to the UK, it's a bargain here, even in California) but damn, if your ride is on the thirsty side, this is when you'll notice it. We ran the first rally around CA in a Jaguar V8, smooth, fast, without drama, to many folks surprise... But high teens MPG at CA prices was starting to bug me after a few days of 20 plus gallons every morning of premium gas. OTOH, doing it in a 30 mpg Miata would probably cause me a lifetime of back pain, so I should probably just buy the gas and shut up smile

Tradewinds Tribesmen Racing (The road goes on forever…)
#289 1984 Corvette Z51 #124 1984 944 #110 2002 Passat
Gone but not forgotten, #427-Hong Kong Cavaliers Benz S500
IOE (Humber!) Hell on Wheels (Jaguar)

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

I learned a secret which is you roll up a dish towel and slide it behind the pad of the backrest. It just lifts away from the seat back, only affixed at the top and bottom. Night and Day difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74_hWeagmag

The most uncomfortable seat the whole trip was on the flight home. But I had some Genuine California recreational "helpers" for that.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

thegoose wrote:

I'm considering coming from the UK

1997 Land Rover Discovery work? ~120k, can have the jump seats installed, finally...

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

We won't want to be on a tight budget, I just need to work things out with flight costs etc because I'll be organising everyone and having to collect money off them etc

We've started doing something every year, 2016 was my stag do in Prague, 2017 a road trip to Le Mans, 2018 a friend's stag do in Budapest, and this year to celebrate a significant birthday of mine we did a winter trip to France to do Olympic Bobsleigh Racing (something I'd wanted to do for over 10 years) and Speed Luge run which we packaged with skiing and all stayed in a fully catered chalet for a week.

$100/room/night sounds pretty good. Fuel I can work out myself, just need an idea of cost $/gallon? Then it's just maths - I'm used to working out mpg in Imperial gallons (4.54 litres) not US gallons (3.79 litres). Our Cayenne Turbo does under 20mpg, probably 15mpUSg, and costs about £120 to fill up with 99RON fuel @ £1.30-£1.45/litre. So being able to buy fuel at bargain US prices is actually a positive encouragement to the opportunity to use something really crazy.  For example, when I was in Austin for a few weeks I nearly bought a white with orange leather 500ci late 70's Cadillac Eldorado for $500 for a trip to Las Vegas (the aircon not working was a showstopper).

Anyway, and I realise this might not be easy to answer,  what would you say is fair to pay someone towards sharing their car and insurance so we can all drive?  There could be between 4 and 8 of us I reckon, so we'd need to partner with a few teams with perhaps 2 of us per host car?

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

thegoose:

You might want to check out the "Cars for sale" section in this forum. Spank finds some wild listings;
for example, here you go [this is one through the 'offerup' app]:

86 "linchon" town car limo 54,"super strech executive $650obo LosAngel:
https://forums.24hoursoflemons.com/view … p?id=38559

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

That limo looks perfect. The offerup like k doesn't work for me though, throws a security message so maybe it's because I'm outside the US. Any chance you could send me screenshots of it all? marcus@autoperform.com

Obviously if we buy something, aside from having to put faith in the seller and car, I'll need to look at its location, transport to the start and storage until the start, as well as insurance etc

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

If you want to go on the Moscow rally, I can't help much with cars, I'm too far away (in Arizona). That does sound like the challenging part of the whole trip. Do you have an extra few days or so you could spend to sort it out, once you get here, before the rally start? or is time a limiting factor?

Figure about 2.50 per gallon of gas these days, and you should be fine. There is a site gasbuddy.com that will keep you up to date, also if you just search for gas stations using google maps, it often gives prices.

I Survived Hell on Wheels, Car Weeeak, Route Sucky Suck, etc.

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

If you're at peace with the fuel consumption of a Cayenne Turbo at U.K. Petrol pricing, then yes, I agree, anything goes in that regard!

Tradewinds Tribesmen Racing (The road goes on forever…)
#289 1984 Corvette Z51 #124 1984 944 #110 2002 Passat
Gone but not forgotten, #427-Hong Kong Cavaliers Benz S500
IOE (Humber!) Hell on Wheels (Jaguar)

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

thegoose wrote:

That limo looks perfect. The offerup like k doesn't work for me though, throws a security message so maybe it's because I'm outside the US.

/looks: Except I just noticed the listing mentions 'a little exterior work', and there's no picture of the drivers side.

/app: likely; I think the general idea of the app was 'local pickup' transactions.

It was as an example. I'm sure if you set a time frame, something entertaining will pop up.

You don't want to do something like a former school bus, do you? There are plenty available all the time around here...

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

Do not do a school bus. There was a Bus on the Rt-66 rally last year that I think consumed a years worth of fuel in a week.

Mistake By The Lake Racing (MBTL)
88 Thunderbird "THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!", Ex Astris, Rubigo / Semper Fracti
A&D: 2014 Sebrings at Sebring (NSF), 2014 NJMP2 Jurassic Park (SpeedyCop), 2012 Summit Point J30 (PiNuts)
2018 Route Sucky-Suck Rally Miata, 2019 World Tour Of Texas 64 Newport

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

I think we didn't do much better on fuel in the hearse, and we only had two live humans.

I Survived Hell on Wheels, Car Weeeak, Route Sucky Suck, etc.

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

A little exterior work? Who cares?! We'd be heading straight to Home Depot to deck it out with all manner of tasteless and ridiculous adornments and decorations anyway!

Re: Looking to join a Rally, have newb questions.

OfferUp terms of service include [beyond being 18]:
[snip]. You further represent and warrant that you: [snip]; (b) are legally permitted to, and do, live in the United States or one of its territories, and (c) ...

I don't have an account on that service, and I'm the East coast, not the West. I'm clearly not your best help for that listing.

On this coast, we've had a couple of notorious accidents with stretch limos. There may be restrictions on registering and insuring them - but I'm hypothesizing.

I mentioned school bus because there are many Mini- and Micro- busses available, based on vans, that could carry your whole group. And, they can provide a relatively reliable 'tender' vehicle [and tow vehicle, and carry many tools] for some magnificently LeMony rally vehicle.

Now, if you're into street rods, I know a guy; but there's tonnes of options...

As a 'tender' aside, I recently acquired what has been described as a "service vehicle"; it's basically a delivery box van that happened to have included: an integrated diesel generator, air compressor, pneumatic lines on an electric-powered winch reel, water tank, sink, ~800´ of 12/4 electric cable on another electric-powered winch, and a top-mount air conditioner [none of which was advertised as included in the sale - yay!].

I had a drive axle snap in half on my '01 Accord with 300+k salty miles. When even heat and PB Blaster doesn't work, you gotta love it when, as an amateur, you can drive an air gun to the broken-down vehicle to get the rusted axle nut off!