During the day, I met a few people. One of them, Craig bought a famous old rally car I considered buying some years back. Which is a thing really. I don't know how many times I've thought about buying a rally car in my life. Probably thousands. Craig and I started to discuss the idea of buying a cheap rally car. His is now too valuable to race, seriously. I reasoned that if I sold my Datsun 1600, I could afford a decent runaround and a cheap rally car. In fact, for the first time in my life, I could afford to do whatever. So I was seriously considering this all day. I had even begun to rehearse the speech I'd give to my wife.
Surrounding this whole experience were the logistics of getting to and from Oberon. I had needed to leave home pretty early to get there and of course I was running late. On the way home, I was yet again running late. Between the two, I didn't have time to muck around. So I was trying to go as quick as possible, whilst not overdoing it. The longest roads between my place and Oberon were what the Brits call, "B roads". Narrow, winding, two lane, mountain roads where the speed limit is 80-100kmh (50-60mph). All of these mountain roads are famous for being treacherous in wet or cold weather. On the way out, half my trip was mist, drizzle and cold. On the way home I had fog, bucketing rain and even a fox on the same stretch of road.
Other parts of my trip were just amazing. The sunset and sunrise around Oberon were extremely beautiful and the roads were fun! It's the first time I've had the chance to drive my car that distance and in that way. Usually, I potter around the suburbs. The longest trip I've done to date was a conference in the city. I learned a lot about the car. It has bumps and rattles. It smells like petrol. I had a slight electrical issue on the way home. However, for a 53 year old car, it's amazing. It handled the wettest, slipperiest roads without issue. It felt as though it just wanted to go faster and faster. When I got home on Saturday night, I had a slight headache, but I was elated.
And that was when it hit me. I'd spent five hours driving it. Five hours of twisty, slippery roads with lots of full throttle. I had been challenged. I had felt alive. I'd had fun. Yet I'd hadn't broken the speed limit (well, hardly). I began to reflect on the realities of owning a rally car. The fellas I'd watched racing in the forest had maybe an hour of proper speed in the whole day. Their cars are specifically set up for the dirt roads, but most roads are tarmac now. They'd had to tow their cars to and from the event with expensive trucks and trailers. A number of cars had break downs and couldn't even finish the event. That's a lot of cash for not much return. And that's assuming you don't have an accident.
I realized, for the first time, that owning a rally car is really a terrible investment in time and money. Dumb right? I should have realized years ago. I realized, that what I currently own is in fact, better for me. I guess, like other things, I've been suffering 'rally car FOMO'. Now, I won't pretend my current car is perfect. There are things to fix. It's 53 years old so that's par for the course. However, I think what I've found is contentment. Fancy that?
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